What's wrong with that? (Photo: Wikimedia)

The Chat-rooming Classes Today, seemingly every tech reporter in the business tuned into Jason Calacanis's "This Week in Startups," presumably in the hopes that Mr. Calacanis would tell all re: the allegations of abuse against Michael Arrington. But as familiar names chattered away in the chat room, Mr. Calacanis had little to say beyond comparing himself to Obi Wan. That would make Mr. Arrington Anakin Skywalker, of course; Mr. Calacanis said he taught him how to be powerful in media, and "I regret that."

As for the allegations themselves, Mr. Calacanis was quick to say he wouldn't be commenting on whether they were true, citing his lack of direct knowledge. (He did, however, openly discuss the time that Mr. Arrington called a PR honcho "the c-word," thereby outing someone who'd never mentioned the incident publicly!) [Correction: Mr. Calacanis first mentioned the incident and the PR exec (Brooke Hammerling) by name in the comments of his Facebook post, prompting Ms. Hammerling to confirm the story, also in a Facebook comment.] All in all, it sounds like he (kinda sorta) regrets getting involved. He apparently thought writing a Facebook note wouldn't go very far. "I thought that that would be a place where it just lived there," he said. (Paging Randi Zuckerberg!) "I got a little P.T. Barnum in me and I feel like me commenting on all this stuff actually detracts from it," he added.

The Biggest Failure Silicon Alley fameballer and Vimeo cofounder Jakob Lodwick took to PandoDaily this week to lament his decision to sell his company Connected Ventures, which included CollegeHumor and Vimeo, to media conglomerate IAC in 2006. In the post, called “An acquisition is always a failure,” Mr. Lodwick wrote that selling the company to IAC was “the worst business decision of his life” because although it fattened his bank account, it stifled his ability to work creatively. Getting acquire is like giving up, he argued, which we’re sure delighted his fellow NYC entrepreneurs who are desperately groping for the exit sign.

We suppose you can’t have your cake and eat it too, even if the cake is made of millions of dollars.

Kenny Lerer's Got Ringtones In the midst of a recent phone call with Ken Lerer about Lure Fish Bar, his favorite power lunch spot, our conversation was interrupted by the dulcet sounds of Jim Morrison from his cellphone. Was that “People Are Strange,” we asked? Yes, Mr. Lerer confirmed, revealing that he spends “way too much time” picking out the right ringtones for the important people in his life. That Doors song was for Brian Bedol, Mr. Lerer’s business partner in the media and entertainment company Bedrocket. "If you knew Brian," he said, "'People Are Strange' is the perfect ring tone for him."

Did he have a ringtone for his son Ben, the cofounder of Thrillist? “Oh this is embarrassing,” he replied, admitting that it was Rod Stewart’s “Some Guys Get All the Luck.” “Not bad, huh?” quipped Mr. Lerer the elder.

Brit’s Got Jokes On Monday, Brit + Co. founder Brit Morin announced on her Facebook page that she was expecting a baby with her husband, Path cofounder Dave Morin. Of course, the update was quickly debunked as an April Fool’s Day prank, despite the fact that she posted it towards the end of the day. “For all of you who wished me congratulations on being pregnant, thank you for being a total sucker!” she wrote.

Apparently, along with making Christmas trees out of cheese and turning Mac extension cords into jump ropes, such personal pranks are part of Ms. Morin’s repertoire.

“The trick is to wait until the evening of April Fools when people think all the jokes are over,” she wrote. “I pull this one every single year and still, so many fall for it ;)” Guess she lost all of next year’s suckers by giving away her secret.

PR darling Brooke Hammerling had a subtweet for the ladies pretending to be with child for April Fool’s Day:

https://twitter.com/brooke/status/319229167046623233

Jack Did it All for the Nookie We knew about Jack Dorsey's nose ring, but we had no idea he used to be in Limp Bizkit. Business Insider uncovered an old photo of the Square cofounder that shows him looking quite different than he does when sporting his current hand-sewn jeans look. The black and white portrait has Mr. Dorsey with full-on 90s rave kid hair. Pass the glowstick, bro.

(Photo: Twitter)

Bloggers! They're Just Like Us! Business Insider editor Steve Kovach gets hearts aflutter, apparently. As overheard by fellow editor (so many over there!) Alyson Shontell, a starry eyed PR person compared their meeting with Mr. Kovach to that of a Hollywood star. It's understandable, we constantly confuse Mr. Kovach with Jake Gyllenhaal every time we see him out with the normals.

http://twitter.com/shontelaylay/status/319838156486758400

Do You Startup, Bro? Silicon Valley's fraternity president and Digg founder Kevin Rose was the subject of an ABC News profile this week which reminded us he's still around! The Google Ventures partner revealed what new apps he's circling to potentially fund, including a personal training app called FitStar. He also revealed that the Instagram filter Toaster is named after his adorable dog and detailed what his typical day is like: "Invest in start-ups. Find the next big thing. Meet with entrepreneurs. Drink coffee. Hang out." Sounds like a Bravo show in the making.

Internet Weak On Thursday, the New York collective of the Web’s  hive mind met up for a low key gathering at the Watch What Happens Live prop closet Design Within Reach showroom in SoHo to celebrate the quickly approaching Internet Week. The festival's new director Caroline Waxler welcomed the sharply dressed but older-skewing crowd. iPads were shuffled around to get attendees to sign up and vote  for the 200+ panels that are in contention for just 13 slots to be showcased at the yearly event. (Holding a drink from the open bar and registering on the iPad was difficult, but we managed.)

Anyway, the annoyingly arranged support columns, a seating arrangement dependent on the furniture layout, and the tri-level setup made it hard to pay attention to Vice editors Kelly Bourdet and Brian A. Anderson. After talking for a half hour about all the cool things Vice does (and plentiful mentions of the burgeoning media empire's massive presence at SXSW), they showed off a drone for people to play with. But that wasn’t enough to amuse the partygoers as throngs of them slinked off shortly after the panel ended. Perhaps that was enough Internet for one day.

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

So last week I did this blog post highlighting The 16 SXSW Parties You Really, Really Don’t Want to Miss. And I got a ton of email from you guys & gals saying a) “Thank you, you’re a life saver!” and b) “We want more, more, MOARRR!”

For the hardcore partier, I’ve put together the ULTIMATE Guide to all the SXSW Parties (a whopping 300+ and counting!). Print this out before your trip and you’re golden, my friend. And as you can see, there’re a ton of events that don’t even require a SXSW badge. 

For the rest of you, here are 16 More SXSW Parties that have the Gary Stamp of Approval. You’re welcome, my little tech monsters! Now go forth and RSVP away. Oh and next week when you're walking around in downtown Austin, if you notice a guy with a big 'fro in a black suit, white shirt and a Red Tie (with ads all over it), come over and say hello!

Btw, I have 2 FREE Passes to the much anticipated Rovio (Angry Birds) Pool Party! :) Its on Mar 11 @ Ashton Austin. The Mighty Eagle will be there (of course). There will be music and BBQ! I hear Rovio may be showcasing something new. Each Pass is good for 1 person + 1 guest. Interested? Apply Here.

I've also been told that there will be #BrilliantBrew Coffee Trucks from-the-future driving around, housing GE's Barista Bots that will print portraits of coffee drinkers into the foam of their latte using face-detection software! Craazzzy huh? You can find them parked on the corner of Trinity & 3rd (Mar 8), outside the Made in NY event (Mar 9), 101 Red River (Mar 10) and 301 E Cesar Chavez (Mar 11).

If you've ever wondered whether you have what it takes to become a performer on Cirque du Soleil (sure, why not), then check out their party on the 15th where their talent scouts will be present. Also, Livefyre's SXSW NewsHub will be curating tweets & photos in real-time from the hottest panels and parties.

And now--drumroll please--16 *MORE* SXSW Parties that you really, really, reeeaally don’t wanna miss… ;)

Mobi + Verizon SXSW Kickoff Party
Lots of food and refreshments, including authentic Austin BBQ, as well as live music with a scenic view!
Thursday (Mar 07), 4 p.m. @ One American Center, 600 Congress Ave, Ste 1600

Sake Bomb Party!
Sake Shot Bar, Ty Ku Premium Sake Tastings, Free Kenichi Appetizers, Beer & Cocktails and Live D.J.
Friday (Mar 08), 10 p.m. @ Kenichi, 419 Colorado St

Happy Hour at the Hackers Hostel, Presented by WeHostels
Happy Hour of handcrafted cocktails and a live jazz band!
Saturday (Mar 09), 5 p.m. @ Firehouse Hostel & Lounge, 605 Brazos St, Ste 100

Awesomest Journalism Party. Ever. III.
Featuring awesome Texas food, awesome Texas beer and an awesome photobooth from SnapFiesta
Saturday (Mar 09), 5 p.m. @ The Palm Door, 401 Sabine St

ff Massive Party
Come meet ff Venture's portfolio companies, founders, & execs. Featuring: live music & an open bar.
Saturday (Mar 09), 6 p.m. @ Empire Automotive, 604 E 7th St

TechStars Conquers SXSW 2013
DJs Fubari (TechStars' own Ari Newman), [Whoop Whoop/Cabin Fever], Part Time Chiller [CHNL - LA], and John Wander [CHNL, Roam Music LA] will be dropping beats all night long!
Saturday (Mar 09), 8 p.m. @ Cedar St Courtyard, 208 West 4th St

House Party!
Featuring DJ Sets by Viceroy with Sean Glass. Sponsored by Dos Equis and Patron XO Cafe. In partnership with Thrillist, Wired, Track, Cameo and small Girls PR!
Saturday (Mar 09), 9 p.m. @ CTC House & Garden, 1102 E Cesar Chavez St

Pop! In & Party with PayPal
Performances by Man Man, The Octopus Project and Belaire. Plus an epic Superhero surprise!
Saturday (Mar 09), 9 p.m. @ Mohawk, 912 Red River St

MRY SXSW Launch Party
2 DJ's, including LA Riots, Food by one of Austin's best, East Side King, Fire Troupe, Ice Louge, Go-Go Dancers, and a few more surprises!
Saturday (Mar 09), 9:30 p.m. @ The Belmont, 305 West 6th St

Gannett Media Lounge #GANNETTLOUNGE
Houndstooth Coffee, Peached Tortilla Breakfast Tacos, Salt Lick BBQ Lunch
Sunday (Mar 10), 9 a.m. @ Hangar Lounge, 318 Colorado St

Livefyre Presents: SXSW13 Fyrebash
3 live acts - Vacationer, (Brooklyn-based) Body Language and The Hood Internet. Open Bar.
Sunday (Mar 10), 8 p.m. @ TenOak, 409 Colorado St

The Crowdtap VIP Party III - The Legendary Cant Miss Party of SXSWi
With White Panda, Radical Something, Little Daylight, VJ Culture and NYC's top DJ Vikas. Open bar and year two of the Battle of Austin's Best Food Trucks!
Sunday (Mar 10), 8:30 p.m. @ Haven, 409 Colorado St

Spotify House
Daily live performances, artist DJ sets, local food truck flavors, ping-pong, photobooth, giveaways and more!
Monday (Mar 11), 12 p.m. @ Spotify House, 1010 E Cesar Chavez

The Barbarian Group + Vimeo present No Way Back
3 stages featuring no less than 15 illustrious band performances, over the top DJ sets + mind melting visuals!
Monday (Mar 11), 6 p.m. @ Mohawk, 912 Red River St

Geeks from Gangnam
Seven startups from Korea will be there. Live musical performances by popular Korean bands Galaxy Express and Goonam. Free drinks and delicious appetizers!
Monday (Mar 11), 6:30 p.m. @ Moonshine Bar & Grill, 303 Red River St

GroupMe Major Rager 3D
Performances by RAC, Tim Sweeney & Viceroy.
Monday (Mar 11), 8 p.m. @ Cedar Street Courtyard, 208 W 4th St

BONUS #1
#Secret_Wine_Party with Gary Vaynerchuk (Wine Library, Vayner Media and Author of Thank You Economy)
I can’t say when. I can’t say where. But if you follow @garyvee, All shall be clear!

BONUS #2
Conduit Corner will be playing host to a bunch of happy hours (There'll be drinks, backrubs, munchies & much more)! With Internet Week NY & StartOut (Mar 8), Tracx (Mar 9), SF Music Tech (Mar 10), Warner Brothers (Mar 12), BandPage (Mar 13) and Sweet Relief (Mar 13).
Friday (Mar 8) to Wednesday (Mar 13) @ Conduit Corner, E 7th St and N Congress Avenue

BONUS #3
#FEED Flavorpill Sanctuary Pwd By Windows 8
Yoga, cycling, bootcamp, massage, juice w/ CRUNCH, CYC Fitness, BLUEPRINT, KIND Breakfast.
Friday (Mar 9) to Tuesday (Mar 12), 9 a.m. @ AMOA Arthouse @ Jones Center, 700 Congress Ave

BONUS #4
Cats Live Here Happy Hour
And if you like watching cat videos online (and srsly who doesn't), you're gonna like this one.
Animal Planet & the Walker Art Center bring you cat-themed cocktails, live music
 and a first look at the upcoming season of "My Cat From Hell." Plus, catch a sneak peek of the all-new "Henri" video!

Don’t forget – What Happens At SXSW… Is Gonna Be All Over Twitter ;)

Sony's big announcement is today's worst kept secret on the Internet.

Sony Needs to Work On Keeping Secrets Although Sony is still only referring to it as the, "future of Playstation," everyone knows that tonight's press conference at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City will be for the reveal of Sony's Playstation 4, codenamed Orbis. An image of the next generation system's controller was leaked last week, and rumors of cloud and smartphone integration have been making the rounds. The traditional video game market--and Sony in particular--have been struggling financially (more on that below). Industry experts are hoping that a new gaming arms race between Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft can reinvigorate game sales. The PS4 is rumored to have a November release date.

Because GIFs Need to Be More Complicated Vimeo is getting into the GIF making business, or at least the GIF-video making business, after buying mobile app Echograph last week. Echograph, created in 2011, takes a frame from a 5-second video on your phone or tablet and animates certain sections of the image to make a partially moving picture (think of it as a cross between Vine and GIFs). The app, which previously cost $2.99, will now be free as Vimeo takes over Clear-Media, the company which created Echograph, and moves its employees into their mobile division.

Changing The Game (Market) In another sign that people would rather play Angry Birds than World of Warcraft, Super Data released their first public figures on the digital games market, and to no one's surprise, the market is doing pretty well, albeit in a very different way. Since January of last year, sales have increased 39 percent, or $960 million, but that figure doesn't reveal the major changes that overtook the market in 2012. Whereas console, social media, and MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) games previously lead the way, mobile and downloadable games are now at the forefront, with sales more than double their totals from last year.

Promoted Tweets Are Going to Get a Little More Personal As if you didn't already hate those personalized ads on your Facebook, get ready for a similar experience on Twitter. The social media giant is releasing their advertising API today to specific clients and advertisers so that they can send more personalized and focused tweets to the over 200 million active users of Twitter. The move makes sense, considering the success of Promoted Tweets since its release in 2010, although this new API could face backlash from users in the same way that Facebook users retaliated when that site first began hyper-personalized advertising.

Outer Space Needs An App NASA will be hosting a meet-and-greet February 25 at AlleyNYC (500 Seventh Ave., 13th Floor) to discuss potential ideas for the space program's April 20th International Space Apps Challenge, "a two-day technology development event during which citizens from around the world will work together to address current challenges relevant to both space exploration and social need." The event is open to the public, so if you're in the New York area and think your idea for an app would only really work in a zero-gravity environment, check it out.

Progress in Polyamory Valentine's Day may already be far in your rearview mirror, but that doesn't mean the flood of dating apps is anywhere near stopping, and one of the newest app's in the dating sphere is Martini. A self-touted improvement of Grouper, Martini, which was released last year, "gives users more control over the group meetup experience. Instead of forcing groups on blind dates, we allow our users to make the very important decisions of who and where to meetup." So if you and your friends were holding off on group dating because you thought you would all go for the same guy/girl, you now have no excuse.

Welcome to The Fiternet In a move that seems a little ironic, Pintrest will be posting workout and diet tips from the reality show The Biggest Loser during its weekly broadcasts, in the hopes that users will subsequently leave their computers and work on their physical health instead. During the work out and health segments of the show, pop ups will appear on screen directing viewers to check out the Pintrest page, which will give more direct instruction on what is seen on the show. We suppose this offets all the cupcake porn.

Mr. Lovingood (Photo: Bravo TV)

You didn't think we'd forgotten, did you? It's Friday afternoon, which means it's Rumor Roundup time!

One Day You're In, Next Day You're Out Randi Zuckerberg's Bravo reality show finally has a (disappointly un-innovative) name--"Silicon Valley Start-Ups"--although we assume the shenanigans will make up for it. According to a press release, the hour-long show will premiere Monday November 5th at 10 p.m. EST, so set your DVRs or prep your voodoo dolls, depending.

This part got left out of the release, but we hear the show will launch sans two reported cast members: Marcus Lovingood and Jay Holanda, although both gentleman will appear as sub-characters.

If you've been wondering why you're seeing so many LOLCats on Bravo in between the screeching ladies of leisure--Did Andy Cohen just discover there's an Internet beyond Twitter??--the press release also mentions the premiere of LOLwork, set at the ICanHasCheezburger.com offices and due to test whether the Cat Pics = Traffic formula works as well on TV.

Speaking of screeching--in this case, Bravo has Sarah Lacy's approval.

@benhuh congrats! are you beating the shit silicon valley show to market?

— Sarah Lacy (@sarahcuda) September 20, 2012

Fine Young Cannibals On his mirco-blog, Tumblr editor-in-chief Chris Mohney revealed that the entire office, excluding him, started a juice cleanse today.

Not your correspondent of course as I’m a lost cause cleansewise, but whoever of that persuasion survives the weekend will show up monday morning crazed and belligerent, shot through with explosive episodes of the whooping dropsy. Next week should be interesting expexially when you factor in Yom Kippur’s nutritional denial, so let’s peg it at 72% chance of autocannibalism by Wednesday and that’s Nat Daddy’s official projection on the subject going into the otherwise temperate weekend, drive carefully now.

If this counts as a thinspo post, we are so reporting you to Tumblr!

Cyber-Bullying Who's giving startups a hard time? That's what we want to know, as per this opaque, exasperated tweet from Texts From Last Night founder Lauren Leto, who shut down Bnters and took on the general manager role at Findings, a Betaworks startup, in May:

A certain 'influencer, curator' lady needs to stop being a bully to small start ups. Go create a company yourself.

— Lauren Leto (@laurenleto) September 19, 2012

Based on another recent tweet, however, one of Ms. Leto's followers did a little process of elimination.

@laurenleto so i guess she's not the "innovator, curator" you mention earlier ;)

— christy purington (@cpurington) September 19, 2012

Having perused Ms. Leto's winsome new book, Judging a Book By Its Lover, we are sorry to report it does not contain the answer to this particular mystery.

The Reality Distortion Field Reaches Los Angeles Even the youngest Kardashian kares about keeping up with technology.

Reverse-Reverse Sexism Still wondering what $50 and an App.net membership will get you (besides a word cloud of Twitter references)? Well, former GroupMe employee Matt Langer reports that the social network is "where you go to bro down with your /r/MensRights bros," like Favstar founder Tim Haines. However, no one with $50 has agreed to support Mr. Haines' cause.

Wedding bells On the mergers front, we hear that serial cofounder and investor Zack Klein recently married girlfriend Courtney Lewis, a partner at Hard Candy Shell. The pair booked "all of Aurora" earlier this week and issued an open invite via Twitter, in order to celebrate in style. To make everything ultra-official, the new Mrs. Klein has even rechristened her Twitter handle. Much luck and many Goodfellas-style envelopes of cash to the two lovebirds.

As always: Overheard a juicy tidbit about impending departures or imminent acquisitions? Dying to dish about startup blunders or frothy financing? Holler at your girls: tips@betabeat.com

The Tipping Point Partners office. (Photo: Tipping Point)

Like cushy sign-on bonuses or drool-worthy stock options, perks are a potent recruiting tool for startups, dangled before potential hires like a treat before a ravenous animal. Expensive, Steve Jobs-approved gear and kitchens overflowing with every snack imaginable are treated like they’re the equivalent of platinum health insurance.

We get it--having a thriving, enjoyable work culture is integral to fostering a healthy work/life balance and not becoming consumed with resentment every time your shitty desk chair breaks. But is it possible that some of these perks aren’t all they’re cracked up to be?

Unlimited Vacation Days

One of the most frequently touted startup perks is the unlimited vacation day policy, under which, instead of receiving a finite amount of vacation days, employees are allowed to take however much vacation they want ... as long as they work super hard the rest of the year. It seems too good to be true: having the option to take three weeks off at a time to jet around Europe? Fabulous. And all sizes of company offer this perk: Adobe, Gilt Groupe and Tumblr are just a few that come to mind.

But some reports have shown that when people have unlimited vacation days, they actually end up taking less time off. Without a finite amount of days to use--think "Oh, it's December, better use my extra vacay days!"--employees are often unsure of what's the appropriate amount of time to take off.

As The Wall Street Journal wrote last year:

Some employers promote this as liberating, saying their workplaces are so flexible that old-fashioned constraints such as assigned time off aren't needed. But others say the lack of guidelines fuels a tendency to work all the time ... Americans have trouble taking time off even when they are assigned a specific number of days. Only 38% of U.S. employees use all their allotted vacation time, says a 2010 survey of 9,000 people by travel-booking company Expedia.com; the average worker took only 14 of 18 days permitted.

In 2011, Evernote--a startup based in San Francisco--began literally paying its employees to go on vacation. As soon as the company switched to an unlimited vacation day policy, "The first thing we noticed when we did it was that some people started taking less vacation," chief executive Phil Libin told Businessweek last year. In order to correct this, Evernote began giving employees $1,000 every time they took a weeklong vacation.

For many startups, encouraging employees to take the vacation they deserve often starts at the top. "It's all about creating a culture of flexibility so people feel O.K. taking advantage of it," said Kara Rota, director of editorial and partnerships at Cookstr, which boasts Tipping Point Partners as an institutional cofounder. "I think it’s the responsibility of people in executive and management positions to role model it and be very vocal about the things they have going on outside of work."

Unlimited Snacks

On a recent trip to the Vimeo offices in the soaring IAC building, Betabeat was asked upon arrival whether we'd like to indulge in some delicious snacks. The kitchen, situated right where you get off the elevator, was stocked with every kind of treat you could imagine: candy, cookies and other sweet things were tucked into one side of the island, while chips, crackers and salty items invaded the other side. It was a snacker's delight.

But there are downsides to all this food: for one, it can keep you from ever having to leave your desk for a lunch break. Even big corporations like Bloomberg LLP employ this strategy. As a Vanity Fair profile of Bloomberg pointed out, staffers there were "taken care of," but, as one employee put it, "The free junk food was great but it was there to keep us from going out for coffee."

There's also an important health aspect. Even if your startup stocks healthier snacks like fresh fruit and unsalted nuts, there's a chance that you'll eat more than you want to just because food is around.

"Your proximity to food has a huge impact on whether or not you're thinking about food," said Richard Talens, the cofounder of Fitocracy, a fitness social network. "This in turn impacts your desire to eat. Unfortunately, most entrepreneurs have a scarcity mentality when it comes to food, especially free food. If they see that there's free calories lying around, they will likely prefer to go for that rather than paying for a lunch."

Mr. Talens said that in order to eradicate mindless snacking, the Fitocracy office doesn't stock snacks.

"There are no snacks per se at Fitocracy," he told Betabeat by email. "As a company, we're not big snackers, to be honest ... quite the opposite. Most people at Fitocracy try to remain within a caloric range on most days and we have the same philosophy: we'd much rather eat a few larger meals than snack constantly throughout the day."

If you can't convince your company to get rid of the M&Ms, Mr. Talens also advised how to hit the gym on the cheap. "Try to bargain with your local fitness club to see if you can get an employee discount for everyone," he suggested.

Food can be an important way to bring people together, though. "We provide a breakfast spread every Monday," Ms. Rota said. "It’s a good opportunity for people to check in at the beginning of the week and to have a good boost socially. It's important culturally and has an opportunity to let people sort of connect with each other in another way."

Working From Home

Allowing employees to work from home is a common perk, but frequently--if the office culture doesn't encourage it--it's one that can easily fall by the wayside.

"People used to do it, but then at some point it just became standard to work from the office, and now you can't really work from home unless you really need to (cable guy, doctor's appointment, whatever)," said one person employed at a well-known New York startup, who asked not to be named.

Different people work in different ways, whether it be collaborative--through activities like pair programming--or solitary. Different tasks also require various work methods. At the Cookstr offices, Ms. Rota said that there are couches and conference rooms set up for group work, while other employees prefer to work from their own private desks. She also argues that removing the emphasis from hours spent working at your desk can help employees flourish.

"A culture that is focused with how many hours you’re sitting at your desk puts the focus on the wrong place," she added. "It’s an artificial definition of what work looks like."

In the end, fostering a culture where employees feel comfortable to take advantage of the perks so many recruiters promote is key to maintaining a happy and productive office environment.

"It really is about setting a precedent to make people feel comfortable with alternative work styles," she advised. "If you’re an intern, or new, or if you’re not an executive leader, you’re not going to feel comfortable being the one person taking advantage of the work from home policy. But if there’s a real culture of that, and you trust in your coworkers that they're doing the things that they need to be doing, then there's really no concern about it."

Mr. Trainor (Photo: Webpronews.com)

Vimeo, the New York-based video platform known for being the buttoned-up, besuited step-brother to the behemoth YouTube, announced two new features today aimed at empowering video creators to earn money for their work. The first is a virtual Tip Jar, which can be implemented across all Vimeo Plus and Vimeo Pro accounts beginning today, that allows viewers to reward creators for their hard work with cash donations via credit card or PayPal. Vimeo will retain a 15 percent cut of all tips.

"This is a feature that the product team has had in their minds for quite a while," Vimeo CEO Kerry Trainor told us recently on a visit to the company's headquarters, nestled in a spacious office stocked with lots of candy in the IAC building.

We pointed out that the success of platforms like Kickstarter helped establish the concept of crowdfunding as an alternative way to show support for someone's work. Kickstarter is different, Mr. Trainor said, as it's about funding work that hasn't been created yet, whereas Tip Jar serves as a way to reward people for work they've already created.

"What I think Kickstarter really points out is the excitement on the part of consumers to connect with people who are directly creating things," he explained. "I think that that core connection absolutely remains with this approach we're taking with Tip Jar."

The second feature Vimeo announced today--which will roll out for Vimeo Pro subscribers beginning in the first quarter of 2013--is a pay-to-view model that allows creators to erect a flexible paywall around chosen content. Creators could, for instance, offer access to videos early if users pay $1 to get past the paywall. They could also create content that's exclusive to paid viewers.

The new tip jar button can be seen in green. (Photo: Vimeo)

"The paywall is not something that's been perfected, but we know from the success of VOD, Pay Per View and cable that it's an idea that people have shown that they have a desire for that content," Mr. Trainor said. "We're going to try to make it as easy as possible for creators who might not have necessarily access to more familiar platforms like Netflix. We want to make it easier to use and much more flexible."

Mr. Trainor gave the example of a director like Alan Ball, he of Six Feed Under fame. If Mr. Ball wanted to create a video or series that didn't fit with HBO's vision, he could instead host it on Vimeo, and make money by enabling the pay-to-view option.

Now a top 10 U.S. video property, Vimeo has established itself not as a competitor to YouTube, but instead as a much-needed alternative for professional and niche directors and filmmakers.

"YouTube is incredibly mass, and Vimeo has always set out to do something different," Mr. Trainor. "As the space has grown, Vimeo has been rewarded with being able to be this other place that is focused on quality, creativity and control. Vimeo is freestanding from a traffic perspective--it's not attached to Yahoo or a big portal."

"In a way, Vimeo is kind of like the Mac to YouTube's PC," he added.

Pieratt. (Photo: Brooklyn Beta)

eBay announced on its blog today that it has acquired Svpply, the NYC-based social shopping site that curates personalized collections of clothing and products. Located on Broome Street in Soho, Svpply raised $550,000 in seed funding back in 2010 from investors like Founders Collective, Spark Capital, SV Angel, Dennis Crowley and Jason Hirschhorn. Since then, Svpply has been bootstrapping itself to 620,000 product views per week and 140,000 registered members (as of May).

Last May, founder Ben Pieratt offered a candid perspective on first-time entrepreneurship, admitting his vulnerability. "I have zero experience or expertise in building a company," he wrote in a 2011 blog post. "So I'm learning on the fly."

Mr. Pierrat summed up a list of things he'd need to learn how to do, or Svpply would fail. Hey, in startup parlance, we'd say an acqui-hire counts as quite a success.

At least Svpply's other cofounder, parallel entrepreneur extraordinaire Zach Klein, brought some experience to the team. Mr. Klein is a partner at Founders Collective, and has had a hand in a plethora of successful startups. He cofounded Vimeo and BustedTees, helped launch CollegeHumor, worked as chief product officer at Boxee and serves as a director for both Skillshare and Svpply. According to AllThingsD, Mr. Klein linked up with Svpply in the spring of 2010 when he "connected with Ben Pieratt, a Boston-based designer who started Svpply in late 2009."

eBay's blog post suggests that the move to purchase Svpply is largely an acqui-hire:

With Svpply.com, eBay gains access to technology talent to further improve the shopping and selling experience for its customers. Svpply.com assets – including a talented team of six designers and developers – are well-suited to help eBay advance more personalized experiences and merchandising options on eBay.com.

Based in New York (see the office, above), the Svpply.com employees will work on merchandising, non-search discovery and browsing.

eBay has been aggressively ramping up its presence in New York as of late. Back in November, the online auction platform acquired NYC-based Hunch, a personalized recommendation engine. Then in April, eBay snapped up a massive 350,000 square foot office in the Flatiron. Guess they needed a few more devs to fill up those desks.

Svpply insists in a blog post that the site's not going anywhere anytime soon. "Svpply is not going away," it reads. "We’ll continue to bring our users new products each day—allowing our loyal fans to explore beautiful products and stores, all of them hand selected by the community."

Greg Leppert, Svpply's third cofounder, said the Svpply team would work on both eBay and the Svpply site. "We'll continue to build Svpply and our community and apply what we learn to eBay," he told Betabeat by email. Mr. Leppert also said that Svpply will not be rolled into eBay, but that both sites will remain distinct from each other.

"We’re excited to join the eBay and Hunch teams in the new state-of-the-art technology development center in New York City!" Svpply added in a blog post. Shake them pom-poms, y'all.

Additional reporting contributed by Nitasha Tiku.

Sorry, did you think Internet awards season was over? Hate to break it to you, but not even close: Vimeo, the upscale video sharing platform, just announced its shortlist of nominees for the 2012 Vimeo Festival and Awards. The event features some pretty sweet judges, including swag comedy favorite Aziz Ansari judging the "Series" category and Important Actor Person/sleepy NYU student James Franco judging "Narrative."

Aside from regular categories like Animation and Documentary, the festival added some interesting new categories this year, including Fashion, Action Sports and Advertising. You can check out the rest of the categories and vote for your favorite videos in each here.

The Vimeo Festival will be held at Vimeo HQ and other venues around NYC from June 7-9, with the actual awards ceremony taking place on June 7th at 8pm at NYU's Skirball Center. According to the site, "it’s one part film festival, one part tech meetup, one part educational conference, and one part flying trapeze act." We're skeptical about that trapeze part, but still sounds pretty interesting. Tickets for the festival are available here.

Pinterest In All Her Glory

We’re interested to see how--or whether--the addition alters the tone of the site. YouTube videos are all well and good, but a quick perusal of the site’s “everything” feed suggests it’s not a huge part of the network. (Do you go to Pinterest for music videos? No, you go to stare longingly at erotically photographed sandwiches and manic pixie dream sundresses.)

That said, Vimeo is a slightly different beast. Favored by artistic types looking to demonstrate their chops, the site has a reputation for hosting high-quality content that dovetails a little more neatly with the Pinterest brand.

Now if you'll excuse us, we have some spinach dip recipes to repin.

Mr. Trainor (allthingsd.com)

Video sharing service Vimeo, also known as the rich man's YouTube, announced an executive-level shakeup this morning via a press release from parent company InterActiveCorp. Kerry Trainor, the senior vice president of AOL Huffington Post Media Group, is joining Vimeo as CEO. He'll be taking over for Dae Mellencamp, who has been CEO and president of Vimeo since 2009. Ms. Mellencamp will keep her title as president, but hand over the CEO reins to Mr. Trainor.

In the press release, IAC's CEO Greg Blatt demonstrated a keen knowledge of business jargon, somehow managing to say everything and nothing all at once. "By uniting Kerry's understanding of monetization and scale content businesses with Dae's keen product and community sensibility, I'm confident Vimeo's growth will accelerate," said Mr. Blatt. "We really have high ambitions for this business."

Last month, PandoDaily reported that IAC was shopping around a 25 percent stake in Vimeo, just after launching a redesign a month prior. IAC chairman Barry Diller told AllThingsD that the story was "exaggerated," but there's no doubt that Vimeo is attempting to take its business in a new direction.

We can only hope that Mr. Trainor won't take Vimeo the way of YouTube, with all those ads crapping up the viewing experience. Some things, like Vimeo's highbrow allegiance to quality video, just need to remain sacred.