By Nitasha Tiku 9/12/12 9:30am

RAAAAAAAANDI!

profile 3 green screen

Surprise! The Gymnastic Star of Randi Zuckerberg’s Bravo Show Is a Legitimate Entrepreneur

It’s hard to come out the other end of Bravo’s Real-i-Tron with anything in the way of dignity. Just ask these gilded lilies. Something about the cocktail of ambition, insecurity, and actual cocktails tends to make one’s better judgment obsolete.

Thus, we can’t vouch for how the world will perceive stealth startup founder and Ampush Media alum Kim Taylor when Randi Zuckerberg’s creation (working title: “Silicon Valley”) debuts this fall. But over coffee in Midtown last month, Ms. Taylor came across as disarmingly articulate, well-versed in the chutes and ladders of Startupland, and, dare we say, sensible.

Blame her Midwestern roots, or the trial-by-fire of helping to grow a bootstrapped company to revenue in the high eight figures in its first two years. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 8/24/12 12:40pm

Movers and Shakers

Ms. Swisher (Photo: Google+)

Kara Swisher Gets Glossy: Graydon Snags Scooptress for Vanity Fair

If tapping Annie Leibovitz to shoot David Karp and his sidecar wasn’t enough to convince you that Vanity Fair is serious about covering the tech sector as part of the power elite, how about this coup from the top of the masthead? Wired‘s Ryan Tate broke the news that Kara Swisher has pried herself out of Marissa Mayer’s air vent to contribute part-time to the Conde Nast title, with some convincing from Graydon Carter, of course.

Mr. Tate reports that the tenacious AllThingsD cofounder agreed to “write profiles and other technology-related features,” for Vanity Fair only after “overtures” from Mr. Carter.  Read More

By Jessica Roy 7/10/12 8:21am

RAAAAAAAANDI!

(Photo: Tumblr)

Bravo’s Silicon Valley Looks Like a Wildly Entertaining Trainwreck

Much ado has been made about Randi Zuckerberg’s foray into reality television with Bravo’s new series Silicon Valley. The show will follow the lives of a handful of fresh-faced founders as they struggle to get their budding startups off the ground from an outrageously gorgeous “villa” nestled in the San Francisco hills.

Today, The New York Times ran a new piece about the show, chronicling the self-righteous reactions Valley types have when Hollywood cameras burst onto their hallowed ground. There’s nothing new about this tsk-tsking: Area bloggers have long since clutched their pearls and baby-faced tech wunderkinds have already tweeted their disgust (“Yuck, please stay in LA”). But the piece does boast some juicy quotes that have us thinking Silicon Valley will be all that we’ve eagerly anticipated and much, much more. Read More

By Steve Huff 4/07/12 7:38am

The Real Housewives of Facebook

Randi Zuckerberg - Director of Marketing

Randi Zuckerberg: Preemptive Haters of ‘Silicon Valley’ Should Chill

The joyful news that Bravo, that Octomom of reality TV-producing basic cable, will pop out another manufactured drama-filled baby in the form of a new show about Silicon Valley has become  kind of a pain for producer Randi Zuckerberg. Enough of a pain that Ms. Zuckerberg took to Facebook  Friday night to imply that her critics need to calm down. As noted by TechCrunch, Ms. Zuckerberg defended her foray into reality television at length, comparing it to a situation her audience is likely to recognize: Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 4/05/12 10:45am

RAAAAAAAANDI!

6 Photos

Kim Taylor, Digital Director Ampush Media

Meet the (Tentative) Cast of Randi Zuckerberg’s New Bravo Reality Show Silicon Valley!

Bravo is no slouch in the whetting one’s appetite department. Along with the news yesterday that Randi “Sister of Mark, Singer of Songs” Zuckerberg would be the executive producer of a new reality show, the House That Andy Cohen Built also released a short, but tantalizing preview wherein geeks were likened to rock stars and Silicon Valley to high school, “but it’s only the smart kids and everyone has a lot of money.” Sold! Sign us up for the schadenfreude when reality TV’s potent cocktail of ambition, desperation, and actual cocktails collides.

Thankfully, Drew Olanoff at The Next Web was kind enough to single out some of the potential players so we can start doing our due diligence. According to Mr. Olanoff the show will “star” The Next Web’s Silicon Valley video director Hermione Way. Her brother Ben Way, founder of The Rainmakers, Kim Taylor, digital director at Ampush Media, and Dwight Crow, founder of Carsabi.com also all appear in the preview. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 3/23/12 9:50am

Fan Spam

rtozmedianews.org

Is Everyone as Confused as We Are By This Spammy Randi Zuckerberg Fan Site?

Welcome to the latest bottom-feeder in the Zuckerberg economy! Randi Zuckerberg, you-kn0w-who’s sister who quit Facebook last year to start her own PR firm, has a fan. This morning we stumbled across a bizarre website that seems dedicated to cracking the top ten Google results for “Randi Zuckerberg.” At first, we thought it was the official site of Ms. Zuckerberg’s agency, R to Z Media. But the real site has a slick single landing page with just an email address. Of course: Randi doesn’t need to advertise.

But it might be in Zuck the Elder’s interest to add a few pages, lest her spammers upset her in search rankings. The imitator, R to Z Media News, is packed with keywords and features a purported copy of Ms. Zuckerberg’s resignation letter as well as a YouTube video entitled, “Randi Zuckerberg On Republicans.” It’s riddled with ads, random capitalization and spelling errors. “Randi Zuckerberg is the Sister of Facebook Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg .She was born on February 28, 1982. Randi is a graduate of Harvard University and has a passion for Italian opera and Broadway showtunes.” Read More