MEGAN MCCARTHY — Paidcontent's party last night was serious business for cash-hungry startup execs. "I'm not here to have fun" confessed one grim attendee, the chairman of a social networking startup. His mission: spot the dealmaker, with a crib sheet conveniently to hand, a list of celebrity RSVPs provided by the host, Rafat Ali, the scoop-hunting obsessive behind the tech and media news site. A difficult game because, if angel investor Ron Conway or Yahoo corpdev head Toby Coppel turned up, I certainly didn't spot them. During one conversation, I saw a bearded man eagerly approach, try to get my attention, hesitate, then walk away, disappointed. He had seen part of my nametag and assumed, I heard later, that I was Megan Smith, who looks for smaller deals for Google. When he discovered I was a lowly party reporter, he continued on his fruitless quest. The gallery of party photos by photographer Lane Hartwell. The captions are with the full-size images.

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