By Nitasha Tiku 6/21/12 2:29pm

This Happened

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Silicon Alley VC Is No Lion King: ‘You Could Have All This,’ Points to Xbox

Okay, we knew tech recruiting in New York City was bad, but we didn’t realize it had gotten embarrassing. Earlier today, “hybrid designer and technologist” Mike Bodge offered up a first-hand account of the wooing techniques of Silicon Alley venture capitalists on his tumblr.

Be warned, it involves a Segway, and what might soon become a catchphrase worthy of its own meme. In fact, it’s so deliciously sad, we wonder if we’re being punked. Let’s consider the evidence, shall we? Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 1/12/12 1:32pm

Pretty Pictures

infograph

Infographic Covering the Last Five Years of Silicon Alley vs. Silicon Valley

As North Carolina tries to foster its own budding startup scene (something a little more modern than Research Triangle Park, perhaps?) the folks MBA@UNC, UNC’s online MBA program, created an inspirational infographic of sorts. To that end, they’ve mapped out the last five years of growth in tech/social media space, comparing us to the Valley.

“Although cities like Chicago, Austin, and even our own Research Triangle have produced a number of web-based businesses in recent years, New York’s startup scene is growing exponentially,” the MBA@UNC staff writes. Read More

By Ben Popper 10/12/11 11:09am

P.C. - U

Cocktails on the deck at Digital Wesleyan

How Wesleyan’s Counter Culture Came To Rule New York’s Tech Scene

The offices of Zelnick Media were packed on a recent evening for #DigitalWes, an alumni gathering for the graduates of Wesleyan University who had made their way from jam bands and cultural theory to the warp-speed world of Silicon Alley. Guests nibbled shrimp and steak skewers while taking in a sumptuous view of midtown Manhattan from the roof deck. The hosts were Strauss Zelnick and his partner, Jim Friedlich, both class of ’79, whose Take Two Interactive has produced some of the best-selling and most controversial video games of the past decade.

“It’s the kind of school, if you told people you wanted to end up at Goldman Sachs, they would probably chase you out of the dorm,” said John Borthwick, class of ’87, a double major in developmental economics and art history and co-founder of the Chelsea-based betaworks. “Radical transparency, open access to information, disrupting traditional media, these were the secret handshakes at Wesleyan.” Read More

By Ben Popper 8/25/11 11:56am

Lulz

It's like Groundhog Day round here

Wall Street Journal Discovers ‘New’ Tech Scene in ‘Silicon Square’

You got to hand it to these real estate reporters. For the last two decades they’ve been discovering a budding tech scene in the real estate around Union Square. Call it Silicon Alley if you like, but this start-up hamlet never seems to get old.

“The emergence of Union Square as a destination for technology firms got its start several years ago. But the neighborhood’s tech community received a boost this year with the arrival of household names such as computer giant Apple Inc. and the impending arrival of user-review site Yelp,” reports the Wall Street Journal.

Are you kidding me? Apple and Yelp are about the least important pieces of the tech scene around Union Square that you could think of, despite being national names. Hysterically, the map of the tech scene which accompanies the story, entitled “Silicon Square,” can’t seem to find a single tech spaces integral to the area, like Dogpatch, Pivotal or General Assembly. Read More

By Adrianne Jeffries 8/01/11 7:00am

On The Calendar

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Goooood Morning, Silicon Alley! Gary Sharma’s Picks for the Week of August 1: Gary’s Birthday Edition

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (a.k.a. “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder of GarysGuide and mentor at ER Accelerator.

So it’s my birthday this Friday, August 5, and rumor has it that there may or may not be a wild party at a top secret undisclosed location somewhere around town! But onto this week’s entertainment… Read More