Which founders frolicked in Cancun while you cleaned out your desk?

Last weekend, around 60 entrepreneurs under age 35 flew to Cancun for a retreat informally dubbed Summit Series. CNET reporter Caroline McCarthy was one of the press attendees who agreed not to name names. Nice try. The list of attendees identified below includes Dave Morin from Facebook, Joe Green who roomed with Mark Zuckerberg in college, and Sam Lessin who just got back from lip-dubbing Journey at Camp Cyprus. Tony Hsieh just laid off 8 percent of his Zappos staff. Ex-Googler Chris Sacca may or may not be rich, but I'm jealous of him anyway. More »

MySpace DJ taunts Wall Street Journal reporter

Poor Jessica Vascellaro. The Wall Street Journal reporter will never be able to live down the video she and several Webhead friends recorded on a Cyprus vacation. The song-and-dance number was controversial as a sign of bubble-era excess — and as an indication that Vascellaro might be rather too close to the companies she covers. Last night, as Vascellaro partied at the MySpace Music party, the DJ put on "Don't Stop Believing" — the same Journey song which provided the soundtrack to their seaside frolics. Kara Swisher has video from the party: More »

Wealthy wantrepreneur Sam Lessin shows face in public

Drop.io founder Sam Lessin, the son of Croesus-rich Wall Street investment banker turned venture capitalist Bob Lessin, is obsessed with privacy, the chief selling point of his file-sharing startup. Which is why a video he and 19 of his closest friends filmed themselves cavorting at his father's vacation home in Cyprus ended up splashed all over the Internet. And why, after he'd successfully rendered himself infamous, he turned out at a journalist-infested birthday party thrown for CNET News reporter Caroline McCarthy and Scott Kidder, an employee at Valleywag publisher Gawker Media. Sure, Sam — keep telling everyone how important privacy is. And don't stop walking in front of cameras. He's shown here, at left, with a companion who's much more skilled at keeping his identity secret. (Photo by Random Night Out)

Camp Cyprus's incredible Journey

Roundtrip tickets to Larnaca, Cyprus: $1,300. Lodging at your pal's dad's pad on the Mediterranean: Free. Getting your goofy video turned into a symbol of generational excess: Priceless. I'm starting to feel some sympathy for the Camp Cyprus 20, the crazy Internet kids who filmed themselves cavorting poolside at Wall Street big Bob Lessin's gleamingly white vacation home, to the tune of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'." The charge: That they lacked self-awareness. Hence, for example, this remix of the video set to "Highway to Hell." More »

The Cyprus 20 and the art of the single-take video

The deep mystery of the Camp Cyprus 20: What were they thinking? The most common theory floating around is that the 20 or so Internet-employed twentysomethings who filmed themselves cavorting by the Mediterranean, even as the markets imploded and Silicon Valley shuddered, were simply drunk. Oh no, my friends: This was planned. The beer cans were expertly placed props. Think about it: The Cyprus vacation home of Wall Street power broker Bob Lessin screams "music-video set." His son, Sam Lessin, invited a number of people, including his girlfriend, Wall Street Journal reporter Jessica Vascellaro. She and the other bathing beauties all brought identical black-and-white checkered swimsuits. A single-take video like this doesn't just happen; in fact, it's something of an art form. It doesn't require the cinematic talent of a Welles or Scorsese, but it does require a stunning amount of free time. Here are three videos which likely inspired the Cyprus hill gang: More »

It's the end of Web 2.0 as we know it

The infamous Camp Cyprus 20 are trickling back home. And they feel fine. The twentysomethings of Camp Cyprus work at companies like Google, Facebook, and Blip.tv, all of which make a business of moving our lives online. They gathered at the Cyprus vacation home of Wall Street banker Bob Lessin, overlooking the wine-dark Mediterranean, at the invitation of his startup-founder son, Sam, for a vacation. And in this hyperconnected age, they must surely be aware that a lip-synching video they made of their trip was an Internet sensation, marking the end of an era. If they feel any shame for popping the Web 2.0 bubble, they are not blogging, Tumblring, Twittering, or FriendFeeding it. The only concession to embarrassment over the incident was making the video private — and of course, it promptly resurfaced on YouTube and elsewhere. More »

On Sequoia's firing line

What plots are the members of "Camp Cyprus," a group of young webheads, cooking up? Perhaps we'll read about them in a Wall Street Journal front-page A-hed, since reporter Jessica Vascellaro was on the scene, along with Wall Street-scion boyfriend Sam Lessin, the CEO of Drop.io. Can you think of a better caption? Leave it in the comments; the best one will become the new headline of the post. Yesterday's winner: TheChris2.0, for "McCain and Whitman unveil Social Security plan." (Photo by Sam Lessin)