Mr. Williams. (Photo: Wikipedia.org)

Power Literary Hire: Twitter cofounder Ev Williams's new publishing tool, Medium, just added an impressive member to its team. Kate Lee, a former literary agent from International Creative Management (ICM), has joined Mr. Williams's startup as the director of content. Ms. Lee was responsible for plucking several bloggers out of obscurity and giving them book deals. The Observer announced her leave from ICM back in April. In a blog post on the site, Mr. Williams described her job as "encouraging, soliciting, commissioning, and contextualizing interesting ideas, authors, and institutions" and noted that she would be building a small team in New York to help her do that.

Branch Finally Lets You Hang Out With Your Friends: Branch, the social conversations site, just launched a groups feature yesterday. In an email to Betabeat, Branch cofounder Josh Miller described it as "Branch's equivalent of a Follow button." The idea was inspired by the conversations that people have at dinner parties, in which smaller groups form to discuss topics that they care about. On Branch, these groups can be added into a conversation. Branch's example site includes a group featuring Mr. Miller, Medium's Ev Williams, John Borthwick from Betaworks, Michael Sippey from Twitter and Facebook's Sam Lessin. These groups have a possibility to create Bloods and Crips-like warfare in tech. Choose sides wisely.

Christmas Swag on a Million: BaubleBar, the discounted jewelry online megastore, is going all out for the holidays. In addition to its Soho pop-up shop The Bar, the company is partnering with nail polish giant Essie and teaming up with Elle magazine for a guided shopping experience. On Cyber Monday, BaubleBar will be giving customers a free product for every $40 they spend in what it calls its Cyber Monday Gifting Suite. And the "20 Days of Buried Baubles," in which 20 style influencers will offer a daily BaubleBar deal to their fans,will begin on the 30th. You're going to need a new jewelry rack.

Like the Song From Legally Blonde: Peek, the Eric Schmidt- and Jack Dorsey-backed travel site, is launching a new feature called Perfect Days. It allows users to share their ideal 24-hour game plan for a city. Users looking for places to recommend can pull from their Foursquare and Google Places accounts. The site already has some celebrities that have made their own Perfect Days, including designer Tory Burch and prolific tweeter Piers Morgan.

Designers Should Apply to This:  The investment firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB) has announced that it's starting a design fellowship program to help young designers get acclimated to working with startups. The three-month program will pair up designers with some of KPCB's funded startups like Coursera, Flipboard, Klout, Square and Path. Applications are being accepted now and will be taken until January 31.

Makeup Ladies Go to the Net: Chloe + Isabel, the e-commerce jewelry brand, just announced the launch of its new online platform. Instead of just a regular store, the company is now employing an Avon model for direct sales, through which its users can now sell products to their friends and profit. These users can pull photos from their Instagram accounts to better display their products. Prepare to be spammed by your friend's hip mom.

Let's Pretend We're Rich: Zaarly, the online marketplace for goods and services, has just launched a virtual pop-up shop for Thanksgiving. If you burn the turkey, just hire a local chef to cook the meal for you. Or perhaps you're not a very good cleaner: just pay someone to do it for you. Hire a fleet of professional help to impress your out-of-town guests and say, "Oh them? They're here year-round!"

Don't Forget to Rate, Comment and Subscribe: Rightster, a service that helps content providers maximize revenue from online video, just announced that it has broken into the top 10 of the U.S. comScore YouTube rankings. It now owns around 300 YouTube channels. John Dillon, a former software ad exec at Alcatel Lucent, just joined Rightster as its new vice president of marketing.

A Really Pretty Junk Drawer: If your inbox is maxed out with daily deals and coupons from your favorite stores, then Sift is the new iPad app for you. It sorts your junk emails into a scrollable shopping experience. The YouTube demo is an EDM shopping party. Go nuts.

Companies Love Paying for Mobile: Usablenet, the company that makes mobile sites for big businesses, has just been named to Deloitte’s Technology Fast 500, a power list that rates the 500 fastest-growing technology, media, telecommunications, life sciences and clean technology companies in North America. Started in 2000, Usablenet claims that its revenues have grown 861 percent in the past four years.

Foursquare's temporary HQ. (Photo: Twitter)

Given recent events, Betabeat decided to forego our Rumor Roundup this week for a roundup of all the things startups are doing to help get New York back to normal following Hurricane Sandy.

It didn't take long for New York startups and techies to spring into action after Hurricane Sandy left parts of our fine city without power, water, shelter, or Wifi.

On Tuesday, we pointed you to New York Tech Meetup and New Work City's attempts to mobilize tech-savvy volunteers to help local businesses and organizations get networks and websites up and running. Today, NYTM put out an official call to its 28,000 members, asking for more volunteers and taking requests (online or by phone/text 646-392-7353) from government agencies, small businesses, non-profits, and schools that need help anything from data recovery to Internet connectivity to getting servers back online.

Noel Hidalgo, one of the lead volunteers of that effort, has been manning an uber-useful Sandy Coworking map of offices space for displaced techies. And New Work City founder Tony Bacigalupo, has pretty much morphed into Silicon Alley's Cory Booker. 

I was thinking it'd be bad ass to get teams of people in cars loaded with supplies just rolling around helping whoever was in need.

— Tony Bacigalupo (@tonybgoode) November 2, 2012

In fact, companies like Uber, which temporarily dropped surge pricing amid cries of price gouging but then quickly reinstated it--and Hotels.com have been the aberration. Most startups have lept at the chance to lend a hand and show off the tech scene's self-professed collaborative spirit.

Here's a roundup of yet more Sandy relief efforts spearheaded by the tech community:

No fee Airbnb From Oct. 31 to Nov. 7, Airbnb is waiving its fees for both renters and hosts on all properties located in areas hit by Hurricane Sandy, including NYC and Long Island. Travelers must stay for seven nights or fewer. We found a bunch of local hosts who dropped their rates to $10 a night, as a Sandy special.

Red Cross Tonight Hotel booking service Hotel Tonight is donating all money spent on hotels in NYC Thursday Nov. 1 and Friday Nov. 2 to the Red Cross.

Zaarly's pops up with a helping hand Peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly launched an online pop-up shop that allows users to purchase local services for NYC residents in need. Examples include homemade meals from a local chef, pet sitting and renovations. All of the proceeds from the pop up shop will be donated to the Red Cross in New York City. "Based in San Francisco, folks at Zaarly wanted to help their friends in New York, but felt powerless," a rep told Betabeat. "After batting ideas around late into Monday night, they realized they were no longer small and powerless. They could help their friends and enable others to do so too."

What a Mitzvah! Yenta, the "Grindr for Jews," has coordinated a bunch of relief efforts. The company has temporarily halted advertising and paid outreach in order to donate those proceeds to the Red Cross. Yenta is also inviting displaced New Yorkers to stop by their offices, where they're collecting food and clothing donations for Sandy victims.

Later, late fees AT&T, Verzion and T-Mobile are both waiving late fees for customers impacted by Hurricane Sandy, and will continue to provide service to prepaid and contract customers, even if they haven't been able to pay their bill. AT&T and T-Mobile have also been providing charging stations for New Yorkers affected by the blackout.

Tying the Knot Wedding startup The Knot created a Facebook page to help brides whose weddings were ruined or canceled by Hurricane Sandy. Affected couples are using the page to "share tips, find available venues and talk to local experts." The page is also collecting the information of wedding venues and vendors in the area who did not suffer damage and are still able to host November weddings.

Time Warner does something good Much-maligned New York cable provider TimeWarner, known for pissing off every actor from Star Trek, has temporarily shrugged off its evil image with a hefty $1 million donation to Sandy relief efforts. According to a press release, "The company will donate $500,000 to the Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City with another $500,000 to be dispersed to other organizations that are serving victims in the greater Tri-State area." They also deployed ten trucks downtown to act as charging stations with free Wifi.

Gilt City helps the city From Wednesday Oct. 31 to Sunday Nov. 4th, Gilt City NYC is donating 30 percent of all profits from sales on its NYC page to the Red Cross Hurricane Relief. The company has alerted all Gilt members of this opportunity in an email with the hopes of encouraging some philanthropic shopping.

Rubicon to the rescue Ecommerce platform AHAlife is also donating 15 percent of profits made from Oct. 31 to Nov. 4th to Team Rubicon, which links up military veterans with communities in need of rebuilding.

Squee! Stuffed animal startup Squishable released a limited edition Sandy Corgi, with $5 from every purchase from now until Sunday Nov. 4 going to the Red Cross. The corgi was so cute (see for yourself below) that it quickly sold out, so they extended the offer to the platypus squishable. So far, they've raised $1,460.

The adorable squishable corgi, which is sadly sold out. (Photo: Squishable)

Lucky us Community crowdfunding platform Lucky Ant is providing free crowdfunding for local businesses impacted by Sandy. The company has waived all fees for any local businesses wishing to use the platform to get themselves back up and running. Lucky Ant is also raising a fund with a goal of $50,000 or more that they will distribute to small businesses in need.

Buried bauble relief Online jewelry retailer Bauble Bar is hosting its weekly "Buried Bauble" special, where users use a clue to find a discounted piece of jewelry. This week, for every $10 buried bauble users purchase today, Bauble Bar will donate $10 to the Red Cross.

Fresh charity My Fresh Shirt, an online drycleaning service, has donated a year's worth of free drycleaning for auction at Charitybuzz, a platform that allows users to host auctions for charity. So far, the current bid is up to $600, and all proceeds will go to the Red Cross.

(Photo: Zaarly.com)

When Bo Fishback dropped by the Betabeat offices last December, the 9 million foot tall Zaarly cofounder told us how he had just added 1,250 New York-based small businesses to his burgeoning peer-to-peer local marketplace. That way, service providers like graphic designers and fitness instructors could use Zaarly almost as a lead generation engine for new opportunities nearby.

But from a consumer's perspective, it wasn't necessarily obvious whether a trained chef, say, would be responding to your request for a home cooked dinner, or just a neighbor with a beat up copy of the Momofuku cook book.

Today, however, Zaarly is upping the ante on empowering the top tier of talented service providers--no surprise considering Mr. Fishback's roots at the Kauffman Foundation for entrepreneurship. With the launch of Zaarly Storefronts, the company, which operates both through a mobile app and online, allows sellers to proactively showcase the services they provide, ideally giving them a venue to grow their business.

For now, the feature is only available in San Francisco starting with 120 featured sellers arranged into categories like Wellness & Fitness and Home Services & Repairs. But TechCrunch reports that Zaarly is already onboarding sellers in New York and Los Angeles.

Individuals have to apply to be featured in Zaarly's seller network, the company explained in a press release. Only after "carefully considering each application," will Zaarly select the "best-of-the-best" on its site. After taking a look at the initial crop of storefronts, it's easy to see why. The pages are sleek and customized, not just plug-and-play. But the company is currently taking applications from those who want to join the network.

As Mr. Fishback said in the press release, “Zaarly makes it easy for people to ‘favorite’ their preferred sellers -- or friends’ preferred sellers -- so they know where to turn for a great mechanic, chef, yoga instructor, handyman, dog walker, gardener or wedding planner.”

When Zaarly started in New York, the occasional glimpse at the app offered mostly listings and requests for products, like a camera or MacBook. It's interesting to watch the company try to build a community with the same intimate feel as TaskRabbit, its primary competitor.

The emphasis on homespun skills is particularly noteworthy considering TaskRabbit's acqui-hire of Skillslate in January.  Before it was bought out, Skillslate, a small New York City company, focused on a similar proposition. You know, for when you needed a last minute firebreather for your pivot party, but weren't sure who to ask.

Ms. Hornstein (Photo: Facebook)

This week, the world was introduced to Shirley Hornstein: an ersatz entrepreneur who Photoshopped and name-dropped her way through Silicon Valley. For at least a year and a half, Ms. Hornstein has been trading on flimsily fabricated connections to powerful tech investors, startups, and celebrities--always depending, as TechCrunch first reported, on the optimism of strangers.

"She told people she had the authority to approve up to a $1 million investment from Founders Fund. That was her line," an investor from Los Angeles who recently moved to San Francisco told Betabeat, recounting the time Ms. Hornstein cajoled a pair of young entrepreneurs into pitching her on a Saturday, convincing them on Sunday that she had already heard back from the board with good news.

The fact that Ms. Hornstein's roommate was TechCrunch community manager Elin Blesener also helped "legitimize her," the same investor added.

For more credible (or at least Google-able) proof of her position in the tech world, there was this blog post Ms. Hornstein wrote on Women 2.0, which has since been deleted, touting her connections to Founders Fund and Dropbox. It opened with an anecdote about that time she got angel investing advice from Marissa Mayer.

Image doctored by Ms. Hornstein (top), Original image (Photo: TechCrunch)

As part of yesterday's exposé, TechCrunch revealed that Founders Fund filed a legal complaint against Ms. Hornstein in December for her "efforts to improperly trade in on Founders Fund's good name and reputation," leveraging, in particular, a made-up friendship with Sean Parker.

The startup world's collective schadenfreude at Ms. Hornstein's unstable nest of lies could be chalked up to a guilty conscience. "Seems like everyone is besties with Jack Dorsey and Dennis Crowley," Warby Parker's Lane Wood wrote in defense of Ms. Hornstein. "Someone went to the same party, took a photo and regaled their friends about how 'down to earth' person X was or how Person Y is just as much of an ass as all the rumors say."

Betabeat has spoken to multiple sources, however, who say that Ms. Hornstein's deceptions may have been more egregious than exaggerating her social status or professional network. They allege that Ms. Hornstein is also responsible for repeated credit card theft. The incidents occurred both in her personal life and at at least one startup where she was employed.

We obtained screenshots (posted below) of receipts for two airplane tickets and a monthly BART pass, as well as gChats and emails from former friends of Ms. Hornstein's, all related to fraudulent charges worth thousands of dollars that she made by allegedly stealing her friend's credit card numbers.

That alleged theft first occurred during a trip to Vegas, where Ms. Hornstein also accumulated other debts she has yet to repay, including the cost of a hotel room, as well as a last minute ticket to a Cirque du Soleil show for former TechCrunch writer Paul Carr. Ms. Hornstein alleged the two were dating, which is patently false. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Carr never materialized at the show. He would turn out to be the second bold-faced name Ms. Hornstein claimed to be involved with. First, she told acquaintances she was engaged to NHL player Ryane Clowe, with her public tweets to the star confusing even sports fans on niche hockey forums.

Betabeat also spoke to a reputable source within the Silicon Valley tech community, who alleged that Ms. Hornstein committed a similar theft--using a company credit card, this time--to steal thousands of dollars from her employer. That source, who only spoke under condition of anonymity, did not want to name the company, but based on the timing of the theft, we were able to confirm that the incident happened at Giftiki, a small startup that lets you pool your money to buy better gifts, which was acquired by LaunchRock earlier this month.

"[Ms. Hornstein] got access to company credit cards and actually bought things at charity auctions in the thousands of dollars," said the source. As a marketing consultant, "she was given the credit card to buy some refreshments and so forth because they were doing an event. She retained the credit card information and used it on her own behalf." The company and its investors threatened to prosecute Ms. Hornstein if they weren't repaid, but Ms. Hornstein repaid the debt. Her employment was subsequently terminated. "I can corroborate the fact that she was stealing," the source added.

After Ms. Hornstein left, the startup still declined to prosecute for fear that it would reflect poorly on Giftiki, perhaps assuming that once caught, she would be too scared to try again. "The problem," said the source, "is that she just raised her head somewhere else and created more problems."

Ms. Hornstein did not respond to repeated requests for interviews from Betabeat. But the more closely you look at her fragile "house of cards," as one source put it, the more it seems to evoke the familiar tropes of Startupland, distorted through a funhouse mirror.

Self-described builders, doers, and world-changers make skepticism a dirty word if you're "one of us." Safe inside the virtuous bubble, everyone is willing to lend a hand, only latching on to Ms. Hornstein seemed to drag companies down. Rubbing elbows with newly-minted millionaires fosters a sense of possibility and promise, yes, but also pressure to match that overnight success or be left behind. In a rapidly striating sector, no one wants to look like they're on the bottom rung.

Giftiki was operating out of RocketSpace, a coworking spot in San Francisco that also temporarily housed Zaarly, a peer-to-peer marketplace app based in Kansas City. Prior to working at Giftiki, Ms. Hornstein worked at Zaarly as a marketing consultant. (Although she gave herself a promotion to "head of operations and community," in that since deleted Women 2.0 post.) The source said someone from Zaarly tried to warn Giftiki about Ms. Hornstein, but Zaarly cofounder Eric Koester said he had not heard anything to that effect.

"She was with us for 51 days," Mr. Koester said, adding that no fraud occurred during her brief tenure. "It wasn't a long stint and there was nothing mischievous to report other than it wasn't a good fit."

Ms. Hornstein, sources said, invariably brought up her Founders Fund connection within a few minutes of meeting someone. Often, she also mentioned being one of the first employees at Dropbox, the popular cloud storage service. Nearly every source we spoke to mentioned the longstanding rumor in Silicon Valley that Ms. Hornstein also allegedly stole from Dropbox during her time there. In the comments section on TechCrunch's post, Jose Miguel Castello, owner of Don't Retail, wrote:

"Hopefully one of Dropbox's employees in the know will share the story about how Shirley used Dropbox's paypal account to pay for several thousand dollars of her own expenses?"

However, we were unable to track down any evidence to support that claim and Dropbox has not responded to inquiries from Betabeat.

Ms. Hornstein, her friends said, employed the same tactics she used to dupe startups in her personal life--promising parties at Sean Parker's house or Founders Fund's ear for a potential idea. Lily Himmelsbach, director of operations at Let's Gift It, a gifting startup based in New York, first met Ms. Hornstein at a party in the East Village. The two later overlapped at Zaarly.

During a business trip for Zaarly in Kansas City, Ms. Hornstein went through the elaborate ruse of breaking up with Mr. Clowe--the NHL star, whose giant engagement ring she had been wearing--crying on the phone in her hotel room for hours. As Ms. Himmelsbach later learned, there was no one on the other end. "I think she's a good and well-intentioned person, but she's deeply troubled and needs to get help," Ms. Himmelsbach said.

The investor from Los Angeles, who mentioned Ms. Hornstein's standard $1 million Founders Fund line, said he first realized "Shirls" wasn't who she said she was during an elevator ride up to a party at the San Francisco home of a mid-level Google employee. Ms. Hornstein went on and on about Mr. Clowe, not realizing that the NHL player was married engaged to and had a child with the investor's ex-girlfriend.

Unfortunately for Ms. Himmelsbach, she and a group of friends did not realize the extent of Ms. Hornstein's dissembling until that trip to Las Vegas. Ms. Hornstein told the group that she would surprise them by dropping in on their vacation. Once Ms. Hornstein arrived, however she claimed the hotel wouldn't let her book a room with a foreign credit card. (Ms. Hornstein had identified herself as a German national.) The group let her stay in an extra room they had booked, with the promise that she would pay them back.

The day after that Cirque du Soleil show, Ms. Himmelsbach returned to her room to a missing credit card and a note from Ms. Hornstein saying she had to rush back to San Francisco for an emergency board meeting. When Ms. Himmelsbach checked the charges on her card from Las Vegas, there was a purchase for a monthly BART card in San Francisco made near the airport. Michael Herzog, who was also on the Las Vegas trip, found an even more troubling charge on his corporate card, which he still possessed: a ticket back to San Francisco, purchased in Ms. Hornstein's name. Her landing time coincided with the purchase of the metro card.

When Ms. Hornstein was asked about the missing credit card via gChat (a portion of that conversation is screencapped below), she responded, "shit I hope it wasn't in my stuff somehow," later adding, "but I did somehow have michael's id that next day so i dunno haha."

Last October, Ms. Hornstein announced a trip to New York City via Facebook. Sure enough, there was another flight charge on Mr. Herzog's card, this time to New York, booked in Ms. Hornstein's name. (He did not cancel the card because of the number of other services it was already synched up with.) After being confronted, Ms. Hornstein confessed to the theft, but still has not paid back the debt or responded to the email (below).

gChat conversation between Ms. Hornstein and Ms. Himmelsbach

BART receipt via Ms. Himmelsbach

Email from Mr. Herzog to Ms. Hornstein

Despite these alleged thefts, Ms. Hornstein's record is relatively clean, although not spotless. Running Ms. Hornstein's name through the civil records of the California Superior Court in San Francisco turns up three results: the Founder's Fund suit, which TechCrunch has covered in detail, as well as two other cases.

One is a collections suit, filed in March 2011. It's fairly straightforward, alleging that Ms. Hornstein failed to pay off an $1,869.43 debt on a Bank of America credit card. In October, the court ruled that Ms. Hornstein must pay up, but the trail goes cold in December 2011 after the collections agency is serve her with a summons.

The small claims complaint is similarly penny-ante in scale, but perhaps more indicative of what was to come. On October 28, 2009, a Lisa Di Santo filed suit against Ms. Hornstein, accusing her of breaking a contract to sublease her apartment to Ms. Di Santo--then refusing to return $1,400 in pre-paid rent. In the complaint, she alleges:

"Shirley broke our contract and has refused to refund the rent money that i paid to her, up front, in the amount of $1,400.00. Cornelia is her mother, who is the cosigner on her lease , with whom i have had numerous conversations with. My first communication with Shirley was 8/26/09 and the last time I heard from her was 9/26/09."

In February 2010, the court ultimately ruled in Ms. Di Santo's favor. A source who asked for anonymity told Betabeat Ms. Hornstein once said, "My parents are really worried and my mom wants me to come home."

Why, we asked Ms. Himmelsbach, did she think Ms. Hornstein targeted the tech sector? "Maybe because it's not that hard to get into and once you're in, it's pretty easy to climb the social ladder," she responded. "Unfortunately she wasn't building anything except a fake product, which was her life."

Ms. Himmelsbach pointed out that the startup sector is also remarkably collaborative. "I've worked in a couple different industries and I've never met people who are so willing to lend a hand, saying, 'Grab a cup of coffee, let's go talk.' It can be a total stranger. I think everyone is open and maybe that's to our disadvantage. I mean it's just kind of a wake up call to go, hmm, who else is as full of shit as this @Shirls character."

Kelly Faircloth contributed reporting to this article.

We will continue to pursue this story as it develops, so please reach us by email with any information: tips@betabeat.com.

(flickr.com/nataliemaynor)

Shop ‘til you drop Shopkick—a location-based shopping app which rewards shoppers for walking into stores and interacting with products—has just announced a partnership with Macy’s. As of last week, customers at Macy’s more than 800 brick-and-mortar U.S. locations can now earn rewards and receive exclusive offers whenever they walk into a store, which was made possible through a technology partnership with Mood Media. The app is available for both iPhone and Android.

Shopping, continued Local startups Local Response and ShopLocal are teaming up to combine the former’s real-time intent monitoring system and the latter’s SmartCircular API—which will generate mobile-based incentives for in-store customers, including coupons, loyalty rewards and discounts. (Which sounds a lot like Shopkick, if you ask us.) ShopLocal’s promotional services are already used by retailers like Target, Best Buy, Home Depot, Staples, CVS and Sears—which isn’t exactly what we’d expect from such a seemingly obvious name, but there you have it.

What’s up, doc Vitals, an online source for physician information and ratings, just launched a new iPhone app to connect on-the-go patients and doctors nationwide. The app also enables users to create custom “top 10” lists of their favorite local doctors (wouldn’t want to forget your favorite gyno!) and store relevant information like doctors’ phone numbers and photos of health insurance cards.

Build-your-own-website The web hosting and cloud service provider Media Temple has announced an expanded partnership with Virb, a DIY website cloud designed for small businesses, especially artists, musicians and other creative class types. The companies hope the partnership will improve the customer experience by providing users with greater access to both of their tools for site-building, domain names, email, and web hosting.

Google docs 2.0 Cage, a new online collaboration tool, just launched. The venue provides a secure environment for creative teams in web, mobile, print, video, design, 3D and motion graphics to present their work for feedback and approval. This video explains it all in great detail.

I heart NYC Yesterday, the New York City Economic Development Corporation announced the first-ever NYC Best for Business Infographics Competition. New Yorkers are challenged to “demonstrate why NYC is the premier global destination for businesses,” using by designing a visually stimulating infographic. The contest is open now until September 21, when the judging period will begin. Three semi-finalists will be selected, and a public voting period will begin in October. The winners will receive $1000, as well as a full-size print of their infographic, signed by Mayor Bloomberg. Well, what are you waiting for?

Guardian angels Congrats to TreSensa: The startup, which is building a platform for mobile and social developers to create single and multiplayer games compatible with all devices, just announced a $1 million angel round. The company hopes to cut the cost and time of game development, as well as enabling producers to spend more time focused on fun and creativity.

API for that Zaarly, the San Francisco-based mobile marketplace that allows buyers and sellers to communicate directly through requests and responses launched its “Zaarly Anywhere” API last week, enabling users to post requests to Zaarly directly from other websites. Taking a form similar to that of other social sharing buttons which allow users to like, tweet and pin items on the web, the new API caters to the dream of purchasing anything you see on the web.

The Zaarly team is pushing the new API not only as a way for publishers to monetize content, but also as an aid to consumers looking to buy local. “Imagine seeing a beautiful piece of custom furniture, a delicious dinner or the perfect children’s nursery, and then having a local carpenter, chef or designer make it happen,” said Zaarly founder and CEO Bo Fishback, explaining the lofty inspiration behind the new platform.  

Mark Ecko's office circa 2009 via Gawker

Back in December, Bo Fishback, CEO of the peer-to-peer marketplace Zaarly, which lets you buy and sell products and services from the people around you, told Betabeat that Zaarly planned to grow its presence in New York City from two full-time employees up to 10 or possibly 30 new staffers.

For the Kansas City-based company, which has raised $15.1 million in a little over a year since it launched, it was a signal of how important New York was both as a market and testing ground. “We hope to learn what we need to know from the New York community to help us go to scale in other cities,” Mr. Fishback told us at the time, along with the news that local staff would be moving into Marc Ecko's building at 40 West 23rd Street. Mr. Ecko is an investor, along with Ashton Kutcher, Michael Arrington, Crunchfund, and Kleiner Perkins.

But earlier today Betabeat was informed that Zaarly was closing down its New York office. "I've heard it's gone," said a source. Mr. Fishback confirmed the news, but said it was, "not really intended to be a big deal, and mostly just temporary moves," he responded by email.

According to Mr. Fishback, Zaarly had always intended for its local office to be more malleable. "It's actually part of the reason that we were paying for folks housing in NYC so that we could have the flexibility to move people around when it made sense," he added. Currently, all of the job listings--most for developers and engineers--on Zaarly's website are for positions based in San Francisco.

This recent adjustment, Mr. Fishback said, is tied to Zaarly's product development strategy. "We're in the midst of making some major product enhancements. So mostly for efficiency's sake, it just made more sense for us to have all our people working together under one roof, in one timezone."

Mr. Fishback said Zaarly is still committed to the community here. "We're regularly flying people out to New York, though, and New York continues to be one of the most active Zaarly cities."

Last June, after Zaarly had been in New York City for a month, Betabeat wasn't able to find a "peer" to deliver us a pack of Dentyne Ice in real-time, even at a considerable markup. And the requests on the site were scant, limited to just over a handful. But a perusal of the iPhone app this afternoon shows a number of requests from users in the five boroughs including a $200 for a Wordpress expert and $2000 for a wedding photographer from the past few days, although it's doesn't appear that those requests have been fulfilled since they were posted.

The Zaarly NYC Twitter account, which had 700 or so followers last June now has more than 5,200 followers and has been actively tweeting at locals--even, in the case of one Elmhurst resident, responding in Tagalog when necessary.

UPDATE: Mr. Fishback offered some clarification, also by email. "I wouldn't actually say we're shutting down given that we've got people there every week still and we didn't get rid of anyone... more just that we're getting a big product push ready to go so it made sense to have as many folks in one place as possible for the moment."

New York staffers are indeed being moved out to San Francisco. "We've got a bulging office there currently. :)," he wrote. He also added that, "NYC is our number one or two market in almost every category and continues to be one of our fastest growing Zaarly communities."

Sorry, Chad, we're now using your photo for all TaskRabbit news.

Once upon a time in a real-time peer-to-peer marketplace, an auction-based website for local skills met an auction-based platform for local tasks, fell in love and got acquired! At least that's how TaskRabbit and SkillSlate might tell it to their grandkids. That is if this outsourcing your dirty work business catches on.

This morning, TaskRabbit, the San Francisco-based company that helps users find nearby "Rabbits" to do unwanted tasks officially announced that it had acquired SkillSlate, a New York-based company that helps users find people with skills they need, such as fire breathing and personal chefery. Combined they hope to form a national "service network."

Neither startup is currently disclosing the acquisition price. But reached by email earlier this morning, SkillSlate co-founder and CEO Bartek Ringwelski told us: "Let's just say the last few months have been busy.  I think I may even have hinted about consolidation in the market when we talked a couple months ago :-)"

Betabeat spoke to a source who said that SkillSlate had also reached out to "a few other companies looking to feel this path out." The source, who wished to remain anonymous, said it was likely for a smaller price and possibly more of an acqui-hire: "it was as much about picking up some talent as anything else."

According to TaskRabbit, Mr. Ringwelski will join the company as director of financial planning and analysis and SkillSlate's Brian Rothenberg, co-founder and VP of product & marketing, will come on board as director of online marketing. Mike Nelson, SkillSlate's CTO, is the newest member of TaskRabbit’s engineering team.

Betabeat wishes we could take credit for this blessed union, considering that we included both startups in a feature about the rise of the convenience economy. But it's a natural fit, especially considering both startups crowdsource service providers and like to position themselves as micro-job creation engines for America's underemployed. Besides, TaskRabbit, which picked up $17.8 million in funding last month, had money to spend and momentum to fuel to keep up with it's largest competitor, Zaarly, which also picked up $14.1 million in October after launching in February and now wants to help promote small businesses within the auction format.

In a blog post this morning, TaskRabbit wrote:

"By integrating SkillSlate’s platform with TaskRabbit’s, we will be able to provide an even more enhanced service – one where folks can get help with practically anything."

In an email to SkillSlate users, the startup explained that the integration would happen over the coming months.

Will I still be able to access my business profile and account? Yes, you will be able to access your business profile on SkillSlate, as well as use our other features, such as our post-to-Craigslist tool.

WINNING. Skillshare is giving away a year's TED Live membership ($995)! "You get... Virtual seats at both TED and TED Global conferences. Year-round online community access. TED Books yearlong subscription & a new Kindle Fire," says Skillshare. "This is the warmup for all the stuff coming out over the next couple of months," said CEO Mike Karnjanaprakorn, a 2012 TED fellow.

VEGAS BABY. New York is headed to CES, and Makerbot, at least, is going to be alllll over it. "MakerBot Industries, creator of the Thing-O-Matic 3D printer and Thingiverse.com will be there showing off something extra awesome, and we'd love for you to stop by our booth and check it out!" MakerBot CEO Bre Pettis is scheduling interviews now for the full-court press; the 3D printing startup is also hosting a party on Jan. 11.

SECONDMARKET'S FINEST HOUR. SecondMarket has already started marketing for its Capitalyze conference on February 15. "The public markets no longer work for sub-billion-dollar growth companies."

HIRINGS. ZocDoc is still staffing up fast; Gizmodo needs a video intern.

MORE EVENTS. "Author Aaron Shapiro, CEO of Huge, will lead an overview of his recent book, Users Not Customers: Who really determines the success of your business." Brandhacker meetup Monday, Jan. 23. New York Tech Meetup is tonight. Startup Store is having an event Saturday, Jan. 7. "Just because the holidays are over doesn't mean the fun has to stop. Birchbox and Jouer invite you for an afternoon of indulgence."

NEWS. Reece Pacheco is happy.

Chad Miller, actor, writer, Rabbit

At midnight on Tuesday, TaskRabbit, the real time peer-to-peer marketplace that lets you outsource your dirty work to nearby "Rabbits," announced that it raised a eye-popping $17.8 million series B round led by LightSpeed Ventures, the Sand Hill Road firm that also backed DoubleClick.

How thoughtful of TaskRabbit! Now Zaarly doesn't have to be the only player in the do-it-for-me market with funding in the tens of millions. (In October, Zaarly announced a $14 million round led by Kleiner Perkins.) Betabeat recently profiled both firms in a feature about the rise of the convenience economy.

TaskRabbit's existing investors like Collaborative Fund and First Round Capital, also participated in the round, along with one very notable newcomer: investment bank Allen & Co., the same firm Zynga used to help underwrite its public offering. Cue the TaskRabbit IPO speculation in 3, 2, 1 . . .

The company, which launched in 2008 but didn't close its series A round (for $5 million) until this May is certainly growing quickly. Last month, founder Leah Busque told Betabeat that the site was getting $4 million in requested activity a month, adding, "All our key metrics have tripled since the first quarter of this year so we’ve got a ton of momentum right now and we’ll continue to be aggressive about rolling out to new markets."

As Betabeat noted in the feature, TaskRabbit's head start in the market, and its emphasis on services over goods, has helped the startup establish a culty, feel-good culture, in the same vein as other Collaborative Fund companies like SkillShare and KickStarter. Although it remains to be seen whether TaskRabbit and Zaarly are a viable alternative to pervasive underemployment, both companies tout that in their pitch.

In a company blog post, Ms. Busque and her CEO Eric Grosse discussed how they plan to spend that $17.8 million:

Our new investment will help us respond to this overwhelming demand and allow us to bring the service to those who have been clamoring for it as a solution to their employment and economic situation and their hectic, crazy lives. So, where are we headed? Seattle, Portland, Austin, Houston, Atlanta, Miami, DC, Denver, Philly (just to name a few)… get ready for some easy living!

To ensure the most positive user experience in all our markets, we will also be focusing on making our product and marketplace even more incredible that it is today – that includes adding some cool new features and capabilities. For example, we will adding features that allow our users to more effectively manage their lives through a seamless Task posting process. We will also be building and enriching features that support the mobile experience across multiple platforms. And, as always, we will continue to refine our best-in-class safety features to ensure our community’s security.

To support our aggressive roll-out and growing community, we will be accelerating our recruitment and hiring. Yeah, that’s right! All you engineers and designers out there, we are looking at you! If you’re looking to work on a product that is revolutionizing the way people collaborate with others in their community, reach out to us.  As we’ve said before, we are bringing the neighborhood back. Now, we want to bring more talented folks on board to help us realize this vision. If you are interested, please send your resume to careers@taskrabbit.com.

We've reached out to Ms. Busqe to see what these developments mean for TaskRabbit's New York City outpost, and we'll update you as soon as we hear back.

Time to weigh your options

Besides having the most amazingly made-up name we have seen in a while, Shpoonkle is an interesting addition to the new crop of startups focused on creating a peer to peer online marketplace. Betabeat's Nitasha Tiku just did a big report on the convenience economy fueled by companies like TaskRabbit and Zaarly. Schpoonkle is also looking to match supply and demand, but with a focus on the growing number of unemployed law school graduates.

According to some estimates from working law professors, as many as 50 percent of recent minted law school grads can't find full time legal work nine months after leaving school. "At the same time, over a million people are being turned away from legal aid who can't afford a $300 per hour lawyer," says Shpoonkle founder and CEO Robert Niznik, 22, who just graduated from New York Law School this month. "With our model, we've been able to cut the cost of legal work to under $200 an hour and match a lot of lawyers hungry for work with new clients."

Mr. Niznik started the business eight months ago while he was still in school after hearing horror stories about the post-graduation job market. He raised a small round from friends and family and since March has grown the company from eight to thirty five employees.

His users are people like Diana Mullaev, who graduated from Tuora Law School on Long Island in 2009. "It was devastating watching my classmates struggle to find work and handle their student debt. I remember the day my best girlfriend from law school called to tell me she got a job, I was so excited. But it turned out to working for Eddie Bauer." Now Ms. Mullaev uses Shpoonkle a few times a month to find cases and build her personal injury practice.

Of course, not everyone is excited by this new model. Over at Solo Practice University, Susan Liebel writes, "Here you have a race to the bottom as lawyers bid against one another to pay the lowest fee to anonymous clients with legal problems.

Shpoonkle has hired a techie PR firm to pitch it around to sites like VentureBeat and yours truly. It's found a far gentler reaction there than from the legal blogosphere. "Any lawyer who signs up for this service should be immediately disbarred, then tarred and feathers, then publicly humiliated. It doesn’t matter how awful a lawyer you are, how pathetic your business, how grossly incapable you may be in getting any client to retain you. Those are all good reasons to apply for the assistant manager’s position at Dairy Queen. This is worse…"

Why the bile? There have in fact been many attempts to create this kind of reverse auction model for legal services, where clients post their cases and lawyers bid for the work. None have succeeded so far, but as we have seen with sites like TaskRabbit, SkillShare and Kickstarter, the current economic climate and the strong social infrastructure now underpinning every part of the web is powering a new boom in peer-to-peer marketplaces.

And let's not forget that name, "It's just a funny word I made up," Mr. Niznik told Betabeat. "It makes you stop and think, like Google when it first came out. Then you build it up as a brand."

We'll have what he's having.