Who says majoring in English is worthless? A leaked job listing from a Columbia English major listserv obtained by Salon proves that even professional wordsmiths can delve into the star-studded startup world. You could toil away at a publishing company for $25,000 a year, or you could work at the hot new startup from self-described brainiac and actor/investor Ashton Kutcher. Read More
Tonight is the premiere of the Public’s revival of Sondheim’s In the Woods, which means free tickets were distributed at 1p.m. yesterday. Because New Yorkers love nothing so much as an excuse to stand in line at a park (see also: Shake Shack), Gothamist reports that the queue was hundreds of people long by midday. Read More
Sometimes when we pass a homeless person on the way into our multi-million dollar luxury Chelsea apartment, or our driver takes us through the island slums to get to our private beach on St. John’s, we suspect that we should probably think about giving back a little bit. People are, like, poor, you know? But the problem is that we’re frequently so busy being the CEO of a Very Important Venture-Backed Startup that we don’t have the time to go volunteer somewhere.
For that, we are thankful that Exec exists.
The San Francisco-based startup is a lot like TaskRabbit, minus the price bidding for each task. All execs make a flat rate fee of $25/hour, and you can hire them to do everything from personal shopping to cleaning to research. Starting today, you can also hire them to volunteer for you. Read More
Now, what does this sound like to you?
One recent morning, 14 job candidates filed into his fourth-floor office in Alexandria, Virginia, where a wiffle ball net is stowed in the lobby and a pirate flag hangs in the conference room. How many might he hire? “Fourteen, if we like them all,” he said.
If you guessed “a venture-backed consumer Internet startup,” you are incorrect. (Thanks for playing; better luck next time.) Read More
Founded a year and a half ago in San Francisco, Cater2Me quickly found its niche feeding the ravenous techies of Silicon Valley, nabbing clients like Dropbox, Square and Klout. “You can call it the Google effect, if you want,” cofounder Alex Lorton told Betabeat, and “that idea is becoming the norm in New York, as well.”
Hence the company’s decision to expand to New York City. The service just launched yesterday, but it sounds like Mr. Lorton is already halfway to going out for the cheerleading team.
“I think it’s cool to be part of the expansion of Silicon Alley, to use the phrase, to be part of that startup community,” he said. “People in startups are, I think, more willing to embrace something that’s new, something that’s initially not as tested.”
Well, hopefully it’s not that untested. Read More
On a clear November day, the hard-working students of Harvard College took a collective study break and poured onto the walkway in front of Lamont Library. Undergrads, an inordinate number of them sporting hoodies, pressed their bodies against a set of temporary barricades, their smartphones and cameras held aloft, eyes intent on a grinning visitor making his way from one of the Yard’s gates to a mic stand that had been set up smack in the middle of the walkway.
The excitement wasn’t for Jason Segel, who would be selected as the Hasty Pudding’s Man of the Year in February, nor for Andy Samberg, who’d be tapped to give the Class Day Speech later that year, but a former classmate—a “concentrator” in computer science and psychology—who eight years ago had been just like them, a hard-working kid with amazing grades and questionable social skills, well on his way to a comfortable future.
As Mark Zuckerberg paused to answer questions, the giddiness was almost enough to make everyone forget that, like Bill Gates before him, the Facebook founder had dropped out of Harvard well before receiving his sheepskin. Read More
Tereza Nemessanyi, founder of Honestly Now, an online Q&A forum, brought her elementary school-aged daughter along to a tech demo that she said was unlike most others she has been to.
“Last time I demoed was January 2011,” Ms. Nemessanyi said. “I brought my daughter with me and she asked me ‘mommy, why is it all boys?’”
Well that certainly wasn’t the case this time. Last night, more than 100 tech-savvy women (and a few guys) filled rows of chairs in a large room in the Microsoft building in midtown to participate in the first-ever Read More
MySocialCloud was still in relatively early stages last year when Stacey Ferreira, now 20, saw a tweet from investor and Virgin Group founder Richard Branson, which read, somewhat cryptically: “Enjoy intimate cocktails with me in Miami on June 15th – $2,000 to charity,” and including an email address to contact for more details. It was the perfect chance to pitch her startup, she thought. Read More
Despite the fact that we love to spotlight the companies and characters that make this scene hum here at Betabeat, we occasionally grow weary of all the unbridled enthusiasm for the New York tech space. What can we say? We’re journalists–we were born skeptical. So when this parody video of a soon-to-launch startup popped up, its light-hearted jabs at the more eyeroll-inducing side of tech were all too familiar.
“Vooza is a mobile web app that’s real-time, cloud-based, social and local,” begins the animated video. “What does it do? SHHHH! We’re in beta!” Read More
The Center for an Urban Future, a think tank headed by Jonathan Bowles, has released a lengthy report about New York City’s tech sector, titled “New Tech City.” The Center’s findings indicate amazing growth over the last decade. While “New Tech City” contains mostly good news for the local tech set, there is a dash of cold water–just a bit–to leaven any prospective startup’s bright-eyed optimism.
First, the good news! Read More
