The redesigned Nestio iPhone app.

Hunting season Nestio has redesigned its iPhone app, designed to help apartment hunters stay organized and share information with friends. In addition to improved camera functionality, the 2.0 version has some new features, including an activity screen to help users see what progress their roommates have made in the search, as well as a checklist to help potential renters and buyers remember what features to look for when they’re viewing an apartment.

Guilty convenience Gilt Group just announced that they have (finally) added search capabilities to the site. Members can now search each Gilt store by category, brand and price—just like almost every other website that exists.

1000+ Zinio—which produces interactive versions of existing magazines, providing a reading platform which enables readers to easily navigate text, interactive graphics, animated illustrations, and videos—just announced the production of its 1000th interactive magazine.

Learn python Codeacademy, an interactive, user-generated platform for users to learn programming, now offers users the ability to learn python, in addition to front-end technologies like JavaScript, HTML, CSS and jQuery.

Female report American Express has released more results from its second annual State of Women-Owned Businesses report. Though the numbers report growth of women-owned businesses in 2012, AmEx concedes, predictably, that things could be better. If you don’t feel like reading the whole report, they’ve made some helpful infographics to get people talking.

Manhattan Transfers The predictive game studio PrePlay—which creates mobile and tablet games designed to enhance the experience of watching sports, reality, and other “awkward” television shows—is expanding its Manhattan operations and moving into a new Midtown headquarters at West 38th Street, following its $3.1 million series A funding.

Virtual college Yale has partnered with YouVisit to enhance virtual tour features available to prospective students on their website. Now, high schoolers, pre-frosh and curious parties all over the world can take “realistic and engaging” virtual walking tours of the campus and enjoy full-screen 360 panoramas of various Yale landmarks, which are also available for a bunch of other less prestigious institutions.

Changeup The interactive video startup Qwiki just announced that they’ve hired Sonya Penn, formerly Time.com’s Director of Business Development, as VP of Business Development.

Next big thing The Paley Center for Media is partnering with the New York Comedy Festival to put together a special “comedy-themed” edition of Next Best Thing, the Paley Center’s quarterly showcase for digital media startups, and they’re currently accepting submissions from startups to present at the November 7 event. Interested parties should send a description of their company, presenter bio, and presentation draft to paleymediacouncil(at)gmail.com; submissions are due September 14.

But back in the day, those first 23 companies were all the rage. Like shiny new toys, they were exciting and fascinating. There was even a reality television show about them. So even though their three-month, highly-competitive startup accelerator program has ended, these companies are still around. They didn’t just vanish into thin air. (Well, some of them did).

But all of this begs the question, where are these companies now? How have they fared in the big, bad world? Did they flop? Or surpass expectations?

We didn’t know, so we decided to find out. And it turns out that we weren’t the only ones who were curious about what these companies have been up to.

“When we launched, everything was a concern,” managing director David Tisch told Betabeat in an email. “We were new, a startup.” New York City, he said, brought a unique set of challenges and advantages to these first two classes, but you never how things might turn out. So, Mr. Tisch, what’s the verdict? Have the first 23 New York City companies done TechStars proud?

“The progress shown so far is very promising,” Mr. Tisch said, “and I expect a few very big companies to emerge. There are some early standouts who have shown progress on the product side, revenue side, and team side.”

In the last year, about half of the companies raised over a million dollars in funding from investors (in addition to TechStars's initial $18,000 in each company) and only two companies failed. A third company, FriendsList, also failed, but its two cofounders shifted gears and transformed into another company, Timehop, a popular app that has since raised $1.1 million.

“I think the quality of the people we funded stands out to me,” Mr. Tisch added. “[And] as I look back at the companies from our first two classes at TechStars NYC, I am confident we have funded some amazing teams who are building big businesses.” -Jess Schiewe

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."

Mr. Suster, left, and Mr. Feld

Entrepreneur-turned-investor Mark Suster has already dispensed email advice for "us sarcastic bastards who have slitting tongues,” but on this week's episode of TechStars he gives David Tisch a run for his money on the real talk/insult-o-meter, to some amusing ends. (Check out our top five list after the end.)

In Episode Four, Mr. Tisch is trying to prepare the teams for Demo Day and "access to a room full of money," in some cases by throwing ping pong balls or fake cash to see if he can distract them. He also encourages them to "try your best to get a third of what you're looking for soft circled," so they can present with some momentum. The VC weather report might be frothy, but not all the teams are finding it easy.

OnSwipe, Meet Humility

If you've ever watched an episode of "America's Next Top Model," you know how much Tyra appreciates it when a bratty girl finally breaks down in tears in front of the judging panel. OnSwipe's Jason Baptiste doesn't go that far, of course. But he does ask for help with hiring and is SPOILER ALERT!!! awarded with a meeting with AOL's Tim Armstrong. OnSwipe found a great potential team member, but they're worried that startup hours will scare off the family man. Mr. Tisch advises them to be clear about expectations, but frame it as hard work breeding success, "Don't phrase it like, 'Hey dude, how often do you have to see your fucking kid?'" After Mr. Baptiste asks AOL whether OnSwipe can launch on one of their properties, Mr. Armstrong says he'll consider it, as long as they stay awake, "Sleep is bad, you can sleep in a couple years, you gotta go after this market now."

Family Affair

Family ish is something of a theme this episode. Immersive, the Minority Report-esque video advertising startup, almost falls apart when CEO Jason Sosa admits in front of his co-founders and the Davids that he took $2,000 out of company funds for his wife and kids because the financial burden of two foreclosures left them without gas or groceries. It's a heart-wrenching moment for all parties involved as David Cohen warns him about embezzlement and his co-founders wonder if they can trust Mr. Sosa again, but the frank discussion seems to have cleared the air.

The 11th Hour

We learn that Veri, who thankfully ditched the name SocratED so Betabeat can stop tripping over the caps lock, almost didn't get in to TechStars, but got picked at number 11 thanks to an un-ignorable 30 recommendations. There's some nice symmetry when Tisch reveals that users are spending 30 minutes per visit on the site. Oh yeah, did we mention they picked up $100k?

Who Needs a Business Plan Anyways?

Hurricane Melanie may have significant funds soft-circled, but that was for ToVieFor. Now that she's pivoted into a LinkedIn for fashion, investors like Golden Seed have given her the dreaded, uh, let's hold off until there's more traction shpeal. "Traction is a universal 'We don't want to do it' answer," notes Mr. Cohen. Ms. Moore seems incredulous that her investors would hold her back, telling the camera, "My investors won't let me do it because they haven't seen  business plan? It's so fucking stupid, like building a luxury retail company is hard." Luckily, Mr. Suster likes her practice demo, well except for the "Music drama cliche" at the top where she pulls out the old standby: quoting the size of the overall market. For an update on how this plays out, check out: Before ToVieFor’s Corpse Is Cold, TechStars Alum Melanie Moore Launches New Fashion Startup.

Our Top Five Mark Suster Insults

And without further ado, here's what you came for. Unfortunately there was no way to write out the part where Mr. Suster schooled Nestio on their voice immodulation disorder, but you can watch that for yourselves:

1. "He was being kind saying it was good, it's not."

2. "It's a 1 out of 10, it really is."

3. "You tell a mild confusing story."

4. "You've been working in video for how long? [Over three years] Then fucking say it!"

5. "What I think they've done is take group think, which is I've gotta do a platform, it's gotta be social, it's gotta be curated, it's gotta be the good stuff rising to the top. I suspect investors will generally speaking like this and that's a problem. It may get funded, because there's a lot of dumb money. It's not for me. I'll tell you why, I live in LA, I see these every fucking month." Mr. Suster, was discussing Homefield's pivot to Shelby.tv, but he did have some words of encouragement, "I loved their first business."

Vinny Vacanti's in all his televised splendor.

New York's tech set has finally hit the big time, you guys! At 9 p.m. EST tonight, TechStars new reality show premieres on Bloomberg TV. And the vaunted ranks of IRL housewives, spray tan-happy Italian-Americans, and people with something to lose have nothing on the drama of trying to fund, launch, scale, keep afloat--and especially name--your startup.

In fact, by our count, since January, the TechStars New York inaugural class has already had four name changes, one big win, one pivot, one abandoned idea, and one fail.

If you think about it, the reality show format is a natural fit for a seed stage accelerator like TechStars. Like America's Next Top Model and American Idol, you have the desperate audition to actually make it on the cast, only with PowerPoint decks instead of strutting and singing. Then once you're in, your work is constantly being scrutinized by a panel of experts, which makes David Tisch the Heidi Klum (albeit with a filthier mouth) to Roger Ehrenberg's Nina Garcia. But as every reality show "winner" can tell you, getting anointed by the powers that be doesn't necessarily guarantee success in the real world.

But you didn't think Betabeat would let you wade into the expletive-laced, frothy territory on your own, did you? Here's what you need to know before the premiere.

It's easy to tell what Bloomberg is going to play up from the way they cut the trailer. From the looks of it, that means Mr. Tisch is going to be the show's resident soundbite generator. In less than two minutes, he gets bleeped twice, tries his hand at amateur rapping, offers to show the finalists the door, and volunteers some real talk: "Okay you raised your money, stop being douchebags," which Betabeat may have to make a new tag.

Fred Wilson with HomeField, which birthed ShelbyTV.

Also baked into the trailer is a scene of ToVieFor's Melanie Moore giddily receiving the news that her startup, which started winding down two months after Demo Day, got accepted into TechStars. The clip also hints at the promise of a $5 million check, which went to SPOILER ALERT!!! the colorful Jason Baptiste and his startup OnSwipe, the mystery company identified back in January only as a “Platform for Tablet Publishing and Advertising.”

SocratED, which became Veri, with Twitter's Dick Costolo.

Other narrative arcs are likely to include startups that pivoted, such as HomeField, the online video analytics platform, which became ShelbyTV, a site that helps you find out which videos your friends are sharing. There's also FriendsList, the startup that wanted to make classifieds social, which graduated from TechStars but never raised money and isn't pursuing the venture. In case you're keeping track at home, here are all the name changes (NB: this can double as a drinking game): UrbanApt became Nestio, SocratED became Veri, Wiji became Immersive, and Relusions became ThinkNear.

Which entrepreneur or investor will end up this season's breakout star (i.e. the tech world's answer to Snooki) remains to be seen. But our money's on the exuberant Mr. Baptiste. Series Awesome!

Here's an exclusive clip of Urban Apartment (née Nestio) getting the good news:

To the rescue comes Nestio, the very first start-up to present at TechStars' Demo Day in April. The NYC real estate bookmarking site just secured itself the entire $750,000 it was aiming for, besting the $100,000 it had "soft-circled." Angel investors for the seed funding round, led by NY-based Quotidian Ventures, include Gotham Gal Joanne Wilson, Barbarian Group's Rick Webb, Betaworks' Josh Auerbach, and TechStars New York's David Tisch. The start-up aims to make it "easier to find a place to live” by organizing apartment listings so you can compare price/bedroom/location side-by-side either online or via its streamlined apps.

Although AG Beat reports that the company can input listings from both Craigslist and Streeteasy, Betabeat got a notification saying "Oh sorry, right now we're only parsing listings from NYC Craigslist. Adding support for more sites soon!" when we tried to add a Streeteasy link. In any case, users can copy and paste a URL or add a bookmarklet to populate their list (and let friends view potential new homes via Facebook Connect.) Nestio also allows users, like say potential roommates, to edit listings, add comments, and collaborate in realtime. TechCrunch reports that Nestio will be using the funding to build out its development team and add features "that will provide deeper context and transparency to apartment listings," along with expanding to other cities.

With competitors like Apartments.com, Padmapper.com, and unfortunately-named (sorry, guys!) Hotpads.com, already in the same market, the best thing Nestio has going for it are mobile functionality--a huge plus when you're shlepping from apartment to apartment--as well as the ability to supplement listings services like Zillow and Trulia rather than attempting to compete with their extensive, established inventories.

Considering the rate at which a good Craiglist find goes off the market, what we'd really love to see is realtime deletion of apartments that can no longer be had, perhaps with a sadface emoticon to show you care?