If there were a word cloud for recent ecommerce reports, it would be shaped like a mushroom cloud with "over-hyped" "implosion," "froth," "down rounds," and "suck it, America, Europe does it better," all in extra large font.

So we weren't expecting to hear that JackThreads, the men's ecommerce site acquired by Thrillist in 2010, had its best revenue month ever in February, even bigger than typically high-selling holiday months. Growth in new members was up 366 percent year-over-year and double the growth in number of new users joining in November and December of 2012.

The company also boasted the highest number of app downloads in February. Mobile revenues were triple from November, with sales from the app counting for 40 percent of JackThreads February revenue. But the most important metric--as that imaginary word cloud can attest--was the fact that JackThreads did it while maintaining its highest gross margin month ever as well.

"I can feel the heat," heat-seeking CEO Ben Lerer told us by phone, "Frankly, for a company that's seven years old, it's a little unexpected." Mr. Lerer raised a $13 million Series A last year (after growing Thrillist to 150 people on just $1.7 million). He attributed the surprising success to a number of little tweaks and improvements, rather than one magic bullet.

"You figure out make a bet and you win one, you lose one. But they all harmonically came together," he said, adding, "I don’t know if that’s English." Improvements were made on the website (adding a search function and boosting speed) as well as in mobile development, SEO, speed of order fulfillment, greeting customers the right merchandise when they arrive on the site, better photography, and buying deeper into certain categories.

One popular item seen around the upwardly mobile men of Soho? A seasonally appropriate "ninja hoodie." Rebrand it as a snuggie for your neck and Betabeat might consider throwing down for a few.

Of course, if there's any niche that's getting beat up worse than ecommerce, it's digital media, i.e. the Thrillist side of Mr. Lerer's business. But he brushed off concerns that Jackthreads gains means that he'll eventually be running an ecommerce company, rather than a "media group."

"The lifetime value of a user," he said, "is monetized through both media and ecommerce. Ultimately, it's going to mean a larger audience for our advertisers to reach as well, but that doesn’t work in real time." They're sure trying. Register for JackThreads and you'll get a pop-up noting the city you're in and wondering if you'd like to sign up for relevant recommendations from Thrillist.

We asked the ever-amiable Mr. Lerer why he thought there was so much skepticism about ecommerce recently. "There has been a tendency online for ecommerce companies to buy revenue," he replied. Companies like Gilt Groupe and Fab.com, he said, have spent a lot on marketing. The idea is, "I can make no money on my users, but they can buy a whole lot of stuff from me," he said, noting, "You don’t raise $150 million to put it in the bank. You raise it to spend it." Only after they scale does the focus turn to making money. "Gilt is an example of that. I think Gilt will pull it off, but not without some pain to get there. And Fab is on a similar trajectory."

Mr. Lerer opted against that route. "Maybe we were wusses," to try growing a more comfortable clip rather than aim to be an industry leader, he said, but, "our margins feel a lot more like businesses that are private label than companies that are also selling large quanitifes of third party goods." Despite unintentional misses, like early foibles running a shipping promotion without understanding how it might impact margin, "We don’t give the store away."

JackThreads has evolved over the years from its target 18-to-24-year-old demo, he said, and been able to sell at a higher price point, incorporating more athletic brands and tailored items. "Our users are a little bit less price sensitive and a lot more focused on curation and brand discovery," he said. "If you’re gonna be known for being super cheap, you better stay super cheap." You can find Self-Edge denim on JackThreads, but at the same time, they're not selling $250 pairs of jeans.

Mr. Lerer said JackThreads recently did a sale on vintage Patagonia items and is incorporating more home goods. "But without the Gilt approach of: JackThreads Home! JackThreads Taste!"

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

Sooooo...it's that time of the year again. SXSW (a.k.a. Spring Break for Geeks) is right around the corner, running March 8 to 12 in Austin, Texas. And you know what that means: Parties, parties 'n more parties!! :) So, once again, we're putting together what we hope will be THE definitive guide to all this year's SXSW Interactive parties. We'll be updating this list regularly, so check back often. And email me if you're organizing an event or a party.

Of course, I'll be at SXSW ... attending all (or as many as humanly possible) of the amazing parties, mixers, networking events, lounges, panels, keynotes, BBQs, nuclear taco nights, concerts, happy hours, karaokes, food trucks, block parties and what-have-you.

So if you can't make it down to Austin this year but still wanna get the word out about your amazing startup / company / firm / service / app / project, you can do so. How, you ask? Well, by sponsoring my Red Tie of course, and covering it in your company's awesome logo stickers and giving me your company's elevator pitch. If you're interested, shoot me an email at gary@garysguide.com for more details.

In the meantime, here's my blog post / highlights from last year's SXSW to give you a little taste of what to expect.

FYI, next week is probably the most exclusive hackathon of the year. Google's Project Glass will be holding a two-day hackathon (February 1 to 2) in New York City that'll allow developers to get an early look at Glass so they can start developing for the platform. Google engineers will be on site to help at any point in the process, and developers will have the opportunity to show off what they’ve been working on.

So, how to score an invite: Your guess is as good as mine! If you were one of the smart ones who shelled out $1,500 for the early access to Google Glass you're on the list. Or you could try pinging Googler Aygul Zagidullina and hope you get lucky! Well, for those of you who don't make it, here's a pic of Sergey Brin sporting his Google Glasses on the subway.

In other news, the NYC EDC is partnering with the Lawrence Field Center for Entrepreneurship at Baruch College to create Competition THRIVE, and they're seeking original, innovative strategies and programs that help immigrant entrepreneurs succeed in business. In Round 1, $25,000 will be awarded to five semi-finalists to pilot their program and create a business plan. And in Round 2, $100,000 will be awarded to one grand prize winner to further scale their program. Submission period is February 1 to March 7. For more information, check out the website or email competitionthrive@baruch.cuny.edu.

On January 30, my buddy Haithem is organizing the Lemonade Heroes Yacht Party. It's gonna be a crazy night of dancing, drinking, mixing and mingling--on a yacht.
You'll be getting photographed on a red carpet, and you'll have a shot at an audition for an entrepreneurship TV series and book.

More stuff you don't wanna miss this week: AppNexus Speaker Series (with Fab.com CEO Jason Goldberg) on the 23rd, PandoMonthly Presents (with Etsy CEO Chad Dickerson) on the 24th and Amusemi's 1 Year Anniversary Party+Dinner on the 26th.

Last week my buddy Charlie Todd & the folks at Improv Everywhere organized their twelfth Annual No Pants Subway Ride. Over 4,000 participants showed up. Here's the recap and video. And my friends Jen and Allison are back with another hilarious edition of Blogologues, playing this week on the 24th, 25th and 26th at Under St Marks (and yes, there will be giveaways!).

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

DUMBO Improvement District Annual Meeting
All members of the DUMBO community are invited to hear the latest on hurricane recovery efforts and learn what's in store for the neighborhood in 2013. The coveted DUMBO "Magic Feather" awards will be given to Rachel Haot (New York's chief digital officer), Susan Feldman (artistic director, St. Ann's Warehouse) and Jerry Hultin (president, NYU-Poly).
Tuesday (Jan. 22), 5 p.m. @ Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main Street

Next Top Makers: The Business of Design
Join the creators of New York’s Next Top Makers for an evening of education, guidance, and networking. Hear from IDEO storytelling gurus why good design doesn’t always speak for itself, and learn about the role of a designer in a world of 3D printers.
Tuesday (Jan. 22), 7 p.m. @ 3DEA Pop-Up Store @ Eventi Hotel, 835 6th Avenue

The Future of Education #1: New Models for 21st Century Learning
Panelists include Brad Hargreaves (founding partner, General Assembly), Kane Sarhan (cofounder, Enstitute), Juliette LaMontagne (founder & director, Breaker) and Abigail Besdin (head of Skillshare's education team).
Wednesday (Jan. 23), 6:30 p.m. @ Centre For Social Innovation Pop-Up Space, 601 W. 26th Street, #360

AppNexus Speaker Series
Brian O'Kelley (CEO, AppNexus) will host a fireside chat with Jason Goldberg (CEO, Fab.com) and Jared Cluff (VP Marketing, Fab.com).
Wednesday (Jan. 23), 6:30 p.m. @ AppNexus, 28 W. 23rd Street

How to Build Great Communities: Lets Collaborate!
With Sheila Karaszewski (community manager, Airbnb), Tony Bacigalupo (cofounder, New Work City), Andrew Wagner (director & editor-in-chief, Krrb) and James Wahba (cofounder, Projective Space). Moderated by Melissa Young (founder, Let's Collaborate!)
Wednesday (Jan. 23), 7 p.m. @ Projective Space L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

#ArtsTech 4 Year Anniversary Party!
Open Bar with 3 Pernod Absinthe cocktails from 7-8 pm. Variety of grilled panini appetizers. Photobooth by Styleblaster. Tunes by DJ Winslow Porter. Video art by Sabrina Ratte, Mr. Div, Yoshi Sodeoka and Andreas Nicholas Fischer
Wednesday (Jan. 23), 7 p.m. @ The Counting Room, 44 Berry Street, Brooklyn

PandoMonthly Presents
A fireside chat with Chad Dickerson (CEO, Etsy)
Thursday (Jan. 24), 6 p.m. @ Projective L.E.S., 72 Allen Street

dd:COLLECTIVE - The Changing Retail Environment (Presented by Digital DUMBO)
Featured speakers include Philippe von Borries (Co-Founder, Refinery29), Keith George (General Manager, Gilt Man by Gilt Groupe) and Claire Mazur (Co-Founder, Of a Kind).
Thursday (Jan 24), 6:30 p.m. @ Huge, 45 Main St , Ste 220, Brooklyn

Dinner, Cupcakes, Wine & Technology!
Introducing the inaugural NJ Tech Gals meetup!
Thursday (Jan 24), 7 p.m. @ Hoboken Business Center, 50 Harrison Street (2nd Fl), Hoboken

Nike+ Accelerator (powered by TechStars) Recruiting Tour
Join the team from Nike and TechStars to hear about the Nike+ Accelerator. Some local quantified self demos. And the team from Nike will be bringing along some SWAG, including some Nike+ FuelBands!
Thursday (Jan 24), 7 p.m. @ TechStars NYC HQ , 36 Cooper Square, 6th Fl.

Power Breakfast
With Susan Feldman (cofounder, One Kings Lane)
Friday (Jan. 25), 8 a.m. @ Fordham Graduate School of Business, 113 W. 60th Street, 12th Fl.

NYC Mobile Startup Weekend
Where developers, designers, marketers, product managers and buddying entrepreneurs gather together to share ideas, form teams and spend the weekend building and launching a startup.
Friday (Jan. 25), 6 p.m. @ WeWork Soho Lounge, 154 Grand Street

2013 Brooklyn Inventgenuity Festival: Digital By Hand
A popular annual winter celebration of making things for kids and their parents. With public projects and workshops led by Beam Center’s faculty of artists, engineers and big thinkers. This year’s theme: Digital by Hand.
Saturday (Jan. 26), 11 a.m. @ The Invisible Dog Art Center, 51 Bergen Street

Amusemi 1 Year Anniversary Party + Dinner
Celebrate the anniversary of our first startup dining event. Register for Amusemi to get on the guest list.
Saturday (Jan. 26), 7 p.m. @ TBD

More events on the horizon...
TEDxBroadway: Industry leaders envision the future of Broadway on Jan. 28 @ New World Stages
NYC Gaming January: Demo Night on Jan. 29 @ Microsoft
Brooklyn Tech Meetup with Victoria Brown on Jan. 29 @ Feil Hall, Brooklyn Law School
Lemonade Heroes Yacht Party featuring a chance to Audition for a TV Series! on Jan. 30 @ Hornblower Inifinity
Entrepreneurship in the Beer Industry on Jan. 30 @ Professor Thoms
dd:SOCIAL - 4 Year Anniversary & dd:A-LIST Crowdfunding Launch on Jan. 31 @ The DUMBO Loft
Business Insider Presents: Social Commerce Summit on Feb. 06 @ Pier 60
UX Design and User Experience Optimization Trends on Feb. 06 @ Anchin
Hearst Fashion Hackathon 2013 on Feb. 09 @ Hearst
Social Media Week NY 2013 on Feb. 18 @ Metropolitan Pavilion
AIPAC Technology Division: Launch Event w/Dan Senor on Feb. 27 @ Bloomberg Tower

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

Mr. von Themsche (right). (Photo: thecools.tumblr.com)

Picture the cash-grab hustle of eBay with the stylish sensibilities of Tumblr’s fashion community and you have The Cools,  the latest entrant to the social shopping fray, which offers users a chance to express themselves--and the ability to sell their stuff.

The site launched yesterday, with $2.5 million in funding from private investors including MTV founder Bob Pittman and a roster of big-name advisors, including LVMH heir Antoine Arnault, Fiat heir Lapo Elkann, and Fab.com COO Beth Ferreira (as far as we know, not an heiress).

As you might expect from the presence of those names, browsing the site today reveals a lot of vintage and a lot of painfully fashion-forward clothing.

Asked about the site's genesis, creator Olivier van Themsche pointed to his Parisian friends in the fashion industry, who, three years or so ago, always seemed to be buying and selling interesting items on eBay: "I was surprised, because the most stylish people I knew were using eBay, which for was me not the sexiest platform out there. On top of that, eBay was not really convenient for fashion," he told Betabeat.

Combine the concept of a more stylish alternative with that of social media and style blogs, and he had this idea for site that "allows people to express themselves and to mix product and content," he said.

Upon signing up, users customize their feed by answering a series of questions, then by following profiles of bloggers, sellers, stores, artists, and so forth. "You will be interested and naturally attracted by different types of profiles, so if we do a good job, we should push you towards the type of profiles, whether they're creators, whether they're sellers, or whether they're just users, that could be interesting for you. And then you make your choice," Mr. von Themsche told us.

Then, on the profile side of things, you can either treat it as a kind of Tumblr-like style blog or take it a step further and list items for sale.

It's the sale aspect where The Cools makes its money. The site takes a 12 percent commission on any sales, but there's no charge for users to create a profile and list items for sale. So your average user could turn to the site to unload that bag that doesn't quite suit her closet any more, but small designers and artists can also deploy it as a kind of quick-and-dirty ecommerce offering.

Mr. von Themsche believes that's what distinguishes the site from platforms like Pinterest, The Fancy, and Svpply: "You take a product that is anywhere on the web and you can create a discussion about the product, but you don't have in that discussion the owner of the product."

Michael Arrington looked a little poleaxed and followed up by sharing that little data point on Twitter. Business Insider seemed even more flustered. "We're not sure why" a vibrator would be so popular, the blog wrote through pursed lips. “Could be part of Fab’s former self shining through,” pointing to the site’s origins as a “Groupon-like startup with deals for the gay community.”

Frankly, we're perplexed by all the prudishness. This is the same planet clamoring for 50 Shades of Grey, right? 

Nor is this actually surprising if you know anything (ahem) about the vibrator business. Things have changed since Sex and the City shocked suburbanites with the introduction of the Rabbit. There are still plenty of cheapo pocket rockets on the market, but high-end products are the latest trend in the marital aid business. Besides JimmyJane, there are companies like Lelo charging a pretty penny. Hell, even Real Housewives of Atlanta cast member Kandi Burruss has her own line of sex toys.

However, at the moment, the only thing in Fab’s “adult” shop is vaporizers. We tried a search for these bestselling vibrators and were told, "No results found." We reached out to Fab, who explained the search feature only covers products currently selling on the site. So we did a bit of poking about the “Inspiration” section and pulled together a little slideshow sampling of some of Fab’s naughtier wares. Don't say we never did anything service-y for ya!

Name-changer. (Photo courtesy of Fab.com)

Fab took another step toward design-savvy world domination today, with the announcement that the company has acquired the British Isles' own Llustre, which will become Fab UK. The move follows the February purchase of Casacanda and relaunch as Fab.de.

In a statement released this morning, Mr. Goldberg also announced that Maria Molland, previously of Thomson Reuters, will now be Chief European Officer for Fab, a role which is clearly on a growth track.

Shortly after the news broke this morning, CEO Jason Goldberg and CCO Bradford Shellhammer appeared across the pond at Le Web, where they were grilled good-naturedly by Mike Arrington about the announcement. Curious to know more about the team's U.K. plans, we caught the talk via livestream.

Most of all, Mr. Arrington wanted to know why Mr. Goldberg and Mr. Shellhammer decided to buy "a clone" rather than "crushing" Llustre. The Fab.com certainly hadn't responded well to the existence of the Samwer brothers' copycat Bamarang; why give quarter to this company?

For one thing, Fab decided to move fast in Europe, and the U.K. market required a good team. They could either build or acquire one, and "Bradford fell in love with the team here," explained Mr. Goldberg.

But the pair also disputed Arrington's characterization of their new purchase. Mr. Shellhammer argued that Llustre, rather than a mere cheap copy of Fab.com, had its own precise buying aesthetic and "unique point of view." "It's very British, it's very ethereal, it's very pretty," he elaborated, adding that he looks forward to seeing how that point of view might influence the U.S. store.

They also said they're planning to grow Llustre's staff of 25 dramatically. But they wouldn't disclose how much they paid.

Another interesting tidbit from the talk? Fab.com's single bestselling product of all time is a high-end vibrator, and all in all the site has sold "thousands and thousands" of vibrators. Mr. Arrington looked surprised, which suggests to us he has a rather limited view of "luxury."

Justin Long, Richard Dreyfuss and John Hodgman at the 16th Annual Webby Awards.

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), Founder & CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary@garysguide.com.

It was Monday afternoon and after spending the morning hanging out with startup peeps at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, it was time to head on over to the Hammerstein Ballroom for the 16th Annual Webby Awards (a.k.a. Oscars for the Internets!).

Thankfully the rain had stopped (it had been pouring cats and dogs and rabbits all day making everyone miserable). I groaned as I saw a long line leading up to the venue. But I wondered why everyone was wearing jeans and sneakers and carrying backpacks? Well thats cuz this was the line to catch the next bus to Jersey! I continued walking a few more steps and finally arrived at my real destination.

The lovely Shira Lazar (host of What's Trending) was on the red carpet doing what she does best - interviewing celebrities. I flashed her a smile and made my way in.

Shira Lazar with restauranteur Marc Forgione at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

Comedian Jim Gaffigan at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

I ran into my tech-scene-hopping-comrades-in-arms Scott Beale and Rusty Blazenhoff of LaughingSquid. Rusty alas is only in town for a bit and going back to San Fran tomorrow. At the bar, I bumped into Thrillist managing editor (and Webutante Ball impressario) Richard Blakeley and girlfriend Lindsay Kaplan of Chloe+Isabel. "Loved your Internet Week writeup!" said Mr. Blakeley. Ms Kaplan and I attempted to take a few photos together but the crowded bar made it awkward. My vodka tonic came in a jumbo keepsake Webby branded glass. Nice touch!

I met The Next Web's Anna Heim. Ms Heim I learnt is a polyglot French news junkie! There were quite a few familiar faces including NY Tech Meetup Chairman Andrew Rasiej, RTP Ventures Director Jalak Jobanputra, Barbarian Group Co-Founder and Angel Investor Rick Webb, 92Y Director of Digital Initiatives Leigh Ferreira, Mashable COO Sharon Hirsch, Google's Caroline McCarthy, Shorty Awards' Lee Semel, Zoe Media Group CEO Rodger Berman and of course Webby cofounders Neil Vogel and David-Michel Davies. Alongwith of course all the Webby winners (and their +1s).

Comedian Patton Oswalt hosting the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

And now onto my highlights of the show...

New York City's CEO / Mayor Michael Bloomberg was honored with a Webby Award for Lifetime Achievement for his work with the Bloomberg corporation. He was presented the award by Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp. As Mr. Karp noted in his tribute speech, if it weren't for Mr Bloomberg we wouldn't have found the cost of Facebook shares until Monday. Real-time FTW, baby! Mr. Bloomberg's five word acceptance speech? "Make it here, then everywhere!" Though it would have been more amusing if he'd gone with "I Can Haz Fourth Term?" ;)

It was pretty awesome to see die-hard Knicks fan Spike Lee on stage with Knicks wunderboy sensation Jeremy Lin. To say Mr. Lee was giddy like a schoolgirl would be an understatement. "Now this my man, right here. I wore his high school jersey. Wore his Harvard jersey." said Mr. Lee. Mr Lin's five-word speech: "Internet Fans I Love You".

Mayor Mike Bloomberg and Tumblr Founder and CEO David Karp at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Shira Lazar)

Filmmaker Spike Lee and Knicks' Jeremy Lin at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

One of my favorite highlights from the ceremony was a minute-long video montage tribute to the late legendary Apple cofounder and CEO, Steve Jobs where a bunch of famous, influential folks thanked Jobs for his contributions to technology with five-word thank you speeches including President Barack Obama ("Thank you for thinking different"), President Bill Clinton ("For Spreading American Ingenuity Worldwide"), Vice President Al Gore ("Steve Jobs was insanely great"), U2's Bono ("For Saving Lives With Red"), Jimmy Fallon ("He Made Turtlenecks Sexy Again"), Jon Stewart, Stephen Colbert, Sarah Silverman, Arianna Huffington and a bunch of other folks. "I only need one word" said President Obama. "Amazing." Amen to that. You can watch the video here.

Actress Juliette Lewis and actor Graydon Sheppard won the Best Actresses award for their viral video "Sh*t Girls Say." Five-word speech: "We just want to thank..."

Bjork accepted the award for "Artist of the Year." What, no crazy swan dresses? Color me disappointed! Five-word speech: "A-E-I-O-U!"

Instagram (fresh off its $1 billion purchase by Facebook) won the award for Webby Breakout of the Year. Founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger were at hand to accept the award. Five-word speech: "This Here Requires No Filter".

Bjork at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

The Meme of the Year award went to Nyan Cat, edging out the popular "Texts from Hillary" tumblr.

Nikolaj Coster-Waldau (who plays Jamie Lannister in the HBO series Game of Thrones) accepted an award on behalf of Greenland.com. "I think winter just came!" quipped Mr. Oswalt.

And finally, Louis C.K. won the Webby Person of the Year award. Five-word speech: "When I Die, Bye Bye". Yikes! Morbid much?

Jim Gaffigan and Louis C.K. at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

John Hodgman, Mike O'Brien, Justin Long and Jason Sudeikis loling at Webby Winners Lounge

Mayor Bloomberg and Spike Lee sharing a private moment at the 16th Annual Webby Awards

After the ceremony, as I got up, I bumped into Mr. Dreyfuss. I asked him to elaborate on some of his remarks from earlier that night regarding Facebook and Google. Ten minutes later Mr. Dreyfuss was still going strong. The guy can talk! (and enough material for another blog post or two! ;) He expounded on what he felt was the dumbing down of America and the upcoming generations and how Facebook and Google were prime suspects in making that happen. We exchanged contact info and he invited me to California to learn more about some of the initiatives he's involved in.

I said hello to Jim Gaffigan and fist-bumped Jason Sudekis. I ran into Mashable CEO Pete Cashmore and his lovely girlfriend Lisa Bettany from Camera+. "Still with the red tie!" smiled Mr Cashmore. "Always!" I smiled back. We chatted about Mashable's new tech events section and the potential for collaborating and working together there.

Fab.com founders Bradford Shellhammer and Jason Goldberg at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid)

I chatted with an exec from Twitter. Twitter's New York office has now almost 40 people, I learned, and the vibe there is very Mad Men! "How's the monetization coming along?" I asked in my best oh-yes-I-went-there tone. I wasn't able to get any hard numbers out of him but targeting is getting much better with the more data they're collecting. "So, better than Facebook, eh?" I asked. That elicited a smile. And that lead to the discussion of how intense the tech rivalries are getting. Apparently mentioning Twitter inside Facebook offices is a big no-no. As apparently is mentioning Facebook inside Google and mentioning Google inside Microsoft. Why can't we all just get along?

As I made my way outside I caught up with the lovely Jocelyn Johnson (who I hadn't seen since SXSW!). Miss Johnson was accompanied by Sonia Gil Montero who picked up the People’s Voice Webby Award for Best Web Personality/Host for her online travel show Sonia Travels. And Miss Montero's five-word speech was in five different languages. Killer! I mentioned how I'd been trying to pick up Mandarin and it was hard. We got in a discussion about different language learning techniques. Interestingly Miss Monteros has a startup Fluenz which aims to help users with exactly that. "Better than Rosetta Stone?" I asked "Yes!" she replied without hesitation. Gotta love the confidence! :) I promised to check it out.

After Party at Edison Ballroom at the 16th Annual Webby Awards (Photo: Scott Beale / Laughing Squid

Later we all headed to the after-party at the Edison Ballroom where I ran into Rachel Sklar, easily one of my favorite people in the New York tech scene (super connected, super helpful and super nice). "I waved at you earlier to try get your attention!" she exclaimed. "So did I!" I replied. Ahhh, missed connections. Miss Sklar was excited about a new project she's launching called TheLi.st.

Soon more people began arriving, the crowd became more energized and the music picked up. Time to put the networking on hold and hit the dance floor.

So there you have it, folks. A wonderful star-studded-booze-fueled evening celebrating the wonder that is the Interwebs 'n the Internets. Until next time. Bye-bye!

A glimpse at the changes. (Courtesy Fab.com)

Fab.com got its latest revamp this morning, introducing a host of snazzy new social features. We hope your Facebook friends have good taste.

Fab CEO Jason Goldberg walked us through the changes via phone, boiling them down to improving the product discovery experience. Though the site adds new features regularly, the changes going live today are the first big revamp in "quite a decent amount of time," says Mr. Goldberg. "There's a hundred-plus new enhancements." He explained that it's all "about how do you help people discover stuff better than just throwing up a catalog."

And the organizing principle is social. The site, though just under a year old, is currently north of 4 million members, with 3.5 million in the U.S. and almost a million elsewhere. A big part of that growth is thanks to social. The site gets more than 50 percent of new users through social sharing, of which Facebook is a large part. "On any given day, we have upwards of 30 to 40 percent of our traffic coming from Facebook a day," Mr. Goldberg told us.

Mr. Goldberg also told us that 15 percent of visits to Fab live feed--which shows what every Fab user is up to, not just one's friends--result in a purchase.

Add those details up and you get a "friends" tab on the feed. So the site is "enabling people to see not just what is all of Fab liking today, but what are my friends liking? What are my friends buying?" explained Mr. Goldberg.

They're also integrating deeper with Pinterset, having seen 2 percent of traffic coming from the hot new social network. They're working on ways to "foster" people's pinning of favorite products, i.e. making it possible to pin products directly from the live feed. (Currently that's just an option on items that pop up in the live feed because someone has already pinned them.)

All that said, members can choose what types of purchases they'd prefer to keep private, and the site shields things like gifts and adult purchases by default. But you might want to double-check your settings, lest your mom see that luxury vibrator purchase.

Mr. Goldberg made ambitious claims for the new features: "We really feel like we're the first ones to be able to successfully almost replicate the experience people have when they go shopping with their friends in the physical world." Fab isn't the only ecommerce company chasing that particular pot of gold, and thus far it's proved rather tough to locate. "That's hard to do online," he admits, "but we think we're coming a lot closer to that."

Besides the addition of the "friends" tab, members can now buy directly from the feed, as well as sorting by category (so if I want housewares, I can skip the jewelry) and they'll be able to see what's trending. The home page now includes search functionality, and they'll be showcasing designers using "smile" pages.

"We're bringing a whole lot of color and innovation to the otherwise pretty boring world of ecommerce," said Mr. Goldberg. Bold words, sir. Bold words.

(internetweekny.com)

Unless you've gone off the grid, you probably already know that Internet Week 2012 launches on Monday. But with a dizzying number of events to attend, it's hard to figure out which ones are worth the time, effort and subway fare. Betabeat guest blogger Gary Sharma, something of an events truffle hound, already penned his personal list of recommendations. But consider this Betabeat's official to-do list: blogger tested, Betabeat approved.

The Art of Apps Gallery Opening
Monday, May 14th, 10am-6pm
138 Sullivan St.

Expect a lot of rounded edges and pixel talk at this gallery opening, featuring the designs of tech types like Path's Dave Morin, Jon Slimak of Piictu and Matias Corea of Behance. The exhibit will feature some of the best UI designs for apps on iPhone and iPad.

NYU ITP Spring 2012 Show
Monday, May 14th, 5pm-8pm
721 Broadway, 4th Floor

We write about ITP a lot (see the Listserve, the Descriptive Camera, and Kickstriker for some recent examples), mostly because the majority of projects produced by the students at NYU's interactive telecommunications program are actually really, really cool. ITP will unveil its best projects to the public in a two-day spring show on Monday 5/14 and Tuesday 5/15, and we think it's worth attending if only for the chance to see most of the most nimble young minds in the city at work.

Choosey Netizens Choose GIF: Analyzing an Animated Cultural Lexicon
Tuesday, May 15, 12pm-12:45pm
82 Mercer St.

We are huge fans of animated GIFs. In fact, we would probably devolve into communicating entirely through tiny moving pictures, if we could. Motherboard deputy editor Sean Yeaton will discuss how the GIF became its own cultural phenomenon.

Why Being a Good CEO has Nothing to Do With Being a Woman
Tuesday, May 15, 1pm-1:45pm
82 Mercer St.

If you haven't noticed, all of the full-time staff writers here at Betabeat possess two X chromosomes, so we're never ones to turn down a good panel about our fellow XX in tech. Featuring Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna and Nestio CEO Caren Maio, in addition to some other talented lady founders, the discussion should offer some helpful advice on leading as a woman in the tech community.

TIME Inc.’s 10 Startups to Watch
Wednesday, May 16, 6:30pm-8:30pm
Top Secret

The list of TIME's 10 startups to watch reads like a week in Betabeat posts: NYC tech scene favs Code Academy, Art.sy, Fab.com and Side Tour are among the honorees. But the event is invite-only so be sure to get on the guest list if you want to attend.

WeWorkLabs Happy Hour
Wednesday, May 16, 5pm-8pm
175 Varick St., 4th Floor

First off: there will be free beer at this event. Plus, you'll get to check out the coworking space of WeWorkLabs, a NYC tech staple that seeks to foster collaboration between up-and-coming entrepreneurs. Check out some of the pitches from WeWorkLabs members and network with other like-minded techies.

hackNY Fundraiser
Wednesday, May 16, 7pm-9pm
foursquare HQ: 568 Broadway, 10th Floor

10gen will be providing drinks for a celebration of the hackNY community, an event to help raise funds "for the future tech innovators of New York City," and keep kids off Wall Street as the slogan goes. We had a pretty great time at the last hackNY fundraiser. But if nothing else, it's a chance to peep Foursquare's sweet office digs.

The Webutante Ball
Wednesday, May 16th, 8pm-11:55pm
Marquee

Don't pretend like you don't want to see the digerati all dolled up. The Webutante Ball is in its 4th year, and it's not really getting any cooler, but there will be lots of drinks. The "prom committee" is packed with NYC tech allstars, like Ben Lerer, Dave Tisch, plus old school fameball Julia Allison.

Walkabout NYC
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-6pm
187 Lafayette St. 6th Floor

If you're a fan of the Roger Mag, or just an interior design nut, you'll probably want to take some time to hit up Walkabout NYC, an open house of startup offices around the city. The lineup includes Betaworks, Gilt Groupe, Tumblr and Facebook, among many others.

Future of Media Panel
Friday, May 18th, 1pm-2pm
20 Cooper Sq. at 5th st. (NYU's journalism HQ)

Oh look, another panel to discuss the future of an industry about which no one has the slightest clue. Yay. But! The lineup is packed with A-list names in both media and tech, including Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti, Thrillist's Ben Lerer and Jezebel's Jessica Coen. As long as everyone's candid about the real state of things, we think it should prove pretty entertaining.

Mr. Kirsch.

Wilkommen! This is part one of Betabeat's new mini-series, Die Startup-Szene, a peek at the up-and-coming tech hub of Berlin. We sat down with entrepreneurs from three leading young companies here in the city that is only very, very occasionally referred to as Silicon Allee.

Roman Kirsch, who skipped two grades, has studied in Los Angeles and London, backpacked in Australia and interned at Goldman Sachs. In July 2011, he and two cofounders started an Internet company most recently reportedly valued at $10 million. About six months later, he sold it to one of the hottest startups in New York. He is 23.

It's enough to make you wish for some Schadenfreude. Until you meet Mr. Kirsch, that is, who gave Betabeat a hug when we met with him on Monday morning at Wohnzimmer Bar, or "living room bar," a quiet and quaintly-decorated cafe in Berlin's startup-heavy Prenzlauer neighborhood. Wrapped in Abercrombie, he ordered a hot mint tea with honey in place of coffee. He struck us immediately as, well, calmer than the average starry-eyed 20-something New York startupper, an even speaker with wry, smiling eyes. Still, he described his company's acquisition by Fab.com as "the best thing that could ever happen." The exact terms were undisclosed, but it was an all-stock sale.

Mr. Kirsch launched Casacanda, a flash sales site focused on well-designed, unique products, with two cofounders he met in business school. (The school, WHU, located in a small town between Frankfurt and Cologne, produces most of the startup entrepreneurs in Germany, Mr. Kirsch said, including the infamous copycat brothers, the Samwers, as well as the founder of DailyDeal, which was recently bought by Google.) The cofounders bootstrapped until the fall, when they raised a quick $1 million right before the site's launch in September.

The company started making millions in revenue as it grew to 250,000 members and 45 employees. That's when it caught the attention of Jason Goldberg, the CEO of New York's fast-growing flash sales destination Fab.com. The road to acquisition started when Mr. Goldberg was in Berlin to give a speech. He budgeted 30 minutes to meet with the Casacanda team. He was so enthralled with Casacanda that he tried to cancel his talk. That proved difficult, so he met with the young founders afterward. Mr. Goldberg was drawn to Casacanda's attention to design details as well as the details of its numbers; its focus on finding products so unique that members would be compelled to share them on Twitter and Facebook; and the raw ambition of the founders. Mr. Goldberg, who aspires to make Fab the next Amazon, is a great appreciator of ambition.

The acquisition, a stock-only deal, solidified Casacanda/Fab.de's position as a leader and role model for the fledgling Berlin startup community. As of now, Berlin's startup scene has a few standouts. SoundCloud, the audio hosting platform, is internationally know. Wooga, Germany's Zynga, is the second-largest social gaming company on Facebook. But unfortunately, Germany still has the reputation as a sort of European copy machine for successful American startups.

That's because investors in Germany are cautious, Mr. Kirsch said, and it's difficult to get anything truly new funded. The copycats are also an important part of the Berlin ecosystem, he said, and in addition to introducing people to entrepreneurship, many of the copycats evolve beyond clonehood. "It's harder to sell innovation," he said. "So people say, 'If I'm going to do something really innovative, no one will fund me anyway. When I get the money I can still be innovative.'"

Mr. Kirsch decided to be an entrepreneur because of the speakers who came to WHU. The investment bankers and consultants pitched their industries hard, he said, but there was something phony about it. By contrast, the entrepreneurs "had these little sparks in their eyes" and truly seemed passionate about what they were doing.

Although it didn't have the double mega-pivot Fab did (the progression as described by its CEO once included "Facebook for gays" and "Groupon for gays"), Casacanda started out with a focus on home decor and interior design, and then expanded its product catalogue after the site launched. Mr. Kirsch is a big fan of pivots, himself. "Every day, you have to ask yourself, 'is this the best we can do?'" Mr. Kirsch said, citing Nokia, which originally sold a diverse product line that included rubber boots.

As Fab.de--Fab's first international acquisition, by the way--the company will soon have about 80 percent product overlap with its U.S. counterpart, as most suppliers are more than happy to sell in both countries. It's up to 55 employees and in the process of moving into a new office. The flash sales space is hot, and Mr. Kirsch feels motivated by all the competition between startups on the Internet. "Some people even refer to it as war. Every day you have to prove that you're the best person to serve your customers," he said.

Last week, on the day Casacanda relaunched as Fab.de, it snowed hard in Berlin--which was perfect timing. "People stay at home and just have more time to browse the Internet," Mr. Kirsch said. (Also, Betabeat arrived after the melt.) He gave Betabeat another hug as we parted, and recommended we check out Berlin's art history museum.

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this story misspelled Mr. Kirsch's surname. Betabeat regrets the error.

Last November ccTLDInvestors, "the online magazine for global domain investors" noted that a company called Sedo made a tidy profit by selling Fab.de for $50,000. That same week, Fab also purchased Fab.eu for 35,000 Euros, so expect more updates for Fab's fabulous European adventure.

According to Mr. Goldberg, Casacanda has been on something of a roll. The site has 250,000 members and grew by 90,000 in just the last 30 days. Add that to Fab's existing membership, and the company has won over more than 2.3 million users in the past 8 months.

Mr. Goldberg dropped a few clues about international expansion at the end of January when he celebrated hitting the 2 million member mark. For a startup that boosted its valuation by a $175 million in six months, it makes sense to leap across the Atlantic in search of continued growth. The search for new verticals and markets to sustain growth is something other flash sales sites, like Gilt Groupe, which recently laid off 10 percent of its staff, have struggled with as well. As Mr. Goldberg tells it, going global was part of Fab's plan all along:

As early as October 2011 when we were just 5 months old, we began thinking and strategizing about which markets we would bring the Fab model to next. We quickly honed in on Germany, and Berlin in particular, as being the first major Fab center outside of the U.S. It’s a natural first-choice; the German economy is strong, Berlin is an awesome startup hub, and the German people have deep rooted passion for design and the types of products we sell on Fab. In fact, the stuff we sell every day on Fab drives a lot of inspiration from German design and many of the Fab products are very similar to what you might find in the boutiques and shops of German cities such as Cologne, Stuttgart, Hamburg, and Berlin.

We did a study of the German market in October and November and went through a decision process of whether to build or acquire. In early December we took a trip to Berlin and met with a few potential partners to explore launching Fab in Germany. Of all the teams and people we met with in Berlin, we were far and away most impressed with the founders and team at Casacanda. We returned to Berlin in January and spent even more time with Casacanda to figure out if it was a good match. It was, and then some. Casacanda’s CEO, Roman Kirsch, is a true superstar. That guy is so impressive that I immediately wanted him on team Fab. Watch out for Roman.

By Mr. Goldberg's estimates, this acquisition will enable Fab to generate at least 10 to 20 percent of its overall revenue from international sales this year. Hey, Andreessen Horowitz doesn't"plow" $40 million into an eight-month old startup without thinking about the bigger picture.