Mr. Skiff (ericskiff.com)

Unless your company is driven by big-name investors, it can be difficult to get press coverage for your fledgling startup until you've raised a significant amount of funding or kicked up some controversy. At least that's the theory behind 5in5NYC, a new web series from entrepreneurs Eric Skiff and Kunal Shah that spotlights some of New York's most compelling budding companies.

Mr. Skiff and Mr. Shah originally worked at Drop.io, a New York-based file sharing site that was acquired by Facebook back in 2010. After the acquisition, Mr. Skiff went to work for AOL Ventures' Q Labs, an incubator that rapidly prototypes new technologies every six weeks, and Mr. Shah went to Urtak, a TechStars company. Now, the two have teamed up again for 5in5NYC.

"5in5NYC is a weekly video show where we’re highlighting five New York startups each week and giving them a chance to tell their own story, pitch what they’re working on, and what they're currently going out and selling," Mr. Skiff told Betabeat by phone.

Mr. Skiff said that 5in5NYC grew out of a need for a positive news outlet that focused on young startups.

"I know so many people working through TechStars or Y Combinator, but struggle to find coverage before they’re a big name," he said. "It puts you in a really tough position of always needing something from reporters. We wanted to create an easy channel, something that was very founder friendly."

The first episode debuted yesterday and featured companies like Scrollkit and TimeHop. But perhaps most interesting was the demo made by 3D printing startup Shapeways. Though the company had teased the new material on their blog, Brad Dickason, Shapeways' head of product, demo'd for the first time a flexible, squishy material that the team is working on.

Carine Carmy, Shapeways' marketing and communications director, confirmed to Betabeat that "the squishy material is new, though we haven't made it available for sale just yet as we are finalizing all the details."

Once it goes into production, Shapeways' new squishy material could be a total game changer for the 3D printing market, which has previously only focused on hard materials and flexible plastics.

"We were super excited to have them make an announcement that big on the show," said Mr. Skiff. "It totally changed the tenor of the first episode. I think this was the first time that anyone had really seen the material, seen how amazing it looks, see that it squishes and that it’s not just like a more flexible plastic--it’s actually a whole different class."

5in5NYC plans to release a new episode every Monday. Next week they're hosting Karma, which is San Francisco-based but partners with a lot of East Coast companies, including Birchbox, said Mr. Skiff.

Ms. Huang

If you hadn't heard, office space in New York is increasingly hard to come by. The Hatchery, the startup advisory firm behind the infamously rigorous pitch events "Are You Serious?" and The Gauntlet, wants to help with that--and a whole host of other problems early-stage startups have to deal with, such as finding customers and growing revenue.

To that end, Hatchery founder Yao-Hui Huang is launching the Hatchery 500, named after the space's address at 500 Seventh Avenue at 37th Street. The 16,000 square foot space offers shared desks ($450/month), dedicated desks ($850/month), and offices (starting at $3,100/month). There are plasma-enabled conference rooms and a 1 gig+ fiber connection. But the real draw is likely the collaborative milieu, which includes events, workshops and the chance to apply to something called the Sweat Fund. Please allow Ms. Huang to explain.

"It's not a fund of dollars. It's a fund of sweat," Ms. Huang told Betabeat via Skype. Luckily, we were able to convince her to offer us a little more detail. The fund works thusly: Rather than offer equity for cash investment, the startups that apply offer warrants for access to "collaborators" who can help them, "get access to the deals they want," Ms. Huang explained. "It's a more direct way to get what companies need--revenue through deals. The first few deals are hard for companies. It takes awhile to build those relationships."

Although the connectors, a group that includes "industry leaders, corporate executives, investors" wanted to keep their names out of the spotlight, Ms. Huang mentioned individuals from companies like MTV, DMV Capital, and Paladin Capital. (The investor who backed Hatchery 500 also wanted to remain anonymous.) The amount of equity, in the form of warrants, depends on the stage of the company, and comes with a guarantee of sorts. "If the company is unable to close the deals they are brought into, the company may be removed from the fund program," she said. "If no transactions/deals are done, the equity is returned." If a deal is closed, whichever collaborators helped create business for the startups share in the pool. "It's prorated based on participation."

If you're looking for proof of the Hatchery's startup bona fides before applying, the video on their site is a good start. There you'll see Drop.io founder Sam Lessin, who was acqui-hired by Facebook, describe the The Gauntlet's pitch prep as "without a doubt the most professional and intense process I've ever gone through to speak at an event." In the past, Are You Serious? has attracted VCs from firms like RTP Ventures and Bain Capital Ventures for some real talk on whether your daily deals solomo startup is just another me-too. (Spoiler alert: yes, it is.)

In terms of the events and workshops Hatchery 500 will offer, Ms. Huang said she's not trying to reinvent the wheel. There will be no engineering classes, à la General Assembly. Rather, the space will be open to Hatchery's 100-some partners, like Digitas, IAB (Interactive Advertising Bureau), Georgetown University, NYU, Voxel, to host what they see fit.

Startups won't be able to work out of Hatchery 500 until June 1st, but events will start May 1st. "We will do weekly happy hour and series of hackathons with real hacking," said Ms. Huang. Real? "Real coding competitions with leaderboard, pitting real developers against each other to see who is really the king of the hill. The Social Network--without the beer," she said, adding, "Or maybe some beer  :)"

"I mean, Google is freakin' massive, and they've almost had no effect on the community," Hacker Union head and 10gen engineer Brandon Diamond told us by Gchat. "They're trying to get out there, but they seem to be awful insular. I wouldn't be surprised if Facebook is the same way... it will probably help more than it hurts. Fb obviously isn't banking on the 'tremendous number of hackers living in NYC.' Instead, I think they believe they'll be able to woo many new hackers with the added bonus of being in a cool city. It's a boon."

As to whether the new office will lure back some of the talent Facebook poached in the form of Drop.io, Hot Potato, Daytum and Mail Rank, but survey says no. "I don't suspect? Highly doubt it, actually," says a source, regarding the Hot Potatoes.
CC FAIL. "Note to all: Don't CC the current CEO on an email that speaks to replacing the current CEO. #idiot," tweeted Zelkova Ventures' Jay Levy before Thanksgiving. Crappy way to find out you've been terminated, we suppose, but it turns out the CEO was in the clear. Apparently a rogue board member was musing a little too freely on email and indiscreetly copied the founder on an email about firing him. "The rest of the board had 110% confidence in him and asked that board member to remove himself from the board," said a source familiar with the matter. "Him being the CEO... CEO staying and is going to continue to grow the company into a force in the industry."

WHITHER THE PARTY? Last week, Betabeat interviewed MessageParty founder and Y Combinator graduate Amanda Peyton for a story about East versus West. We casually dropped by the site and noticed it was a bit of a deadzone; Ms. Peyton herself hadn't posted in three months, the Twitter account hasn't tweeted since August, and the last newsletter went out in June. Yikes, we thought, remembering MessageParty's April pivot. Has the startup bitten the dust? "We are actively considering a few options for the future of the product, though it won't stay in its current state for much longer," Ms. Peyton said in an email.

SEAN PARKER, MAN ABOUT TOWN. Lolol:

He said, 'Google my name and Lindsay Lohan. You'll see that a year ago there's an article written that says she had me kicked out of Bungalow 8.' He said, 'I don't think she had me kicked out... I want to know who [did].' "Lerner, who knows Lohan socially, agreed to look into the matter. It turns out it wasn't the Mean Girl but her ex, DJ Samantha Ronson. Satisfied, [Sean] Parker restored Lerner's profile in just six hours.

STAYING TRUE TO STEREOTYPES. Tumblr's John Maloney has purchased a new bicycle, which according to engineer Matt Hackett "is attracting quite a crowd. Bikes are flames to moths here in Tumblr HQ." The hipster startup has a room full of the the things.

ALL YOUR PARTIES ARE BELONG TO US. Send Betabeat your holiday party tips.

Mr. Lessin

Of the many announcements to emerge from F8 --Spotify is now integrated with Facebook! Netflix is now integrated with Facebook! You can "watch" and "read" things instead of just "like"ing them! Things are just really different, okay?Good luck not friending your Mom, because she'll be on there soon!-- was Facebook's Timeline.

Rather than having to hit "Older Posts" again and again, Timeline lets you stalk with the greatest of ease by arranging a user's information in chronological order. As AllThingsD's Ina Fried notes, it also lets you pick a big, About.me-like cover photo for your life story.

Mark Zuckerberg introduced the feature with pictures of a toddler Zuck in pink tie and suspenders--and nary a thought about privacy in his head. But from the looks of the Facebook blog, it was former Brooklyn boy Drop.io founder Sam Lessin (now a product manager at Facebook, which acqui-hired him in last October) who was in charge of the feature. And after watching the video introduction to Timeline, Betabeat has a feeling we know at least one source of Mr. Lessin's inspiration.

Watch this sentimental "A Life on Facebook" video from last November.

And just try to tell us it doesn't remind you of this sentimental video explaining Timeline, minus the puking, cheating on the girlfriend and getting caught on Facebook part, of course.