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.

You know what's cool? A billion dollars, that's what! Huge congrats to David Karp and the folks at Tumblr. Billion-dollar exits form the cornerstone of a thriving tech ecosystem, and this is great news for New York tech.

It's finally here! Internet Week, that is. 45,000 people are expected to attend over 400 parties with keynotes by Randi Zuckerberg, Jonah Peretti (BuzzFeed), Joe Gebbia (Airbnb) and Joan Rivers!

The hottest party during Internet Week? That would, of course, be the Webutante Ball (a.k.a. the REAL #nerdprom!) And lucky for you, I have two FREE passes to give away. Interested? Of course you are! Apply here.

In non-Internet week news, tomorrow evening at the 92Y, my buddy Jeff Pulver (entrepreneur and early-stage seed investor) will be interviewing two famous brothers: Deepak Chopra (renowned spiritual guru) and Sanjiv Chopra (dean of the Harvard Medical School). Also this week is the OpenCo Innovation Festival (a cross between an artist's open studio, a tech conference and a music festival). Over a hundred startups will open their doors including Buzzfeed, Etsy, Fab, Foursquare, Kickstarter, RapGenius, Warby Parker and others.

Coming up on May 30 is Digital DUMBO's dd:IMPACT Groundswell with panelists from VICE, The Onion, Reddit, Buzzfeed, Pulse and Digg exploring the new era of campaigns, content, storytelling, media formats, and more. Also coming up are TechDrinkup on May 30 and Angelhack (the largest global hackathon competition!) on June 1.

Remember Startup Chile? Well, now I present to you Startup Brazil! Spend six months to a year down in South America and receive up to $98,971 in the form of monthly grants. Sounds like a sweet deal, eh? And with the World Cup coming up next year, Brazil is the place to be! Deadline to apply is May 31.

FYI, deadline for the summer edition of Startup Institute NY is May 26. The deadline for applying to the Code for America accelerator is May 31.

And finally, mark your calendars for May 26, people. That's when the hotly anticipated, all-new season of Arrested Developmentfinally arrives on Netflix! My buddy Jon has put together a hack to text you the minute the show hits Netflix servers. Just text ANN to 619-EGG-VEAL. And now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go practice my chicken dance, check on my frozen banana stand and get hopped up on a 53-episode marathon-viewing binge. You know how it is.

Let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

Mobile Media Upfront
Monday (May 20), 8 a.m. @ New World Stages, 340 W. 50th Street

NYU ITP Spring Show
A two-day exhibition of recent interactive media projects by the graduate students of ITP.
Monday (May 20), 5 p.m. @ NYU ITP - Tisch School of the Arts, 721 Broadway, 4th Fl.

MOUSE@15: Celebrating 15 Years of Inspiring Innovators
Honoring Bre Pettis (Cofounder and CEO, MakerBot) and Joanne Wilson (advocate, Best Buy Children's Foundation). Speaker Christine Quinn and the NYC City Council.
Monday (May 20), 6 p.m. @ The Pier 61, Lighthouse at Chelsea Piers, 23rd Street and 11th Avenue

New York Crowdfunds 2
It's Shark Tank meets American Idol! Judges include Sabeer Bhatia (founder, Hotmail) and Earl "The Pearl" Monroe (New York Knicks, NBA Hall of Fame).
Monday (May 20), 6:30 p.m. @ WeWork Lounge, 154 Grand Street

New Yorks Next Top Makers Open Studio
Come catch up with New York’s Next Top Makers as they turn their product prototypes into businesses. With Bonus Table, MYBELL, Nautilus Bowl, Slide Table, The Power Clip and Tangeez!
Monday (May 20), 6:30 p.m. @ NYDesigns, 45-50 30th Street

Conversational Marketing (CM) Summit 2013: Bridging Data & Humanity
With Ben Silbermann (founder, Pinterest), Jonah Peretti (founder, Buzzfeed), Mike Lazerow (founder, Buddy Media), Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures) and others.
Tuesday (May 21), 9 a.m. @ The Altman Building, 135 W. 18th Street

[Internet Week] POSSIBLE presents Robert Scoble: The Age of Context
Robert Scoble (tech evangelist and author) will talk about the Age of Context, a future comprised of hyper-anticipatory and personalized services.
Tuesday (May 21), 12:30 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

17th Annual Webby Awards
Hosted by Patton Oswalt. Hallmark five-word speeches from Jerry Seinfeld, Grimes and Ben Stiller.
Tuesday (May 21), 6:30 p.m. @ Cipriani, 55 Wall Street

Fireside Chat with Deepak Chopra
Two famous brothers Deepak Chopra (renowned spiritual guru) and Sanjiv Chopra (dean at Harvard Medical School) interviewed by entrepreneur and early-stage seed investor Jeff Pulver.
Tuesday (May 21), 8 p.m. @ 92Y Kauffman Concert Hall, Lexington Avenue and 92nd Street

OpenCo New York
A mix between a business conference and artist's open studio with the vibe of a music festival. Over a hundred innovative businesses will open their doors including Betaworks, Buzzfeed, Etsy, Fab, Foursquare, Kickstarter, Rap Genius, Warby Parker and others.
Wednesday (May 22), 4 p.m. @ The Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th Street

The NY Times - Technology Job Fair
Come grab a beverage, hang out with some cool tech folks and talk shop.
Wednesday (May 22), 5 p.m. @ New York Times, 620 8th Avenue, 15th Fl.

[Internet Week] A Discussion Around Content, Commerce & Curation
With Pete Cashmore (founder, Mashable), Paul Berry (founder, RebelMouse), Scott Kurnit (CEO, Keep Holdings), Christene Barberich (editor, Refinery29) and others.
Wednesday (May 22), 6:30 p.m. @ Paley Center for Media, 25 W. 52nd Street, 10th Fl.

Bitcoin and the Future of Money
With Felix Salmon (Reuters), Jaron Lukasiewicz (Coinsetter), Charlie Shrem (BitInstant) and Zach Seward (Quartz).
Wednesday (May 22), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly East, 902 Broadway, 4th Fl.

The Future Of Tech Startups
Dave Morgan (founder, Simulmedia) hosts John Battelle (cofounder, Open Co) and Fred Wilson (Union Square Ventures). Drinks and food will follow the conversation.
Thursday (May 23), 4:30 p.m. @ Simulmedia, 670 Broadway

The 2013 Webutante Ball
The Internet's famous party of the year is back for its fifth year of revelry! Come hang with New York's hottest startup stars, media elite, venture capitalists, and agency spies. You can't miss this!
Thursday (May 23), 8 p.m. @ Marquee, 289 10th Avenue

The Phat Startup: How To Build A Million Dollar Site
With Chris "Broadway" Romero (Cofounder of Thisis50.com)
Friday (May 24), 6 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick Street

More events on the horizon...
Here a MOOC There a MOOC Everywhere a MOOC MOOC! on May 28 @ Knewton
Startup Grind NYC hosts Jon Steinberg (President, BuzzFeed) on May 29 @ ThoughtWorks
Peter Shankman Speaks Live On His Newest Book - Nice Companies Finish First on May 29 @ Affect Offices
dd:IMPACT Conference Groundswell: The Next Wave of Content (presented by Digital DUMBO) on May 30 @ Galapagos Art Space
#techdrinkup - Open Bar Summer Kickoff Rooftop Party on May 30 @ XVI Lounge
AngelHack NYC - Spring 2013 on June 1 @ Huge Inc
NYC BigApps CityCamp on June 1 @ New York Law School
Bizza90s: Tweet Me Baby One More Time on June 7 @ WeWork
F.A.T. Session 2: Sales/Use Taxation for 21st Century Commerce on June 11 @ Marks Paneth & Shron
NYTECH Presents: The Truth About VC Investing in New York and How To Get Funded on June 11 @ PwC
Inbox Awesome on June 13 @ The DUMBO Loft
Future Energy Investor Feedback Forum on June 13 @ Microsoft
NYTECH Presents: The Big Data Explosion: Using Cloud Computing to Clean Up the Mess on June 26 @ 10gen
Moonwalk NYC 2013 on July 20 @ Venue

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

(Photo: The Webutante Ball)

The Webutante Ball, Internet Week's "nerd prom" that people attend because they feel they have to, is swiftly approaching. Held at Marquee on May 23rd, the event attracts startup glitterati, media titans and various riffraff from The Scratcher.

Here are the nominees for this year's king and queen:

Webutante Ball Queen Nominees

Callie Schweitzer, Director of Marketing and Communications at Vox Media
Maura Johnston, Founder of Maura Magazine
Sarah Austin, Star of Bravo's Start-Ups: Silicon Valley
Jenna Wortham, Technology Reporter of The New York Times
Rachel Sklar Co-Founder of The Li.st

Webutante Ball King Nominees

Michael Martin, Editor-in-Chief of Time Out New York
Josh Gondleman, Co-Creator of Twitter's Modern Seinfeld
Ben Hindman, Co-Founder of SplashThat
Omri Mor & Colin Hodge, Co-Founders of Bang With Friends
Jeremy Fisher, Co-Creator of Days App

You may have noticed that the previously anonymous cofounders of Bang With Friends are on the list. It seems they've doxxed themselves in the hopes of being crowned Kings of the Internet. Omri Mor is the CEO and Founder of ZIIBRA, a crowdfunding site for artists. Colin Hodge is the founder of How About You, which appears to be in stealth but boasts the tagline "It's like LinkedIn... for lovin'."

(We've reached out for comment and will update if we hear back.)

You can vote for the Queen here and the King here. Meanwhile, Betabeat columnist Gary Sharma has a ticket discount: $15 off if you use the code Gary15.

What's wrong with that? (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Chat-rooming Classes Today, seemingly every tech reporter in the business tuned into Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups," presumably in the hopes that Mr. Calacanis would tell all re: the allegations of abuse against Michael Arrington. But as familiar names chattered away in the chat room, Mr. Calacanis had little to say beyond comparing himself to Obi Wan. That would make Mr. Arrington Anakin Skywalker, of course; Mr. Calacanis said he taught him how to be powerful in media, and "I regret that."

As for the allegations themselves, Mr. Calacanis was quick to say he wouldn't be commenting on whether they were true, citing his lack of direct knowledge. (He did, however, openly discuss the time that Mr. Arrington called a PR honcho "the c-word," thereby outing someone who'd never mentioned the incident publicly!) [Correction: Mr. Calacanis first mentioned the incident and the PR exec (Brooke Hammerling) by name in the comments of his Facebook post, prompting Ms. Hammerling to confirm the story, also in a Facebook comment.] All in all, it sounds like he (kinda sorta) regrets getting involved. He apparently thought writing a Facebook note wouldn't go very far. "I thought that that would be a place where it just lived there," he said. (Paging Randi Zuckerberg!) "I got a little P.T. Barnum in me and I feel like me commenting on all this stuff actually detracts from it," he added.

The Biggest Failure Silicon Alley fameballer and Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick took to PandoDaily this week to lament his decision to sell his company Connected Ventures, which included CollegeHumor and Vimeo, to media conglomerate IAC in 2006. In the post, called “An acquisition is always a failure,” Mr. Lodwick wrote that selling the company to IAC was “the worst business decision of his life” because although it fattened his bank account, it stifled his ability to work creatively. Getting acquire is like giving up, he argued, which we’re sure delighted his fellow NYC entrepreneurs who are desperately groping for the exit sign.

We suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even if the cake is made of millions of dollars.

Kenny Lerer's Got Ringtones In the midst of a recent phone call with Ken Lerer about Lure Fish Bar, his favorite power lunch spot, our conversation was interrupted by the dulcet sounds of Jim Morrison from his cellphone. Was that “People Are Strange,” we asked? Yes, Mr. Lerer confirmed, revealing that he spends “way too much time” picking out the right ringtones for the important people in his life. That Doors song was for Brian Bedol, Mr. Lerer’s business partner in the media and entertainment company Bedrocket. "If you knew Brian," he said, "'People Are Strange' is the perfect ring tone for him."

Did he have a ringtone for his son Ben, the cofounder of Thrillist? “Oh this is embarrassing,” he replied, admitting that it was Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Get All the Luck.” “Not bad, huh?” quipped Mr. Lerer the elder.

Brit’s Got Jokes On Monday, Brit + Co. founder Brit Morin announced on her Facebook page that she was expecting a baby with her husband, Path cofounder Dave Morin. Of course, the update was quickly debunked as an April Fool’s Day prank, despite the fact that she posted it towards the end of the day. “For all of you who wished me congratulations on being pregnant, thank you for being a total sucker!” she wrote.

Apparently, along with making Christmas trees out of cheese and turning Mac extension cords into jump ropes, such personal pranks are part of Ms. Morin’s repertoire.

“The trick is to wait until the evening of April Fools when people think all the jokes are over,” she wrote. “I pull this one every single year and still, so many fall for it ;)” Guess she lost all of next year’s suckers by giving away her secret.

PR darling Brooke Hammerling had a subtweet for the ladies pretending to be with child for April Fool’s Day:

https://twitter.com/brooke/status/319229167046623233

Jack Did it All for the Nookie We knew about Jack Dorsey's nose ring, but we had no idea he used to be in Limp Bizkit. Business Insider uncovered an old photo of the Square cofounder that shows him looking quite different than he does when sporting his current hand-sewn jeans look. The black and white portrait has Mr. Dorsey with full-on 90s rave kid hair. Pass the glowstick, bro.

(Photo: Twitter)

Bloggers! They're Just Like Us! Business Insider editor Steve Kovach gets hearts aflutter, apparently. As overheard by fellow editor (so many over there!) Alyson Shontell, a starry eyed PR person compared their meeting with Mr. Kovach to that of a Hollywood star. It's understandable, we constantly confuse Mr. Kovach with Jake Gyllenhaal every time we see him out with the normals.

http://twitter.com/shontelaylay/status/319838156486758400

Do You Startup, Bro? Silicon Valley's fraternity president and Digg founder Kevin Rose was the subject of an ABC News profile this week which reminded us he's still around! The Google Ventures partner revealed what new apps he's circling to potentially fund, including a personal training app called FitStar. He also revealed that the Instagram filter Toaster is named after his adorable dog and detailed what his typical day is like: "Invest in start-ups. Find the next big thing. Meet with entrepreneurs. Drink coffee. Hang out." Sounds like a Bravo show in the making.

Internet Weak On Thursday, the New York collective of the Web’s  hive mind met up for a low key gathering at the Watch What Happens Live prop closet Design Within Reach showroom in SoHo to celebrate the quickly approaching Internet Week. The festival's new director Caroline Waxler welcomed the sharply dressed but older-skewing crowd. iPads were shuffled around to get attendees to sign up and vote  for the 200+ panels that are in contention for just 13 slots to be showcased at the yearly event. (Holding a drink from the open bar and registering on the iPad was difficult, but we managed.)

Anyway, the annoyingly arranged support columns, a seating arrangement dependent on the furniture layout, and the tri-level setup made it hard to pay attention to Vice editors Kelly Bourdet and Brian A. Anderson. After talking for a half hour about all the cool things Vice does (and plentiful mentions of the burgeoning media empire's massive presence at SXSW), they showed off a drone for people to play with. But that wasn’t enough to amuse the partygoers as throngs of them slinked off shortly after the panel ended. Perhaps that was enough Internet for one day.

An earnest Mr. Smith at Internet Week.

VICE cofounder Shane Smith took the main stage at Internet Week today and demonstrated that although he was about to deliver a political rant, he is still edgy. "I came up with this script when I was drunk on a plane coming back from Pakistan, and I had taken a pill," he said. "So it's not going to be as smooth as we like, but it's going to be fantastic."

Mr. Smith actually riveted the audience with a roughly 15-minute survey of the depravity of the television content showcased at the upfronts, juxtaposed with riots and crises among young people in cities around the world. Networks all aspire to appeal to young people, he said, but serve up the same old derivative, fluffy entertainment. To add insult to injury, the content producers promote this content with circus stunts like multi-colored cabs (as per Fox's slogan, "more colorful").

By contrast, the audience these networks covet is actually violently angry, Mr. Smith said, pointing to the Arab Spring, Occupy Wall Street, and riots in London and Greece.

"Basically young people all over the world are pissed off. They're fucking angry. And I don't know about you but there is nothing that's scarier than young people who have no future. If you take away someone's future, they have nothing to lose. Historically, if we look at what young men do, especially, when they have no future, is they go out there and they fuck shit up."

VICE, for its part, is producing a 60 Minutes-type show "for young people" in partnership with HBO. The news show was among 63 different shows it announced a few weeks ago at its own upfronts, where ad man Martin Sorrell of WPP, one of VICE's new backers, made a triumphant appearance.

Mr. Smith criticized his own company for pandering, as well as the other online networks that hosted their own upfronts. AOL gave away cars to media buyers; Google brought in Jay-Z.

He ran down the list of old guard and new guard shows. "I can do the whole upfronts and new fronts, three weeks, in one fuckin' slide," he said. "We got The Awesomes, Don't Quit Your Dream Job, you got Fetching, which I thought was Felching when I first looked at it. I was like, that's the only good show on there! It's all just derivative fucking crap."

"The online networks are just being derivative of what TV does," he said.

Some more select quotes:

"I'm not really going to show what VICE has been up to, I'm going to go on a
political rant."

"We've been spending the past week at the upfronts and I don't know how many of you guys go to the upfronts but they're freaky. Does anyone know SCTV? ...Whenever I was at one of these upfronts, I was like, this is like an SCTV sketch."

"Everyone who works for me is 25 and has facial tattoos."

"Everyone is trying to say, 'this is Gen Y, we're not an old company. We're not doing old content.'"

"We said, 'wait a second. We're at these upfronts. We're coming up with all these show and formats for young people. What do young people actually give a shit about?'"

"As I was flying back from Pakistan, and we saw some serious shit there... where's the media that covers this? We're just not doing it."

"The news is gonna be, Two and a Half Men is moving from Tuesday to Thursday fuckin' night."

"A lot of you know the history of VICE. But if we're the ones saying shit's fucked up, then you know we're in trouble. We were all about sex, drugs and rock
and roll... if fuckin' VICE is saying we should be doing something a lot more serious, then we know the world is fucked."

"Hold on, there is no cocaine and supermodels unless you sort these problems out."

"TV is shit. Everyone has their four favorite shows but it's shit. The Internet is derivative of that shit. TV is derivative of itself. What's the No. 1 show? The Voice. What's The Voice? It's American Idol 2.0. American Idol was shit and now The Voice is shittier. TV never takes any chances, they never do anything different."

"What's worse is, online is derivative of TV. So online just tries to take whatever
shows are popular on TV and then do them shitteir and with less money and with no stars."

"We have historical change happening. The largest cohort in the world is... smashing things, and we're just going along and saying, 'Let's do Two and a Half Men with Ashton instead of Charlie.'"

"Online is a revolution. The Internet is a revolution. And we should be revolutionary in the content that we put on it, rather than derivative. And rather than mimic the shit of TV and make it worse, let's say 'fuck it.' The Internet isn't TV, it's different, it's better. Let's make content that young people actually give a shit about."

Mr. Pacheco and Ms. Appelwick. (Photo: Nick McGlynn)

The scene outside Marquee, a 700-some capacity club on 10th Ave. and 26th, was dramatic. Three fire engines wailed, police cars pulling up behind them, beside a long line of well-heeled public relations professionals that snaked around the block. A middle-aged man carrying a brown sack was getting into it with the bouncer. "I was invited, and this asshole..." Never attempt to gain leverage with one bouncer by berating the bouncer next to him. He will never take your side. "Who do you think you fuckin' are?" the guest asked, before he turned and performed a pissy walk north.

A clearly-stressed Richard Blakeley was monitoring the lengthy queue. Were the fire engines related to the fourth annual Webutante Ball, a New York tradition that started as the Internet Week event where the young and webby must tweet and be seen? "No, not us," he assured us as he ushered two sponsors into the shortlisted line.

Indeed, the fire trucks lumbered out of view as we slipped into the Marquee and past the entryway photographer. "Hey, where are you going?" we heard as we ducked past the step-and-repeat and pushed into the main room. Unidentifiable rock music thundered and we didn't recognize a soul. Where was Julia Allison? We'd heard she was one of the judges arbitrating over who would be crowned the King and Queen of the Internet. (Answer: Communing with her shaman, apparently.)

Upstairs the crowd was thicker. In a corner, Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer was perched atop the back of a couch, the men of Thrillist around him like magnets. He introduced his "consigliere," Eric Kramer. We were soon joined by VP of marketing John Wiseman, sporting a pair of spiffy Warby Parkers. "Some of the people in this room are younger than this club," he offered, when we asked for a quote. Of course, that aphorism applied to the startups represented as well.

Back toward the stairs, we ran into WeWork's Matt Shampine and Fitocracy's Dick Talens, in a vest and noticeably bulkier than the last time we saw him. "I'm on steroids," he said, running his fingers through his hair. Everyone laughed a little.

Attempts to elicit predictions for the King and Queen coronation yielded nothing. "I have no idea," Mr. Shampine said. "What do you think?" asked Gary Sharma.

GroupMe's Steve Cheney wandered by. Working at Skype is "great," he said, and GroupMe is still run like a startup and is working on a lot of really cool stuff.

Beside us, Shelby.tv CEO and TechStars grad Reece Pacheco was in a suit and red Converses. Mr. Blakeley approached. "We need to have a quick off-the-record conversation," he apologized.

Betabeat politely looked the other way while the two whispered. It didn't take long to realize what was up: Mr. Pacheco darted down to the dance floor where he joined Shelby.tv's brand director Lauren Appelwick. They were given tiny crowns with white faux fur and pronounced the King and Queen of the Internet. They did a short dance to "I don't want to lose your love tonight."

"She put them on the map," Chloe and Isabel's Lindsay Kaplan told Betabeat. She was speaking of the Queen.

At the bar, Mr. Pacheco was grabbing a few drinks with friends and fending off requests for photos. "Last month I was a vegetarian, this month I'm sober, and next month I'm writing a handwritten letter to someone every day," he said. "I'm doing a new challenge every month."

A good thing, because the King had a board meeting in the morning.

Mr. Sharma, whose fuzzy locks get longer every time we see him, had appeared again, talking to a gentleman with long dreadlocks. "Take a picture of us, with our hair!" the gentleman said.

We meandered a bit, bumping into General Assembly's Matthew O. Brimer, who showed us pictures of graffiti in Berlin, where he had been last week and where General Assembly is opening a new campus. We bumped into digital media man Rex Sorgatz, who asked us, as always, "where have you been?"

The afterparty was at Destination Bar, Dan Maccarone's haunt in the East Village, and Betabeat hopped in a cab with Barbarian Group cofounder Rick Webb, who speculated that the "Calacanis crowd" would be in next week for TechCrunch Disrupt. No Judah Friedlander this time.

Where was the hip crowd these days, we wondered?

"I don't think they're anywhere," he said.

Destination Bar was a closed venue tonight, and the new media guard began to filter in clusters of three. "Get a drink before the open bar closes," Mr. Maccarone said kindly. A glass of wine later, we slipped into the balmy eve. We had our own Internet Week party to get ready for.

Birchbox cofounder Hayley Barna (firstround.com)

The rain was really starting to come down hard, but the female CEOs at Internet Week appeared undaunted by the passing storm. Birchbox's Hayley Barna, Learnvest's Alexa von Tobel, Nest.io's Caren Maio, Mashable's Sharon Feder and Artspace's Catherine Levene joined CNNMoney reporter Laurie Segall for a discussion about gender in tech.

The panel was entitled "Why Being a Good CEO Has Nothing to Do with Being a Woman," but it was clear from the first question that the women on this panel were more concerned with talking about their businesses than how being a woman has hindered their growth in the tech sector. And who can blame them? After all, the panel was specifically about how gender had nothing to do with their success--though almost all of the questions revolved around their experience as women in a male-dominated world.

"A good executive has everything to do with being a woman," said Ms. Levene. "I think they make amazing leaders, great managers. They have a different way of communicating with people, so I think it’s a fantastic opportunity. As it relates to women in technology, you just have to face the fact that there are not that many."

"I wish this was less about being a women and more about the businesses that we’re building," added Ms. Barna.

Once we got the gender politics (mostly) out of the way, the ladies elaborated upon their advice for building a successful business--whether you have two X chromosomes or not.

1. Have a good mentor.

"I think that it’s been really helpful for me to have a series of mentors that I've had throughout my entire career, and that’s been incredibly helpful," said Ms. Levene. "My advice is to find someone that you can really trust, that you respect, that you look up to."

2. Don't be afraid to ask questions.

"Building your business is a lot of asking the right questions, knowing how to collect the data and knowing when you’re wrong and turning it in another direction if necessary," Ms. Barna said. "So it’s really a balance between confidence, vision--but then also being able to ask the right questions."

3. Don't ask permission. Just do it.

"My advice for people who want to start a company is: start it," advised Ms. von Tobel. "Don’t ask for it. Go out and really start it. There’s great capital out there, and I really believe if you work your ass off you can have whatever you want."

"Don’t ask permission," added Ms. Maio. "If it’s something that you’re really passionate about, you really feel that fire in your belly and you’re ready to do it, then do it."

The Made in NY Digital Map

It was sticky and rainy outside, but scores of people showed up to see Mayor Bloomberg shake his tech pom-poms today at Internet Week HQ. The Mayor trudged to 82 Mercer to announce a new initiative alongside chief digital officer Rachel Sterne, NYCEDC president Seth Pinsky and--surprisingly--Josh Miller, the cofounder of Branch.

So what exactly did Mr. Mayor have up his sleeve? Turns out it was a new interactive map that displays the locations of tech companies around New York City. A sidebar also displays which of these companies are currently hiring.

The map "also locates the offices of investors, making it an excellent tool for entrepreneurs in search of capital, and includes over 30 tech incubators," he said. "We expect this map to be another tool that helps propel our tech industry forward."

Ms. Sterne elaborated, "Right now, there are over 600 startups, investors and incubators listed on the map, and we invite others to submit their company because this is an interactive resource."

Ms. Sterne also said that over 320 companies on the map are hiring, equating to "more than 1,000 open jobs in New York. The message is loud and clear: New York City is open for business."

So much rah-rahing was starting to make us nauseous. After Mr. Pinsky spoke, Mr. Miller then took the podium and briefly listed three reasons why he decided to move Branch back to NYC, the last of which was, "I much prefer a slice of New York pizza to a San Francisco burrito."

Finally it was the press's turn to ask questions. We were dying to ask the Mayor if he's keeping to his New Year's resolution to learn how to code.

Unfortunately, we never got called on. Maybe next time, Mr. Mayor.

(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.

Picadilly CIrcus, London, (Source: Paul Atherton via Wikipedia)

LAWGIC. Today 2tor is partnering with Washington University to put their Master of Laws degree online. 2tor's previous partnerships with USC, UNC and Georgetown have put high-end higher education online with programs in social work, business and nursing. The Washington University partnership is specifically aimed at removing a hurdle for international students who want to study U.S. law. Now they can do it from abroad but still have access to the faculty they would be working with if they were physically in St. Lous.

BE MOBILE. Last week New York City based bMobilized locked down $1.5 million in series A funding from European VC firms Alliance Venture and Investinor. The mobile technology company uses cloud technology to convert websites from one of seven languages to HTML5 for a better mobile browsing experience.

RABBIT EARS. Yesterday NimbleTV named Lou Borrelli as their CMO. Mr. Borrelli joined the cloud-based television subscription service last year as an advisor and investor. His resume includes senior positions at NEP Broadcasting and AOL.

WORKSITE. Yesterday, Scrollkit, the intuitive site building platform, unrolled two big new features. Now users can draw on their websites and buy a domain that automatically propagates. Build entire websites at the speed of Twitter.

COMMUNITY. New Work City just revamped their community membership policy. Now, for $30 a month, members receive one free day pass, discounts on other days and events and access to happy hours, a startup support group, meetups and show and tells.

URBAN EXPLORATION. NYC BigApps winner MyCityWay has gone transatlantic. The urban concierge app is in London just ahead of the Olympics with all the features New Yorkers already enjoy. Need to find Tea? Crumpets? Petrol? They've got you covered.

PUNCH THE CLOCK. Hourly, a matching service for workers and employers looking for flexible work, just relaunched with a slew of new features including enhanced search, a premium membership offering and civic and trade group associations.

DIY. In response to customer feedback, Vook, the e-book creation, publishing and distribution platform, is making their product financially feasible for small players. The new Vook Starter Account is available for $9.99 a month and includes 100 MBs of storage and all the other features that make Vook so attractive, including automatic distribution to the Amazon and Barnes & Noble and royalty collection. Another victory for independent and individual publishers!

INTERNET INVASION. In celebration of Internet Week, WalkaboutNYC is pulling back the covers on New York tech. For the third year, everybody is invited to check out the offices of big names like 10gen, Behance, Art.sy, Codecademy, Gilt Groupe, Jetsetter, eBay, Knewton, Lot18, Spotify, Tumblr—there's a lot, okay? The citywide event is completely free thanks to time tracking company Harvest, and participants can tailor their experience with tours, founder talks and of course, demos.

NERD PROM. The 2012 Webutante Ball is a week from tomorrow where founders, investors and other big names in tech get together to drink dance and crown the king and queen of the Internet. "Series B" tickets are still available for $60 but if you wait for those to sell out the "IPO" ticket round bumps the cost up to $70. All this is happening on May 16 at Marquee, 289 10th Ave.

The event, produced in conjunction with Webutante Ball's Richard Blakely (unlike Seamless, some people apparently see nothing wrong with keeping "Web" in their name), will only be open to a limited number of guests per month. You can buy the $10 tickets here. "Websdays is a networking event for anyone on the web — welcoming developers, digital marketers, bloggers and entrepreneurs,” Mr. Blakeley said in a press release. “But unlike crowded parties with long lines and limited space, Websdays is an exclusive soiree with plenty of room to promote conversation over cocktails." The illusion of exclusivity--sounds like someone been's paying attention to all the beta invites floating around these days.