By Gary Sharma 12/03/12 9:00am

Goooood Morning Silicon Alley!

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Best Tech Events This Week (ThinkCommerce, Xconomy, TimesOpen Hack Day, NY Tech Meetup, TEDxSiliconAlley, AlleyNYC Holiday Party, Hack/Meat, Pitchcrawl 2.0)

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.

Winter is coming.

No, I’m not talking about the weather (though it has been getting chilly lately). Nor Game of Thrones (FYI, season 3 begins on March 31 for those keeping track!). I’m talking about the growing perception in Startupland that the good times might really be coming to an end (for now). Following last week’s post by Fred Wilson was this one by PandoDaily’s Sarah Lacy, talking about the Series A crunch and how as many as thousand companies who’ve received seed rounds won’t be around in six months. Then there’s this one by TechCrunch’s Alexia Tsotsis, arguing that the Series A crunch actually extended to Series B, C and D. So what should entrepreneurs make of all this? Do what ya should be doing anyway–focus on building an insanely great product that customers really want and start thinking about monetization early. Personally, I think this is the best time to build a company. Read More

By Nitasha Tiku 11/08/11 1:29pm

Modern Love

LoCreep

LoCreep, ‘The LoJack for Creeps’, Launches Out of the HackNY Hackathon Into a Real, Live Startup

It looks like LoCreep, an app Betabeat first told you about back in October, has creeped its way into official startup status. After presenting at New York Tech Meetup last week with a similarly amusing shtick to one they used at hackNY’s hackathon, Xconomy reports that team members Andres Campanella and Misha Ponizil are even contemplating the possibility of funding—once they get a business plan together, of course. Read More

By Ben Popper 7/05/11 11:00am

NYC VC

Too many angels bubble the cloud

What’s Really Going on With NY Angels?

A little over two months ago Betabeat weighed in on the state of NY Angels, a group that gained a lot of visibility and respect for backing tech projects during the dark years following the dot-com bust. Every so often a media outlet will cover a NY Angels event or interview one of their executives. The latest is from Xconomy, which is ramping up its coverage of the local tech scene.

Xconomy’s Arlene Weintraub sat down NY Angels vice chairman Brian Cohen. When we last spoke with Cohen, we asked why the group’s portfolio, which has its own page on the website, didn’t show any investments after 2009. “We are building a new website, so check back in 60 days,” Mr. Cohen told us.

Well, it’s been 100 days, and the site looks exactly the same. Read More