(Photo: Instagram/Mazy)

Airbnb Is a Belieber Early this week, CEO Brian Chesky tweeted out a photo of Justin Bieber, whose startup cred apparently extends to Airbnb renter. The Instagram shot was taken by Mazy Kazerooni, cofounder of #DominateFund, Ben Parr's still hush-hush, celebrity-focused micro-VC. Gee, wonder who their LPs are?

Friday flashback This week the revamped Digg got an unexpected celebrity thumbs-up: Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame (infamy?) tweeted at developer Robert Tolar Haining, "I love Digg. Great job and beautiful interface." "Why thank you sir!" Mr. Haining replied, because what else are you going to say when Fred Durst compliments your UI?

Curtain's up This week, Facebook sibling/musical theater devotee Randi Zuckerberg attended and spoke at TedXBroadway. More importantly: She got to meet Lt. Sulu himself, George Takei:

With @georgetakei at #TEDxBroadway! He was so great talking about theater & social media, I don't even have to speak! twitter.com/randizuckerber…

— Randi Zuckerberg (@randizuckerberg) January 28, 2013

Not even gonna front like we aren't jealous.

Devastating It seems Monday was a rough day in the Business Insider office. We speak not of Henry Blodget's regaling the Internet with tales of his air travels, nor of the site's tussle with the Awl over the nature of parody. No, we speak of the fallout from Sunday's episode "Downton Abbey." "Still kinda shaken by last night’s Downton," tweeted deputy editor Joseph Weisenthal. "Sybil?" Mr. Blodget responded with understanding and sympathy, before adding that it had been "brutal."

It's hard but we'll all get through this somehow, just like the Granthams. Stiff upper lip!

Panty Drop Off Softbank principle and devilishly stylish VC Nikhil Kalghatgi got a little surprise in the mail this week. Turns out some silly prankster decided to send him "3.9 kg of panties." Though he declined to reveal just how many pairs of panties equal 3.9 kg, he invited one lucky user to DM him on "Thonger, the all panties Twitter." Sassy.

(Photo: Twitter)

It's all Greek to me I don't think that word means what you think it means.

(Screenshot: Twitter)

The Coworker Is Right WeWork resident Asi Lang guessed the right price on stage with Drew Carey, while his fellow coworkers watched on TV from 175 Varick Street. Between this and all the Foursquare questions on "Jeopardy," game shows seem to have a Silicon Alley bias.

Oh you fancy huh Appcelerator head of partnerships and occasional Betabeat columnist Spencer Chen has some sick Super Bowl plans. Too bad TechCrunch columnist MG Siegler has better ones. Suddenly we feel gloriously populist for our plans to watch it in our PJs on a normal-sized TV.

(Photo: Tumblr)

Screencap

Earlier today, Betabeat dropped by WeWork, a coworking space filled with techies diligently laboring away, to watch as Manhattan borough president Scott Stringer debuted a new report titled, "Start-up City: Growing New York City's Entrepreneurial Ecosystem for All." As you can probably tell from the name, it's an attempt at cracking how the city can broaden access to the city's booming tech economy and make sure everybody's boats are still bobbing away on the rising tide.

"I think it's important that government officials don't get stuck in the century we're in, but rather think about the century of the future," Mr. Stringer told Betabeat.

The report (which we've embedded below) identifies 11 areas where the city needs to focus in order to do that. Several are near and dear to the hearts of the city's techies, from expanding the computer science curriculum in New York City schools and developing a CUNY program focused on the STEM track to creating a municipal fiber network as a means of fixing our citywide connectivity headache.

It's no secret that the fruits of the tech renaissance are accruing more to the city's middle and upper classes, while working class New Yorkers struggle for an entry point, without the skills to take part. The report's executive summary frankly admits this:

Despite its rich history, it is clear that large swaths of today's entrepreneurial ecosystem lie beyond the reach of millions of working class New Yorkers, contributing to an unemployment rate of nearly 10 percent and to rising poverty that now encompasses one in five New Yorkers.

Not clear enough? Here you go:

If New York wants to remain a middle class city, then government must do everything it can to foster the entrepreneurial ecosystem and create a pipeline of jobs for working families.

As Mr. Stringer pointed out in his remarks, it's pretty unfortunate that there's a war for tech talent raging when there are New Yorkers out of work. And the report makes clear that the city's government needs to help close that skills gap. He doesn't expect the report to be a panacea, however: "I'm not suggesting those problems or those issues have to be solved immediately," he admitted.

"I would be very pleased if this report begins to get people thinking about legislative initiatives, policy initiatives, how do we invest in this infrastructure in this city," he added.

Here's the report for the curious:

Start-up City Report

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.

R.I.P. and Godspeed, Neil Armstrong--a pioneering astronaut, American icon and international hero, who on July 20, 1969, became the first man to set foot on the moon, making history and instilling a deep sense of pride in every man, woman and child on earth. As Neil deGrasse Tyson tweeted: "Neil Armstrong was the spiritual repository of spacefaring dreams & ambitions. In death, a little bit of us all dies with him."

In more earthly concerns, it looks like a ton of Silicon Alley folks have submitted panels for consideration for SXSW 2013 this year. Here's the comprehensive list we've compiled, based on your emails and feedback. Go show some love for these panels with your valuable votes. Remember, the deadline for voting is August 31.

And now let's see whats going down in the Alley this week...

What are Funders Looking For in Strong Startups
With Brian Cohen (chairman, New York Angels), Ben Lin (managing partner & COO, Greak Oaks Venture Capital) and Steve Brotman (managing partner & founder, Silicon Alley Venture Partners)
Monday (Aug. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Foley & Lardner LLP, 90 Park Avenue, 39th Floor

Reddit Entrepreneur/Startup Meetup
With presentations like, "How I quit my job to start my startup," "Things I wished I knew before I quit my day job," "How I used kickstarter to finance my startup"... You get the idea.
Monday (Aug. 27), 7 p.m. @ WeWork Labs, 175 Varick St., 4th Floor

Beer and Social Media! Joios and Digital MBA Talk and Taste.
Eight interesting beers will be featured, plus remarks from Chris Gallant, founder of the Bronx Brewery.
Tuesday (Aug. 28), 6:30 p.m. @ City Tavern, 22 E 13th St.

Second Hardware Startup Meetup!
Speakers include Jeff Glasse (CEO, Kogeto), Charley Hendee (CTO, Tactonic Technologies) and Diego Vargas (CTO, Wattvision)
Tuesday (Aug. 28), 7 p.m. @ Collab, 304 Hudson St.

North Brooklyn Breakfast Club
With Shelley Bernstein (Brooklyn Museum), Seth Porges (Cloth) and Jose Serrano-McClain (Trust Art).
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 9:30 a.m. @ Enid's, 560 Manhattan Avenue, Brooklyn

GreenspaceNYC Hackathon
With focus on several sustainability use-case scenarios, such as mapping green building resources in New York City.
Wednesday (Aug 29), 3 p.m. @ Wix Lounge, 10 West 18th St., 2nd Floor

State of the Startup Industry: Design
Featuring Dan Maccarone (cofounder of Charming Robot and Hard Candy Shell) and Matias Corea (cofounder & chief designer of Behance).
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7 p.m. @ General Assembly, 902 Broadway, 4th Floor

Queens Tech End of Summer Drinks
Have drinks, meet interesting techies, learn about tech projects in Queens, and collaborate on exciting ideas.
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7 p.m. @ Alewife, 5-14 51st Avenue, Long Island City

Websdays Rooftop Pool Party w/ Sailthru
A rooftop pool party at Thompson LES, featuring an open Wodka Vodka bar. Yes, that does sound awesome.
Wednesday (Aug. 29), 7:30 p.m. @ Thompson LES, 190 Allen St.

New York Mobile App Developer (MAD) Meetup
(Reverse) pitches by PaperTrail, Postable, Tappible, OneTok and TapFame.
Thursday (Aug. 30), 7 p.m. @ Magnani Caruso Dutton, 138 West 25th Street, 4th Floor

More events on the horizon...
NY Games Conference on Sep 05 @ Museum of Jewish Heritage
September NY FinTech After-party and Networking on Sep 05 @ Butterfield 8 Restaurant & Lounge
2012 Tech Does Fashion Week (#TDFW): A Kickoff Party on Sep 07 @ AlleyNYC
Comedy Hack Day on Sep 08 @ Pivotal Labs NYC
Digital Money Unconference-- From NYPAY and Consult Hyperion on Sep 11 @ Google
FinovateFall 2012 on Sep 12 @ Jacob K. Javits Convention Center
Investor Feedback Forum (New York) on Sep 13 @ Columbia University - Schapiro Center
Design for Manufacturing Summit on Sep 20 @ Dumbo Spot

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

WeWork Labs SF

WeWork Labs, the coworking space for early-stage startups, which moved to 17,000 square foot space in March, is planning on doubling its size. By July, the incubatorish offices will occupy both the third and fourth floor of 175 Varick Street. Applications are welcome for June, but it's already at capacity now with more than 100 startups, including Longreads, Fitocracy, Scrollkit, and Material Wrld.

As suspected, WeWork Labs also officially announced its expansion into San Francisco, eWork cofounder Matt Shampine told Betabeat. The two-floor space, at 156 2nd Street, will hold about 100 people and open its doors May 14th with applications open immediately. Three directors have already been named: Kaitlin Pike, a RallyPad Mentor and the "charming host of #sfnightowls," Seth Blank, founder and CEO of Trove, and Dave Nugent, a freelance Drupal developer who runs the SF JavaScript Meetup and GamesJS.

For those of you trying to keep track of the company's seemingly-unstoppable coworking juggernaut, WeWork Labs is the early-stage arm of WeWork, a larger coworking network that offers boutique office space to any startup in five locations--four in New York and one in L.A--and raised $6.85 million in January.

But where WeWork companies are typically in the one-15 employee range, WeWork Labs focuses on the one-three employee range. Through sponsors like Microsoft, Pepsi, JWT and WilmerHale, WeWork Labs is able to offer cheaper space ($300 month-to-month) and access to services like office hours with WilmerHale or flat packages on, say, financial advice for raising a seed round. Organizations like SkillShare are free to host classes there as long as the Labs's members can attend.

"If we have extra resources, like money, we just stick it back into the community," said Mr. Shampine, describing WeWork Labs. "For instance, one of our startups wanted to have an event during Internet Week, so we got Pepsi to throw in the food and drink and her startup is a beer startup so she got the alcohol sponsor and then we helped by throwing in money for cups and napkins and plates and stuff like that."

WeWork Labs doesn't offer investment or take equity. "We think of it more as a residency in a lot of ways because it has all the resources you need in it and you’re surrounded by people in similar situations," said Mr. Shampine.

With its new SF outpost, WeWork Labs can be an asset to bicoastal or peripatetic young founders. "We’ve already had a few startups that started in New York like Tout and Idonethis," said Mr. Shampine. "They both went over to California for accelerators and ended up staying over there—but now they both moved into the WeWork building. It’s all about keeping the community and the family growing and everyone together."

To further support the needs of young startups, WeWork is offering healthcare to all its members--not just Labs residents. "Prices are as low as $360/month and the coverage is good," Mr. Shampine wrote on his personal Tumblr.

The company, which rents office and desk space to startups, entrepreneurs and small businesses for as low as $275 a month is already up and running in California with their San Francisco office.

Mr. Neumann told Betabeat that this second round of capital was raised over a short period of time and explained that WeWork has had had various investment offers, but are picky about who they choose to work with.

Mr. Neumann didn't want to reveal too much about what WeWork has in store, but offer a few clues.

"The beginning of it is a simple member management system [that will] help members manage their interaction within the WeWork space—but its going to become a lot more than that," he explained. "It's going to become a portal for entrepreneurs, startups, freelancers and small businesses.

As Betabeat reported earlier, WeWork Labs, the 50-person incubator/common workspace experiment, will move to 175 Varick St. where they will have 17,000 sq. ft. of office space. The dramatic size increase, will be a huge upgrade from their current 3,000 sq. ft. office and will allow them to grow to up to 250 members.

Mr. Neumann said the new L.A. location, at 7083 Hollywood Blvd. is backed by San Francisco's IO Ventures and will be home to a movie technology incubator.

WeWork's space in L.A. and at 175 Varick are both slated to open on Feb. 15, but Mr. Neumann said the opening of the new space in SoHo may not be ready until March 1.

The company, which began at 154 Grand St. in Feb. 2010, is nearly two years old.

Too many techies, not enough desk.

Leave it to Observer friend and alum Laura Kusisto to rectify the cold shoulder The Wall Street Journal has been turning toward Silicon Alley's very own co-working movement with some big news, potentially of the world historical variety.

WeWork has apparently locked down 74,000 sq. ft. on 175 Varick Street near the Holland Tunnel to give techie types a shared space away from home.  It boasts a ridonkulous 700 desks and all the proper startup accountrement: scooters, pool tables, and video games.  Guess you can only overhear startup chatter about scaling big so often before you have to attempt it yourself. Although in a space normally designed to house a law firm, it remains to be seen whether they can sustain the keep-it-nimble vibe.

WeWork's Adam Neumann and Miguel McKelvey locked down the space with the idea that the co-working scene has enough momentum now to support leases of  $150-$800 a month per desk. The high-end of that range sounds way rich for a startup's blood to us, but co-working isn't just limited to techie types anymore. Freelancers Union founder Sara Horowitz gives the paper a quote Philip K. Dick would be proud of, "Work is just increasingly becoming units of work, as opposed to careers."

But back to those 700 desks. The next biggest thing in the New York is Sunshine Suites claim to more than 500 desks at NoHo. And San Francisco's RocketSpace also has 500 desks. In a piece about the upcoming Coworking Europe Conference (yes, there is such a thing), Deskmag writes, "At 700 desks, WeWork will definitely be the biggest collaborative workspace in the world."

Suddenly General Assembly's rumored international expansion plans have some company.

Gonna get that paper

The brand new WeWork labs will be welcoming Ryan Charles and his startup Consmr when they open their doors Friday.

Word broke today that Charles was leaving his job as head of mobile at the venerable Zagat guide to focus full time on his startup, which is a sort of Yelp for consumer products that allows folks to check in and express opinions on items like shampoo or soup.

"We're planning to raise funds in the near future," says Charles, a smart move given the current founder friendly environment for funding. It was this development which led him to focus on his new space over a steady job.

"I know a lot about building a business and finding partnerships with established corporations," says Charles, who helped Zagat integrate with Foursqaure and Foodspotting. Consmr already has some deals in place with big beverage brands.

"I think where we need help is on the funding side of things. We are going to have access to the kind of advisors at WeWork who can guide us through that," says Charles.

Will WeWork prove to have the golden touch when it comes to funding, or is General Assembly one of a kind?