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.

If you’re looking to fact-check whether Lure Fishbar is indeed the “the Michael’s of downtown,” as one publicist recently told Betabeat, you could do worse than the Soho hangout’s Foursquare page. There, you’ll find tips from Reuters’s Felix Salmon, ex-Googler Caroline McCarthy and even defoundered Foursquare exec Naveen Selvadurai, who recommends Lure’s private side room for meetings—and the lobster tail.

“There’s some big heavy deals going on around here,” said executive chef Josh Capon, a burly guy with a gravely Rockland County accent and a fondness for using the phrase "I don't mean to disrespect myself," before doing just that.

“Every now and then," he continued, "I’m like, ‘Hey guys, can somebody please cut me in? Can I get a half a point on whatever deal you’re closing in my restaurant?’ They all kind of look at me and laugh, and I’m like, ‘No seriously, gimme a freaking half a point! What the hell is going on here?’”

We didn’t spot any term sheets on the table during a light lunch in Lure’s nautical-themed dining room last Friday, but we did count three self-effacing hoodies in the crowd.

Lure has long been a favorite of Gawker Media stalwarts, as well as Huffington Post cofounder Ken Lerer. "Ken sits over there and holds court," Mr. Capon said, gesturing to a booth in the back. "Ben [Lerer, cofounder of Thrillist] is always complaining that he can't get his dad's table." But over the past five or six years, the lunch crowd has come to reflect Soho office rentals, with plenty of startup types table-hopping amid the media mavens and hedge fund traders.

“The more I stuck around and the more I listened, I started to pick up on it,” he said of the tech jargon wafting about. “They get a kick out of me. Now they throw some words at me like, ‘Hey, Capon, you want in on the next IPO?’”

Last month, Mr. Capon, who also runs Burger & Barrel and El Toro Blanco, and his college buddy Jason King dipped a toe in the tech world themselves with a new venture called Dining Image. The startup helps restaurants create their own website, take reservations with OpenTable and manage email with clientele. Mr. King already runs a similar company, Studioality, which offers a high-end version of the same service for clients like David Burke, Keith McNally and Drew Nieporent. At $100 per month, however, Dining Image targets restaurateurs with more meager budgets.

Silicon Alley regulars will recall that Dining Image has some local competition, like SinglePlatform, Wiley Cerilli’s startup, which was acquired by the small business marketing corporation Constant Contact for $100 million last June. There is also the option of just launching a Tumblr, which is what Lure uses.

That was owner John McDonald’s decision, Mr. Capon said last Friday as we tucked into caviar-topped deviled eggs (he recommended using Lure’s homemade potato chips as a scooping vehicle). “To me, it’s not a restaurant website,” he said of the more blog-like approach, calling Tumblr “much more of a New York thing.” Mr. Capon should know. “I’ve been in this space 14 years!” he said incredulously. “Do you know chef years? That’s like dog years or tree years," he elaborated.

Mr. King told Betabeat that he used Chef Capon as a beta tester during the yearlong development process for Dining Image. He wanted to offer the bells and whistles of Studioality but in a more manageable interface. “We understand that chefs are working in the back of the kitchen on a computer that is probably running IE 7 and they’re not really up to date with all the technology.”

In fact, Dining Image’s promotional video, which features a guest appearance from TV personality and top chef John Besh, depicts Mr. Capon building a website in the time it takes him to eat a Lure burger. “It shows me, no disrepect to myself, as a mooky chef,” he said.

What does mooky mean, we asked, unfamiliar with the term. “Meaning I’m not a tech-world guy,” Mr. Capon said with a laugh. “I’m not the sharpest stone in the shed or whatever they say. I failed accounting twice in Maryland, but I made my way to culinary school and I do very well for myself. Jason [King] watches me type sometimes on my computer and he’s like, ‘Are you serious?’ I’m like, ‘Listen, I get it done, guy. You want a nice dinner? I can make you a really nice dinner.’”

“We all have our strengths and weaknesses,” he added before settling on a one-word definition for mooky: “Caveman-esque.”

A version of this story was published in the April 3, 2013 edition of The New York Observer.

(Photo: Amazon)

Front Page Printed Pages of the Internet Just before taking stage at SXSW to talk his crowdfunded Internet 2012 tour, Alexis Ohanian emailed out a link to his new book, Without Their Permission: How the 21st Century Will Be Made, Not Managed.

Since you asked, Mr. Ohanian, we dig the cover, but "without their permission," sounds a little iffy in the context of Reddit's Creepshot scandal, no?

Last week, we wondered when Mr. Ohanian was running for office already. “Alas no,” he emailed back. “I'm not going to rule anything out but right now I'm having too much fun (and impact) from my place in the private sector.” However, as the Young Entrepreneur Council founder Scott Gerber pointed out, Mr. Ohanian does happen to own the domain name ohanian2013.com.

Just checking in 525,600 minutes. How do you measure a year in the life of a (defoundered) man? Earlier this week, on the anniversary of his abrupt departure from Foursquare, cofounder Naveen Selvadurai posted a recap of the last 12 months. Don't expect to learn much about what he's been working on, though. Think more in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights and cups of coffee.

Mr. Selvadurai lost the founder 15; he traveled; he saw his family and friends; he traveled some more; he read books; he went to Disney and rode Space Mountain many times; he learned to drive stick; he went to the Olympics. "I always kept saying 'year 30' wouldn’t be such a big deal and that it’s just like any other. it turned out to be so much more and i’m grateful for that," he reflected.

Oh, but he might have picked up a bit of a gloomy streak, too:

this is how the war will start - "ohio man charged with shooting robot" singularityhub.com/2013/03/04/ohi…

— naveen (@naveen) March 6, 2013

(Photo: Instagram/Dens)

So (proto)typical Google Glasses are now just popping up everywhere, it seems. The latest sighting comes via Digg community manager Veronica De Souza: "SPOTTED: A skater bro wearing google glass in bedstuy. Who are you?" she tweeted. Betebeat welcomes any intel as to the identity of this mystery man, so we can pester him until he lets us try his specs on.

Maybe Dennis Crowley knows the guy. The Foursquare cofounder recently, "lost my Google Glass virginity."

(Photo: Instagram/Fred Benenson)

Spotted! Our friends at Quora--the erudite agoraphobe’s answer to Yahoo! Answers--never got the memo that print was dead. Thus earlier this year, the site opted to publish a 441-page hardcover book called “The Best of Quora,” featuring 131 primers. Forbes called it a “fascinating, enchanting, exasperating book,” and wondered if the inquiring minds of Quora were “too clever” for their own good.

Author Clive Thompson and Kickstarter’s Fred Benenson got to thumb through the pages and see for themselves when they spotted a copy “in the wild” at Lil Frankie’s Pizza in the East Village. Mr. Thompson said on Instagram that he received an advanced copy this week. As Bill Couch, a front-end product engineer at Twitter explained in the comments, “[Quora] issued them as gifts to the authors of those answers at the end of last year, then provided it as a PDF online.”

Guess the question about Betabeat didn’t make the cut.

:( Guys, we think Tumblr really hurt Shelby.tv cofounder Reece Pacheco feelings. He recently published a long, sad blog post announcing, "Tumblr I Love You, But You're Bringing Me Down." Nothing says heartache like LCD Soundsystem! So what set Mr. Pacheco off? He logged into Tumblr the other day, as he does regularly, and found himself subjected to a laborious, drawn-out attempt to get him to follow more blogs. Then, he was given a few hovering tool tips--on a service he's been using for years.

He did not like this!

Thing is, I wouldn’t be so frustrated with you, Tumblr, if I didn’t love the platform so much. If you were just some other social network, I’d say “Do whatever you want. I don’t care. Your only value is your scale.”

But that’s not you, so don’t treat me like some number. You know I’m active. You know I’m a creator more than a reblogger. Treat me that way and show me some added benefit, rather than just trying to get more mindless engagement out of me.

Sorry, Reece--those revenue targets aren't gonna hit themselves.

Mmm, cake Happy birthday to GroupMe cofounder Steve Martocci, who got quite the gift in celebration. There's a Vine of the festivities, but here's a teaser:

Looks like a party, alright!

High fashion Huffpo cofounder Kenny Lerer is well known around Silicon Alley as an investor. But did anyone know he is, as his son Ben Lerer put it on Twitter, "fcking fashionable"? Mr. Lerer the Elder recently appeared in a New York Times profile of Laurent DeLouya, "the amiable proprietor of a hair salon that over 50 years has amassed a following that is kind of a cultural Core Club." Papa Lerer told the Times he'd "walk over hot coals for Laurent,” and apparently Mr. DeLouya performed baby Ben's first haircut at age 3.

We yearn to someday achieve that kind of rapport with a stylist.

User #279 Your user number can be a figure of pride among the tech set. If it's low enough it signals that you're an early adopter, and makes you feel cool, which is kinda sad if you think about it cuz like, look at your life.

"I'm User No. 279," humblebragged New York Times tech writer Nick Bilton in a recent Twitter back and forth. "I got @dens drunk and [sic] Nick Denton's house and made him give me a beta account."

Whatever works.

(Photo: theybf.com)

Real Genius Andreessen Horowitz invested $15 million in Rap Genius to help its Ivy League cofounders to annotate the Internet. But how much will they have to pay to rein in the braggadocious Mahbod Moghadam?

In a recent issue of Wakefield, a newsletter covering "tech and startup insight not captured elsewhere," Maboo was up to his old shenanigans, volunteering information about a “feud” with Mark Zuckerberg, who also happens to be backed by Andreessen Horowitz.

Apparently, Mr. Moghadam was at Ben Horowitz’s home, “chilling” with Zuck and Nas as is the new mode of Silicon Valley socializing. (Mr. Horowitz happens to be close friends with Steve Stoute, Nas’ former manager.) Despite Zuck's heightened privacy concerns (it's complicated?) Rap Genius cofounder couldn't resist Instagramming his good fortune.

Apparently Zuck never leaves his house because he’s so afraid of people photographing him, and then our investor – his house is one of the only places where Zuck feels safe – so our investor invited Zuck and Nas over. They were chilling together, and I asked if I could take a photo. He was like “Let’s hold off, let’s hold off,” and I just couldn’t resist – I was drunk, and I went paparazzi and Instagrammed it, and I didn’t even think it would be a thing.

But then the press picked it up and apparently Zuck gets home and his whole PR crew is calling him every five seconds, and he told us to take it down. We wrote a letter of apology and I feel sorry. I regret taking it, I hope this has taught me some maturity, it certainly got me in a lot of trouble. But then on the other hand, fuck that fool – that’s Nas the Don.

Asked by Wakefield if there was anything else he wanted to discuss, Mr. Moghadam again volunteered:

Alright so I told you the New York Times is Carlos Slim’s ho, I told you Zuck can suck my dick, what else is there?

When Betabeat asked Mr. Moghadam about the tenor of those comments on gChat, he said, “i am so sorry, i love zuck, i think he should've made the photo w nas his fb profile pic. I talked to nas, nas loved him and loved the photo.” It was all “tongue in cheek,” he added, “but obvi this offends mark, he got me my last girlfriend, i feel terrible!”

Later, Mr. Moghadam requested that we note that he had taken a Vyvanse to prepare for a UC Berkeley Rap Genius colloquium after the Wakefield interview and was therefore “being negative on the come up." He also noted that he was “not surprised that the ‘guy’ (pun intended) who runs [Wakefield] went to harvard since havartis (as i call them) are little bitches. Also ‘harvard = illuminati, yale = KILLuminati (princeton = chilluminati).’”

Wonder what he calls Andreessen Horowitz?

Bloglords Never Worry In Emily Nussbaum's review of "Girls" for the New Yorker this week, she defined "concern trolling," as "the Internet term for one who ices her sneer with dignified worry." Valley regulars don't seem too familiar with the term. So for a fine example, let us direct you to Sarah Lacy's comments about her former coworker Alexia Tsotsis on Jason Calacanis' This Week In Tech. Whatever happened to putting the blog first?

The Bachelor: Silicon Valley Congratulations to investor Peter Thiel, who made Out magazine's third annual list of "Most Eligible Bachelors." Local suitors, please let us know if you get an invite to his raging Upper East Side dinner parties.

Nap Time Bre Pettis is a busy guy. Between running MakerBot Industries and traveling around for meetings and conferences, he has to get his zzz's in where he can. "Parking lot nap," he wrote alongside an Instagram of his car with a bridge in the background. Perhaps MakerBot should invest in some sweet nap pods a la Google.

(Photo: Instagram)

Be Mine If you didn't get enough fill of Valentine's Day yesterday, perhaps this tool for determining your Twitter crush will come in handy. Twitamore analyzes who you follow, @-reply and favorite to figure out who your Twitter Valentine is. Our favorites? The ones who love themselves.

Belly up the bar Wired editor Ryan Tate has a bone to pick with the makers of the bourbon Maker’s Mark, who recently announced they’d be adding just a little more water to their product. Quartz took questions for the company’s COO via Twitter, and here’s what Mr. Tate demanded to know: “What will you do for a living after burning the American bourbon industry’s reputation to the ground and destroying your company?” Two words, Mr. Tate: Woodford Reserve.

Attention, please Consider this a cri de coeur from your friendly neighborhood scolds: Please, please, please stop making these Harlem Shake videos. Rumor has it that even Sheryl Sandberg is somewhere in this Facebook video. It’s nice to break up the workday with a little caper, but unfortunately, tech companies seem to have trouble rounding up employees with rhythm.

There’s only one exception to this blanket condemnation, and that’s the dude who appears front and center in Google’s version, thrashing about in what appear to be lederhosen. He looks like he’s on serious party drugs, and he is mesmerizing, and he is now a GIF:

For those who read and run? When Atlantic Media launched Quartz, it positioned the digital only business publication as the news source for the new global elite: the type of jet-setting professionals more likely to read a news story from a tablet while sipping complementary champagne at 30,000 feet than to hunker over a desktop PC. It stood to reason then that Quartz would be an early adopter of the smart-watch Pebble.

Quartz reporter Christopher Mims also brushed off concerns that nerdlinger arm candy might look pretty goofy once it actually hit the market.

Rappers will gold-plate their iWatches and Google Glasses, and some guy will wear a phablet on a chain around his neck. You'll see.

— Christopher Mims (@mims) February 14, 2013

We think we know just the fella.

Ms. Hesser and Ms. Stubbs

Former New York Times food editor Amanda Hesser made a media splash a few years ago with the launch of a crowdsourced home-cooking site called Food52. Started with Merrill Stubs, who co-authored The Essential New York Times Cookbook with Ms. Hesser, Food52 has become a household name for certain Internet-savvy foodies. The site features recipes, a hotline for asking and answering food questions, as well as plenty of recipe contests. Now, Food52 has raised $2 million, according to a Form D filed with the SEC and published on FormDs.com.

A source within the company confirmed to Betabeat that it has closed the $2 million round. The form indicates that 13 investors participated in the round, but does not state which firms that includes. However, Lerer Ventures' Ken Lerer is listed on the form, and our Food52 source confirmed that his firm is an investor. Lerer Ventures also participated in Food52's seed round when it raised $750,000, and Mr. Lerer currently sits on the company's board.

The fresh infusion of capital will most likely go towards expanding popular features on the Food52 website, as well as possibly launching some new products, though the source declined to elaborate just what those might be.

The Food52 site currently features a shop that collaborates with "high-quality producers, shops and artisans to bring you the greatest in food and drink, kitchen and tabletop items, books and gastro-fabulous experiences." Ms. Hesser and Ms. Stubbs also published a well-received crowdsourced cookbook called The Food52 Cookbook: 140 Winning Recipes from Exceptional Home Cooks back in October 2011.

The NowThis site (formerly called Planet Daily) currently pulls in newsy video clips from sites like Twitter, Facebook and--most typically--Buzzfeed, another Lerer Ventures portfolio company. The company's Twitter handle, @NowThisNews, is run by its social editor, Drake Martinet, who's also an adjunct professor at Stanford. Mr. Martinet said that 90 percent of the video content on the site is produced by the NowThis team.

"We're building a video news company, and today that means being native to the social web," Mr. Martinet told Betabeat by email. "We think of Twitter, Facebook and other social sites as our front page... thats where we want users to find and share our videos."

Last night, each time a state was called by one of the major news networks, NowThis tweeted a piece of ASCII art relating to that state. Seeing the graphics pop up on our Twitter feed every so often was a welcome break from typical political tweets--though not everyone enjoyed the flashback.

NowThis said it worked with noted Twitter ASCII artist Matthew Haggett, known on Twitter as "tw1tt3rart," to come up with the illustrations. "We wanted to try something ambitious and a little bit fun," they tweeted.

Check out some of our fav tweets in the slideshow.

Mr. Hippeau (Photo: Twitter)

Earlier today, Lerer Ventures revealed that the early stage investment firm--a powerful, active force in growing New York's startup ecosystem--has raised its biggest fund yet. While raw SEC filings first indicated that Lerer Ventures was raising $30 million, the deal closed at $36 million. That's more than $64 million combined in less than two years.

Partners Ken Lerer, Ben Lerer, Eric Hippeau, and Jordan Cooper have backed some of the most high-profile companies from New York's new class of tech startups, like Warby Parker, MakerBot, OnSwipe, and Birchbox. Lerer Ventures has also had a number of notable exits, like GroupMe (acquired by Skype), Mr. Cooper's startup HyperPublic (acquired by Groupon), and Venmo (acquired by Braintree). In fact, the Huffington Post mafiosos--Ken Lerer and Mr. Hippeau are both veterans--have been so busy building "the largest infrastructure in New York for entrepreneurs" that they apparently haven't had time to move Venmo into the "Exits" list on the firm's website.

Betabeat spoke to Mr. Hippeau this afternoon after his firm's new fund and why we're in "the golden age for entrepreneurs in New York."

About a year ago, when I spoke to Ben Lerer, he attributed LV’s success partly to being at the right place at the right time. How much do you think that has been a factor in your growth and your place in the ecosystem?
Our growth is a reflection of the growth of entrepreneurship and startups in New York. So in that sense, we are definitely at the right time because this is the golden age for entrepreneurs in New York. There’s a whole infrastructure to support entrepreneurs. We’re a big part of it, but by no means the only part of it.

We also have four partners who, combined, have a lot of experience on the operations side--operating media, tech, and communications companies--as well as a lot of experience in doing venture capital investments.

In May, 2011 when LV first announced an East Coast-West Coast partnership to syndicate deals with Ron Conway’s SV Angel Partners, it was a big sign of support for your firm. Now, you’re much more entrenched in the startup scene. Would the partnership be as vital to your success if it happened now?
I have personally known Ron for about 20 years. He’s a good friend of mine as well as someone with whom I’ve co-invested over the years. We’re based in New York. He and his fund are based in San Francisco, so we’re very complementary to each other. And when we make a co-investment in a company, we bring our joint network of support, so that’s very meaningful for the companies.

Now, we actually co-invest with pretty much everybody in the marketplace. We are very collaborative and an investment is always a syndicate of people who come together to help a company.

Which other New York firms are in your syndicate?
All the very active investors in New York, such as First Round, RRE, Softbank, Thrive, High Line, Betaworks--just to name a few--are all funds and people that we have repeatedly done investments with.

Recently, LV named Stephen Colvin, the former CEO of Newsweek/Daily Beast as an executive-in-residence. Between that and Ken Lerer’s NowThisNews, is this a sign of LV’s focus on content startups?
We are interested in content, but by no means do we do content mainly. When we invest in New York, we invest in sectors that New York is good at. So there’s consumer, commerce, mobile, social, ad technology, publishing technology. There’s actually a lot of B2B, software-as-a-service type businesses, marketplaces. Having Stephen join the team is more of a reflection that we want to continually add resources to support our portfolio companies.

Andreessen Horowitz, for example, says they use the old-school CAA model in terms of how they structure resource to help portfolio companies. Do you have a model for the way you try to build an infrastructure for your portfolio or do you build as the need arises?
We do have a model. Obviously we don’t have the resources that Andreessen Horowitz has. [Laughs]

Who does?!
Yeah! But we do have an extensive network of support. We have not only our own colleagues, we have a group of analysts and a principal who are helping out full-time with the companies, but we have this extended network of people who are in our ecosystem that are advisors, or people we’ve worked with in the past, or people like Stephen Colvin that we can rely on for very specific tasks. We have a very big focus on making sure that we are constantly doing things that move our companies forward.

Considering LV’s rise, is there any downside to having really good deal flow?
[Laughs] I guess the only downside is that it can be sometimes a little bit overwhelming, but we do have a good system in place to make sure that we identify companies that are really promising. I actually think it’s a real asset!

Have you noticed one area of weakness among New York companies or something LV’s portfolio companies need help with--monetization strategies or partnerships with larger companies?
The common denominator with New York companies is that they’re constantly looking for qualified new employees. I can’t tell you how many open jobs we have within our portfolio, but it’s definitely in the hundreds, if not thousands. So identifying and recruiting and bringing good employees, particularly on the technology side, is one of the biggest challenges. But the companies always find ways. Some of the employees that they hire don’t necesaarily have to be in New York, given that a lot of the companies tend to be virtual.

There's a perception that New York's startup scene is very open and accessible. But as things matures, the tendency is to get more stratified. How easy is it for a company to get a meeting with you?
We haven’t found any real difference in the past few years. New York tends to be very collaborative. Everybody is literally working together. Of course it’s competitive like any ecosystem, but it’s not, perhaps, as intensively competitive as it is on the West Coast. The players are well-identified. The players tend to be very constant and consistent. There’s really no other way of saying that this is as collaborative an ecosystem as you could possibly imagine.

In terms of where you’re allocating the fund, besides sectors like content or commerce, is there another factor you look for in potential investments?
Sure. We’re looking for teams that have big ideas whose time has come. The factors that matter to us are: Is it a big idea? Is the timing for this idea right? And is this the right team--are these the right people--to be doing this? Clearly the trends are mobile, social--on the B2B side, the use of consumer Internet technology for the workplace. We’re starting to see more and more marketplaces that are developing. All the things that you would expect New York to be good at because New York is the fashion, media, finance, commerce capital of the United States. So all of these industries--and plus whatever else you can imagine--are being transformed and disrupted by technology and this is where we want to be.

Can you give an example of a company that you’ve invested in that represents “a big idea whose time has come”?
I don’t think I would do it justice because we have 135 companies. So, I would rather not!

Jordan Cooper, left, and Ben Lerer (Photo: via The Pitch)

Roughly a year-and-a-half after closing its second $25 million seed stage fund, Lerer Ventures is in the processing of raising money for a third. An SEC filing, first noted by TechCrunch, says the size of the round is $30 million.

Although the Form D indicates that the early-stage venture capital firm has yet to sell, expect the round to close quickly.

Last May, it only took Lerer Ventures "a matter of weeks" to raise that $25 million from individuals and family offices. And that was before the highly-regarded New York City firm--launched by Huffington Post cofounder (and Betaworks and Buzzfeed chairman) Ken Lerer and his son Ben Lerer, cofounder of Thrillist--boasted a handful of exits. 

Indeed, Lerer Ventures, whose team also includes partners Jordan Cooper and Eric Hippeau as well as advisors Jonah Peretti and  Christopher Poole, aka Moot, has been humming along since last August when portfolio company GroupMe*, a group messaging service, was acquired by Skype for $41 million.

In February, Groupon purchased Mr. Cooper's startup Hyperpublic-- an open database of location-based info on people, places, and things--which was funded by Lerer Ventures. This March, AOL purchased the photo sharing app Hipster. In July, Airbnb acqui-hired DailyBooth, the startup that lets you share webcam photos. And last month, Venmo, the mobile payments startup, was acquired by Braintree for $26.2 million.

Thrive Capital*, helmed by Josh Kushner, also recently a new $150 million fund after a number of exits, including GroupMe.

SEC regulations prohibit discussing private placements while fundraising is still in progress, but we will update you when we know more. In the meantime, please enjoy the odd couple stylings of Mr. Lerer and Mr. Cooper, courtesy of Betabeat's 2011 web series, The Pitch.

The Pitch, Episode 1 from Spinks on Vimeo.

*Disclosure

Not the actual NowThis News headquarters, sadly. (Photo: DC Wikia

Ken Lerer's answer to the Daily Show--a video startup formerly known as Planet Daily--is stealth mode no more. Today the company announced its proper name--NowThis News--plus the identity of its executive team. The site will launch with a partnership with BuzzFeed in place, positioning the company's content to go viral like chickenpox in Mrs. Henderson's kindergarden class. The mission is about what we'd expected: to offer "video news for mobile and social news consumers." Finally, a real broadcast for those among us who turn YouTube in times of crisis!

However, as lifelong Lois Lane fans, we must register our disappointment that the site is losing its super-heroic code name. 

As previously reported, Katherine Zaleski (formerly of the Washington Post) will be charged with keeping things running smoothly as managing editor. The expanding executive team will include former ABC News Digital executive producer Ed O’Keefe, who will be editor-in-chief, and former CNN Chief News Exec Eason Jordan, who will be general manager. Other leaders hail from Vice Media, the Huffington Post, and AllThingsD.

Ken Lerer commented in a statement released today:

“We’re creating NowThis News to meet straight on the inevitable and rapid changes happening in news consumption: digital, mobile, social and video – that’s what NowThis News is about.”

Mr. Jordan, NowThis News's general manager, chimed in:

“As more and more people turn to mobile and social outlets for their news, now is the perfect time to launch a video news network built for the digital generation.”

The announcement didn't provide too many details on that BuzzFeed partnership, but apparently NowThis News will be getting a dedicated vertical within the viral content machine. According to the release, the company "will produce content that complements BuzzFeed editorial while producing its own original video news stories."

So, can we expect that November's election returns will be delivered by cute kittens?

Mr. Lerer (lererventures.com)

Planet Daily, the new video startup announced a few weeks ago by ex-HuffPo execs Ken Lerer and Eric Hippeau, has raised $5 million from undisclosed investors, according to a Form D filed today with the SEC.

Planet Daily, which will reportedly launch this summer in time for the presidential elections, is a video news startup targeted at the Jon Stewart set. The service is a joint venture with Bedrocket Media, another startup that Mr. Lerer has invested in. Planet Daily has been touted as a "CNN killer," but they should probably set their sights a little higher, because who still watches CNN anyway?

We've reached out to the team at Lerer Ventures for more information on this, but word has it that they have a CEO summit today, so we haven't heard back yet. We'll update as soon as we know more.