I was in the showroom Sunday and you helped me pick out some spectacular frames. Just wanted to say thanks for the confidence boost. As I was leaving I told you that your own glasses are amazing. I should've mentioned your brilliant smile, too. Still thinking of it. :)

Here's to hoping this girl isn't creeped out by Internet strangers.

Peas in a pod Start-Ups: Silicon Valley star and "lifecaster" Sarah Austin snapped this pic of her and a friend hanging out with everyone's favorite early-aughts celebrity, Paris Hilton. The trio were partying at Sundance in Park City, Utah. Don't they look like a match made in heaven?

(Photo: Facebook)

Fight fight fight Sounds like GroupMe cofounder Steve Martocci recently tangled with that most reviled of New York institutions: Time Warner Cable. Seems a phone call to customer service got a tad heated. “‘If we had choice in NY we would NOT CHOOSE YOU...I urge the city of New York to change laws & eliminate your broken system’ -@smart to @TWC” tweeted Poptip founder Kelsey Falter.

Could this be another sign of techies ready to flex newfound political muscle? It seems not quite. In the @replies, Mr. Martocci admitted that he was “so so mad, figured there was some law holding back choice, either way, this just fucking sucks.” It's true that cable providers are probably the leading cause of inchoate rage in the five boroughs. And sadly, the traditional recourse seems to be out of Mr. Martocci’s reach: “my building was built in 1897, never getting fios.” Damn those historic homes!

Moving day Midtown no more: We hear that the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator has picked up stakes, relocating from the Times Square area to the far hipper environs of the Flatiron district. The current class of 10 companies (plus several alums) is now ensconced in a spacious 10,000 feet in Chelsea, with FIT as a neighbor. It comes complete with ping-pong table, kegerator-equipped kitchen, and a “videogame cave.” Party at ERA’s house?

Cozy!

Inquiring minds want to know If there’s one thing that unites denizens of both the Alley and the Valley, it’s frustration at the extent to which the rent is too damn high. But relief may very well be on the way! “Is it rude to ask if/when the Series A bottleneck/whatnot will produce cheaper rents in SF?” asks Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera. Hope springs eternal, we suppose.

Hey ladies Are you a hacker? Are you a lady? Have we got a Technologist thinker Gabriella Coleman tweets, “Lady hackers, especially with a political bent, Cosmo is wanting to write a story on hacker/hactivistas, Interested?” Boy oh boy, the Hacker News thread about this is going to be one for the ages.

Annals of awkward What's more "insufferable and obnoxious and annoying" than a venture firm producing a glossy music video mash-up of "Call Me Maybe" and "Gangnam Style"? For one thing, said venture firm producing a "making of" video about the mash-up, and embedding it in their annual report. So tell us, Josh Kopelman, about doing your own stunts—did your tush get toasted when the fireworks went off? "I couldn't feel anything," the First Round Capital partner said. "I just felt humiliated."

You and us both.

(Photo: MTV)

If the sunny, overblown drama of Bravo's Start-Ups: Silicon Valley has left you aching for a bleaker take on Valley culture, then we have some wonderful news for you. Deadline reports that HBO has just greenlit a new pilot called Silicon Valley, produced by cult comedy icon Mike Judge.

The show will be a single-camera affair, offering a dark take on the "high tech gold rush of modern Silicon Valley, where the people most qualified to succeed are the least capable of handling success." You know what that means: hoodies!

Mr. Judge has been responsible for such iconic works as Office Space, Idiocracy and--of course--Beavis and Butt-head, so we're confident that he'll be able to supply the Valley with the healthy dose of comedic cynicism it so desperately needs. He'll be directing the project, which is slated to begin filming in the spring. King of the Hill producers John Altschuler and Dave Krinsky are also on board.

But what of the Valley's pristine reputation? Will it be sullied by HBO? Area bloggers who clutched their pearls over Start-Ups believe that because Silicon Valley is labeled as fiction up front, it can't do "actual harm." With Mr. Judge’s take, at least we won’t have to worry our pretty little heads over how to separate fact from fiction.

The scene. (Photo by Michael Gold, via Instagram)

When we arrived at the Dream Hotel on 55th, there was already a substantial crowd of would-be attendees worrying that the one-hour open bar at #techdrinkup's holiday party would end before we made it upstairs. Ahead of us, two young men were debating the relative merits of Sean Parker in the wake of Airtime's abysmal numbers: "I'm a fan," said Mr. Parker's defender. "Everyone has success and failing."

What no one mentioned within our earshot: Gotham Casting would be in the house, looking for personalities to feature in a possible New York spinoff of Start-ups: Silicon Valley, Bravo's oft-maligned, Randi Zuckerberg-produced reality show. According to a recent casting call getting passed around Silicon Alley, they're looking for locals "who have a full time career and a full time lifestyle!" In a reminder email, #techdrinkup organizer Michael Gold billed the event as "not the night for name tags and demos," but rather "the night for schmoozing, boozing and good music."

When the elevator finally whisked us upstairs, the doors opened onto a scene that looked like, well, the set for a Bravo reality show. Tank-top-wearing waitresses slung drinks before a backlit bar; enormous picture windows looked downtown toward the bright lights of Times Square. As we surveyed the crowd, David Bowie's "Fame" begin to blare over the loudspeaker. Seriously.

Amid the crush we spotted events maestro Gary Sharma, and we met several of the ladies of Appular, including Haley Hammerling and Michelle Lauren Addo, who pointed out the man of the hour: casting director Justin Ruse. 

"We're finding some really great personalities in Silicon Alley," he said. Mr. Ruse has worked on projects like Top Chef, but he's a relative newbie to the New York tech scene. "It's almost like an underground world." (Vogue spreads notwithstanding, we suppose.) Then he turned the tables, asking a few probing questions about where we might find potential fameballers. Don't worry, we didn't name names--but you know who you are.

We were a bit surprised at Mr. Ruse's distinct lack of a swarm, but it seemed he was operating a bit under the radar. Upon meeting someone new, he simply said, "I'm in television," without waving an "Audition For Me" sign.

On the other hand, no one was nakedly angling for a spot either. One man frowned and said asked whether we thought auditioning might be worthwhile. Only NeNe Leakes knows for sure, and she’s too busy posing in piles of diamonds to say.

One contender emerged, in the form of a visibly tipsy woman who shrieked as she greeted Mr. Ruse. After identifying herself as a digital marketer, she complimented this reporter’s skirt and, seeing us give it a downward tug, reached over and tugged it back up. She then attempted to pull it all the way up to our waist, giggling wildly at her own antics.

Half attempting to stop the onslaught, half genuinely curious, we asked this character whether she wanted to go on the show. In response, she flung her head back and forth in an emphatic no.

We thinks the imbiber doth protest too much.

Bravolebrity. (screencap)

Do you like Start-ups: Silicon Valley, but think it could use just a bit more jiggle? Do you enjoy mocking cast member and "lifecaster" Sarah Austin for her admittedly ill-advised shenanigans? Boy, have we got the single-serve site for you.

Devan Koshal, the founder of a payments startup called Swipe, has created Fuck Yeah Sarah Austin. It's nothing but a single GIF of Ms. Austin shimmying into what appear to be skinny jeans. At the bottom is a note which we take to be a disclaimer of sorts: "You guys were thinking it, I just built it."

He followed up the site's creation with the oh-so-droll tweet:

Might add fuckyeahsarahaustin.com to angel list and see what goes down.

— Devan Koshal (@devankoshal) November 27, 2012

You do that, Mr. Koshal. You do that.

Season 1 . . . Episode 2 . . . no end in sight . . . I’m not sure how much more I can take.

Now that the dust has settled from the PR, subsequent Valley backlash, promos, more backlash, and last week’s premiere, we actually get to see what we have here with Bravo’s "Start-Ups: Silicon Valley." Basically, it's formulaic reality show.

The genre's hooks and tricks are well established, they just happen to be filmed in Silicon Valley with cast members that are, well, made for TV. I think for many here, there was still some hope that the show would offer a national audience an insider's look into the motion and the madness in which the Valley operates. Not so much.

Back in 2001, there was a great startup documentary called "Startup.com." It would have been such a worthwhile endeavor if the producers aspired to create something like that. Instead we’re left with what venture capitalist Ron Palmeri of MkII Ventures calls, “The Housewives of Silicon Valley.”

However, I will say these characters are kind of lovable. (Emphasis on “kind of.”) I even tried to make fun of Sarah Austin on Twitter, but I don’t think she got the joke:

@spencerchen @p_kassie hahahaha no she's the one who meets me in the morning and brings hot coffee lol#siliconvalley

— Sarah Austin (@sarahaustin) November 13, 2012

(Noteworthy here is that whatever was written about the Valley’s disdain towards the cast members was misguided. It’s the idea of a startup reality show that Valley folks disliked, not the people involved.)

Anyways, enough about what could have been and more about that Sony Vaio.

Recap: Ben Way and Hermione Way return to The Villa dejected after being turned down by VC Dave McClure. They start screaming. Um, okay. Kim Taylor is pissing and moaning about work because she’s been there for two years and the cofounder is thinking about bringing in someone more senior to handle sales. This is her first startup job after being a NBA cheerleader, so you know, why wouldn’t she be considered for the Chief Revenue Officer role? Sarah is talking about “Lifecasting” again. I don’t even… oh hey, pool party! David Murray made an “Oedipus” reference to siblings Ben and Hermione during the pool party. Awk!

Friends of the cast finally get some airtime here. I guess all that hard work lingering around the cast members finally paid off! Sarah hosts some VC pitch event. She’s wearing a cute, burgundy dress . . . her tan looks awesome? Totes. Hermione vists Sarah at the Four Seasons to extend an olive branch in the shape of a homemade tiara. Sarah dismisses the hope that she and Hermione will be friends anytime soon. Whatevs. David and new hottie Jay Holanda go play in the park together. Ben and Hermione pitch Jeff Clavier of SoftTech VC. Denied! Hermione elects not to sleep underneath the VC’s conference table this time. Smart girl, she’s learning! David and new hottie Jay play Magic and do some brogrammer bonding. Sarah and Jay go on a date, but Sarah ruins it by ‘lifecasting’ it. The end.

How Real? Once again, giving the show the benefit of the doubt we’ll start them off at 100% real Silicon Valley. Last week the show scored a respectable 60% real Valley. Let’s see how they do this week . . .

Getting Rejected By VCs - 10%

After VC Dave McClure shot down their first pitch, Hermione slumps back to The Villa physically tired and emotionally exhausted. There’s quite a bit of drama’ing it up here. Getting rejected, especially at the seed rounds, is quite common for first-time founders. While the constant rejection can take a horrible toll on your ego and self-confidence, founders in the Valley tend to have thicker skin. Being better prepared helps. They certainly don’t scream from the Villatop every time a VC says no. I know one founder that pitched 50 Valley VCs before getting funded. I didn’t even know there were 50 VCs in the Valley.

Lifecasting -30%

Kassandra, Sarah’s assistant, asks Sarah if she’s going to Lifecast her date with Jay. Sarah responds that she’s going to because it’s the way for her audience to get to know the ‘real’ Sarah Austin. At this point, I feel it’s my moral obligation to educate the world that we in the Valley have no idea what the hell she is talking about. I’m pretty sure that Sarah means she tweets and Instagrams. If so, yeah, we do do that.

The Pool Scene at the Four Seasons - 20%

I don’t know where to start. There’s a poodle, spray tans, pretty flowers, and a lengthy conversation about feelings and being BFFs. No. No. No! Whatever free time startup people have (and it’s very little) are spent grabbing a quick meal, a few Fernets, and being generally exhausted. We don’t have enough time to have feelings here in the Valley. 

Sony VAIO -10%

Ben is seen pitching Jeff Clavier with a Sony VAIO. I’ve heard of these things and I’ve seen them on BestBuy’s site before. I’ve just never seen one in the wild here in the Valley. The Valley is MacBook Air country or if you’re a designer or developer, you’re on a MacBook Pro. Maybe it’s a product placement deal?

Tweeting About Your Date -20%

Sarah meets Jay at his place for their long-awaited date and she starts secretly live tweeting the big event. Here’s another thing that Valley types just don’t do. Between Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, Socialcam, Tumblr, etc…there’s already an abundance of sharing for the tech set throughout the working day. If there’s one last bastion of privacy that we all hold dear, it’s with our love lives. At the most, we make those posts #PathOnly (yes, that’s actually a thing).

Zzzzz

For episode 2, we get a final score of 10% real Silicon Valley. Worse is that the Valley’s interest in this show is sliding like Groupon stock. It just has not been that entertaining. It neither gives you enough of real startup life, nor is it an entertaining reality show. For anecdotal evidence, take a look at the photo I snapped of my girlfriend Amy White during the show. She heads up marketing for Highland Capital Partners and loves Jersey Shore. If Bravo’s Silicon Valley can’t capture her interest, I’m not holding out hope for the rest of the season.

Spencer Chen is head of partnerships at @appcelerator (and Betabeat’s 86th most entertaining Tech Twitterer!) Follow him@SpencerChen.

(Photo: Connected Social Media)

With 634,000 viewers tuning in for last week's premiere of Start-Ups: Silicon Valley, newly-minted Bravo TV producer Randi Zuckerberg already has her sights set on New York. According to the Wall Street Journal, Zuckerberg Media, Bravo and the production house responsible for Start-Ups, Den of Thieves, have all confirmed that they're planning a tech-focused show based in NYC. It won't be a Start-Ups reboot for the Manhattan set, but according to the Journal, "Ms. Zuckerberg and her team are looking to expand and see what techie opportunities there are."

So why pivot to New York, especially when everyone knows the weather in Palo Alto is as close to perfect as it gets? It seems Valleyites may be just a smidge too boring for Bravo's drama-driven programming. Writes the Journal:

“I’ve been here (in Silicon Valley) for 7 years, and know that after 10 p.m. it gets a little quiet,” she added. Even when it’s daylight, most techies spend countless hours in front of a computer or a white board — not exactly television material.

By comparison, New York is an epicenter of show business, Ms. Zuckerberg added, and will likely attract a broader swath of colorful personalities. The casting call will go out Monday.

Ms. Zuckerberg also stressed that the concept for the show is still in its infancy, and whether or not she goes through with it will depend primarily on finding an interesting cast. (We're sure Betabeat could come up with a few suggestions.)

However, it does appear that even highly respected international newspapers are no match for Silicon Valley spin. "This post was updated to remove an erroneous assertion that Ms. Zuckerberg believes Silicon Valley is not as interesting as New York," reads a correction to the piece. Oh Randi, we know what you really meant.

Update: A prior version of this post said the show had garnered 430,000 premiere night viewers; the correct number is 634,000.

We'll use this as an artist's rendering. (Photo: flickr.com/lac-bac)

Silicon Alley Smackdown One of the many tech events on rain delay because of Hurricane Sandy was the Big Apple Smackdown ping pong tournament, whose guest list included an impressive number of familiar names from the New York tech scene. (Betabeat is one of the media sponsors, so we may be a little biased.) Among the techno-athletes scheduled to play was Gilt Groupe CEO--and soon-to-be Gilt Groupe chairman--Kevin Ryan. Apparently, we missed quite a show.

The tournament was scheduled for Sunday, "and I played on Friday and on Sunday just to get ready for it!" Mr. Ryan told Betabeat. Really? "Oh yeah, because I won a tournament about a month ago." That was an invitation-only affair for ping pong ringers at the Hamptons manse of ABC Carpet & Home's Ken Pilot. "You had to put $100 into the pot and the winner got two-thirds of the pot, so I was pretty excited about that," Mr. Ryan enthused.

Mad that Sandy ruined your chance to see him action? You can drown your sorrows at Appular's F#@K SANDY event this coming Thursday and throw one back for a good cause.

Make It or Break It Start-Ups: Silicon Valley glamazon Kim Taylor finally has a name for her soon-to-launch startup, and being the gymnast that she is, she's named it after a move from Yelena Shushunova’s floor routine. The former NBA dancer will launch Shonova this winter, targeting the "millennial luxury fashion market," because you can never have too many websites dedicated to selling expensive clothes to young professional women.

LOLfamous Speaking of Bravo, it appears that I Can Has Cheezburger founder Ben Huh is starstruck by himself. Following the premiere of his new Bravo show, LOLwork, Mr. Huh tweeted a link to his freshly-minted IMDB profile with the caption "So...this happened." Don't let the fame get to your head!

And the techno's so loud USV ringleader and hometown hero Fred Wilson is wheels up and L.A.-bound today. However, his wife--Gotham Gal and investor-in-her-own-right Joanne Wilson--booked the tickets, and so he's not flying his preferred airline. Instead, he's flying Virgin, which is not his preferred airline and for a very specific reason: "I find flying on Virgin like going to a nightclub because of the lighting and I avoid it as a result." We always suspected Mr. Wilson was more of an indie music club kinda guy, and this cinches it.

"Executive scent" It seems that, after several years of "sifting through the crap," Team Thrillist has finally found the platonic ideal of brochandising. Behold:

Via Thrillist CEO Ben Lerer's Instagram.

So saucy Betabeat hates to clutch her collective pearls, but my goodness! Who knew the crowd at AllThingsD were quite so naughty? (Okay, we had an inkling.) Earlier this week, ATD doyenne Kara Swisher tweeted out the link to a colleague's story, which had the headline, "Meet the Man Behind Those Hot Pink Mustache Rides." Catalyst Group CEO Nick Gould immediately gave that the side-eye, noting that he "Can't help wondering if @lizgannes is aware of the off-color meaning of the term "mustache ride." Ms. Swisher didn't miss a beat: "i mean I ASSUME she is. I am." Duly noted.

Digging up history The Computer History Museum, located in Mountain View, California, is kind of like mecca for tech geeks. Contained within its hallowed walls are artifacts that tell the history of computers and videogames. Among those artifacts, apparently, is a copy of Windows 1.0, originally owned by Digg founder Kevin Rose. "My copy of Windows 1.0 on display!" Mr. Rose wrote in a caption for the below photo. A nerd's dream come true.

(Photo: Instagram)