Gawker
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twitterati
Twitter Founder Brags About Facial
A Dow Jones writer spanked the Washington Post; Evan Williams downplayed his kind of awesome "pre-cancerous" skin removal; and Ron Burkle drowned his problems in models. The Twitterati were lively! More »
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By Ryan TateComment by No Day Like Friday: Is "Randi Zuckerberg is totally and completely not the "media elite" and never was. Also: she is totally not Julia... 1 Responses | Other threads
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Shut Up, Twitter
Twitter Founders' Down Market Favorites
Twitter has reportedly been valued by investors at $1 billion. Oprah's on board. And the company's founders are set to headline the high-profile D conference tonight. So it's odd they seem to see their own product as a repository for jokes about cleavage, bird shit and killing Jason Calacanis. More » -
Shut Up, Twitter
New Twitter Show Sure to Annihilate Twitter Once and For All
Are you sick of Twitter yet? Probably! But if not, wait patiently because the spunky little messaging service is teaming with a group of Hollywood geniuses to bring you an "unscripted show" that would "harness Twitter to put players on the trail of celebrities in an interactive, competitive format." Yeah. More »
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Comment by Claire Buoyant: Watching this show on an iPhone would be pretty meta, wouldn't it? 2 Responses | Other threads
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evan williams
Why Twitter's CEO turned down Facebook's $500 million
Twitter CEO Evan Williams always seems to be where the action is. He sold his blogging company to Google in 2003. He chased the short-lived podcasting craze with another startup. That company accidentally spawned Twitter, the microblogging service that's stolen the buzz from bloggers. It seems sensible that Williams would sell Twitter to Facebook, another social networking site that actually makes money. So why did he and his board turn down a $500 million offer from Facebook? More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by upbeat: What else can twitter do? Its a one trick pony. 3 Responses | Other threads
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party report
Cal Henderson sighting at 330 Ritch
Stubblicious Flickr developer Cal Henderson and his "fake wife," Pownce community liaison Ariel Waldman, were sharing a precious booth with their entourage at yet another overpacked Seesmic party. Here, Waldman tries to chat with Laughing Squid founder Scott Beale over the din. Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis and Twitter cofounder Evan Williams, probably fed up with the crowds, have ditched 330 Ritch for the Plista party at Fluid.
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By Jackson WestComment by cal_forgot_password: i'm scared. are you outside my house now? this isn't healthy more » | Other threads
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Next Establishment
Once again, Vanity Fair leaves geeks at the kids' power table
Preeminent among the magazine world's kingmaking power lists is Vanity Fair's New Establishment, which appears in the October issue — on newsstands in L.A. and New York today, but not in the Bay Area for another six days. Silicon Valley gets similar short shrift: The names who make it there are predictable bigs like Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison, or Hollywood-crossover types like Jeff Skoll, eBay's first employee turned movie producer. Walt Mossberg, now employed by New Establishment perennial Rupert Murdoch, also squeaked in. The consolation prize Vanity Fair offers: Its "Next Establishment" list, reserved for the likes of Twitter's Ev Williams. It's a marvelous piece of New York media trickery — flatter the geeks by making them feel included, but corral them into a side room so the real power brokers aren't offended by comparison. True, the "Next Establishment" suggests that these are people who might matter in the future. But in saying that, Vanity Fair's editors are also sending the message that right here, right now, its "Next" nominees are nobodies. On this year's list: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Robleh: I doubt they would put Murdoch's wife on a list of nobodies. more » | Other threads
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explainer
What's "follow spam" on Twitter?
I feel sorry for Twitter founder Ev Williams. The self-appointed A-listers who've flocked to his service are building an echo chamber worse than the blogosphere circa 1999. Today's pretend crisis: Williams has set an arbitrary limit that allows most Twitter users to follow no more than 2,000 other users' updates. The hip response is to claim that of course you need way more than that. But seriously, why would anyone try to follow 3,000 Twits? I've summarized Williams's lengthy post explaining the "follow spam" problem. He left out the part where it costs you money: More »
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By Paul BoutinComment by MorvenErginus: Only in America.... they actually charge you to *receive* text messages? Gawd! That's ridiculous - no wonder you yanks always call!... more » | Other threads
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By Jackson WestComment by actright: Twitter is going to have a very hard time with legal action as they allow many other websites and services... more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Twitter-Summize a classic hire-acquire deal
Twitter has bought Summize, a search engine which indexes Twitter messages. It's hard to imagine Summize going anywhere else. But this deal is not about "strategic fit" or any such nonsense. No, it's about how the cleverly lazy founders of Twitter have found a way around the biggest management headache of all: Hiring employees. Twitter's substantial downtime, and a subsequent blame game about whether former architect Blaine Cook was at fault, shows how often technological problems come down to people. We actually don't think Cook made bad technical decisions — but it's now pretty clear that he was more interested in moving on than staying at Twitter and arguing with founder Ev Williams about how to fix the site. At $15 million, Summize might actually be a cheaper solution than trying to hire a conventional replacement for Cook. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by Nyarlathotep: And that $100m valuation is against how much revenue. more » | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
Evan Williams's well-timed vacation
When his service is struggling with uptime at a high-profile event like Apple's WWDC, what does Twitter cofounder Evan Williams do? Take some personal downtime. He and wife Sara Morishige are vacationing from an undisclosed location — one that involves wakeboarding, tennis, chess, and dancing. While Williams relaxed, TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington went nuts. Again.
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By Owen ThomasComment by PopsiclePete: He's on Branson's Necker Island. [twitter.com] more » | Other threads
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breakdowns
TechCrunch server out — will Evan Williams have a breakdown?
TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington has been publicly losing his mind over Twitter's outages. Now it's his turn to have a server outage. Which makes us wonder: Will losing his TechCrunch fix drive Twitter founder Evan Williams around the bend? Somehow, we don't think so. -
twitter
Despite reports, Twitter funding not done
GigaOm reports: that Twitter founders Biz Stone and Evan Williams "reached an agreement with investors today to raise $15 million in funding at around $80 million pre-money valuation. "It's not true," a VC involved in the deal tells us. "Nothing is done." Silicon Alley Insider's sources concur. -
twitter
Why VCs love Twitter's downtime problems
Last we heard about microblogging service Twitter's latest funding round, Union Square Ventures partner Albert Wenger told us — and, via Twitter, the world — that he was taking a lunch meeting at Twitter HQ. That was April 25. Despite rumors of an imminent deal, there's been no announcement. So why can't Wenger and his USV partner Fred Wilson close the deal? One theory: an unexpected bidding war over a service that grows more mainstream every day. A source familiar with this type of funding situation explains: "You know that thing about failure is an orphan, success has a million dads? VCs want to buy the right to say Twitter was theirs." And for this crowd, Twitter's downtime problems are a bonus. More »
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Comment by Nicholas Carlson: @ThatKid: Om jumped the gun: [valleywag.com] more » | Other threads
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once you're lucky, twice you're good
Z is for Zuckerberg, the richest of all
Money isn't everything. Mark Zuckerberg may have the highest net worth among his generation of entrepreneurs, but the Facebook CEO only gets 21 out of 294 pages in Sarah Lacy's new Web 2.0 book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good. That's 16 more than his sister, nerd chanteuse Randi Jayne Zuckerberg, which tells us Lacy has her priorities all wrong. The Zuckerbergs' index page: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by macbeach: @Owen: Good point. Why should she even be in the thing, considering the title? more » | Other threads
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once you're lucky, twice you're good
T is for Twitter, which turned blogging small
Twitter, the 140-characters at a time blogging service, was shaped by its founder's dry, understated sense of humor. The company, not to mention the service, seems to be a sort of Silicon Valley inside joke that, improbably, Ev Williams and his fellow Twitterers have managed to play on the rest of the world. For this, Sarah Lacy labels Williams a "nontrepreneur." Fittingly, Sarah Lacy gave his microcompany got a mere four pages in her new book, Once You're Lucky, Twice You're Good: More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by CyndyA: Odd that she disses Twitter considering the number of Tweets she's sent pimping said book. more » | Other threads
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we read twitter so you don't have to
VC takes Twitter founders out to lunch
Someone carefully let it be known today that Twitter cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone are looking for $15 million in venture-capital funding. We emailed existing Fred Wilson, a partner at Twitter investor Union Square Ventures, to ask if Twitter's been in touch, looking for a re-up. Wilson's unresponsive answer: "Yes, Union Square Ventures is an existing investor in Twitter." Lucky for us, Wilson's colleague Albert Wenger isn't nearly as discreet. He Twittered about his destination for lunch: Twitter headquarters. -
venture capital
Twitter seeks $60 million valuation first, business model later
Twitter, a communications tool for marketers, self-promoters and journalists, is trying to raise a third round of venture capital Silicon Alley Insider reports cofounders Evan Williams and Biz Stone are looking for $15 million, valuing the company at $60 million. Current investors include Union Square Ventures and Charles River Ventures. SAI guesses Stone and Williams have pitched Spark Capital, too. Twitter raised $5 million for a $20 million valuation last summer. The company still hasn't found a business model, mostly because users, by and large, view Twitter messages on cell phones or third-party desktop applications, not the Twitter.com website. We find this endless groping embarrassing. Twitter limits messages to 140 characters. Why not shorten it to 120 and slap "Sponsored by Coke" to the end of each message? That seems easier. -
online advertising
Twitter launches in Japan with ads
Twitter cofounder Biz Stone once said, "There will never be ads on Twitter.com." Note that Stone never said anything about Twitter.jp. News.com reports that Twitter has launched in Japan, with ads. "Ads are important," Twitter backer Joi Ito said. "It's always harder to add ads later. So we're launching with them in Japan." What a tiresome PR game: Are ads any less important in the U.S.? If Stone wants to add them to Twitter.com, he and cofounder Evan Williams should go ahead. The ads in Japan actually link to the advertiser's Twitter feed. WIth that kind of arrangement, Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis will surely sign up as charter sponsors.
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Comment by Blackjack: "With that kind of arrangement, Robert Scoble and Jason Calacanis will surely sign up as charter sponsors." Why, are you thinking... more » | Other threads
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quotable
Twitter founder: If you don't like Twitter, you're a bitch
After overhearing a woman dis Twitter at a Whole Foods, founder Evan Williams found an ingenious use for the service: Calling people names if they think your company sucks. I think she has a point. [Twitter]
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Comment by manithemoneyman: twitter is the biggest waste of time I've ever experienced. When major CEO's start using it to be productive, then... more » | Other threads
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exits
Google, Blogger veteran Jason Shellen quits LiveJournal after three months
LiveJournal, only months after Six Apart sold the blogging site to Russian Web firm Sup, has resumed its tradition of corporate drama. Jason Shellen, the company's VP of product management, just announced he'd left the company. I asked him if this had anything to do with the ruckus over LiveJournal's elimination of unpaid, advertising-free accounts. "No," said Shellen, who worked at Blogger and then Google after the search giant bought the blog startup. "In social media, you have to have a thick skin." What did Shellen in was the 10-hour time difference between Moscow, where Sup is headquartered, and LiveJournal's San Francisco office. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by systematickitten: "What did Shellen in was the 10-hour time difference between Moscow, where Sup is headquartered, and LiveJournal's San Francisco office." He... more » | Other threads
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politics
Google and Twitter team up for election coverage, but what about Jaiku?
Google and Twitter have teamed up to create a Super Twitter Tuesday Google Map, a useful enough mashup which shows election-related Twitter messages by location. More exciting? Google bought Jaiku, Twitter's main competitor, last fall. More »
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Comment by Whocares: I thought you said "last fail." at the end.. not "last fall".. either way works. more » | Other threads
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toogle many googlers
Chris Sacca leaves Google, continues do-nothing plan
In a long-overdue move, Chris Sacca, Google's "directorhead of special initiatives," has left the company. Cleverly, though, he's moving into a new career where he can continue to talk a lot and let others do the work: He's becoming an angel investor, working with Evan Williams's Obvious, the company which spun off Twitter, and Paul Graham, whose Y Combinator specializes in funding companies with utterly adorkable names. We figured Sacca's career at Google might be foreshortened when Google listed an opening for a "director of other," since that pretty much sounded like Sacca's job. Doing anything other than work. Congratulations, Chris: In a Valley that unfairly discounts laziness, you're now the ultimate value stock.
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By Owen ThomasComment by salingerjt: Sounds to me like some obscure director is jealous that his or her projects are unknown and meaningless and that... more » | Other threads
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nerdspotting
The Lobby's leisurely entrepreneurs
While other startup founders have to stay home and, you know, work, these guys have the time and the spare $3,000 to spend hanging out at a zero-agenda conference in Hawaii. (For the record, we're jealous.) Spotted in Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz's Flickr stream: Benchmark entrepreneur-in-waiting Nirav Tolia; "stepped-up" LinkedIn chairman Reid Hoffman; FeedBurner founder Dick Costolo, who's rolling in Googlebucks; Linden Lab CEO Philip Rosedale; Evan Williams from Twitter; Mashery's Oren Michels; and More »
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Comment by World of Warcraft Map Guy: Looks like all the photos are now marked private. more » | Other threads
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quotable
Evan Williams, the astute creator of Blogger and Twitter, is acting mesmerized by the unflappable showmanship of AT&T chief executive Randall Stephenson. He Twitters: "I like this Randall chap that runs AT&T, surprisingly. Straight shooter, he seems." Clever. Yes, Ev, I'm sure Stephenson will agree to that text-message revenue-share scheme you have in mind. [Twitter]
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By Tim FaulknerComment by your creepy uncle: Do business with me, he will. more » | Other threads
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valleyspeak
When Hollywood meets Silicon Valley, language barriers appear. Twitter founder Evan Williams reports hearing the following angry exchange: "Programming! Writing *programs*. For their website!" [Twitter] -
quotable
"How about a social network which just limits you to 10 friends?" — Twitter founder Evan Williams, speaking at Web 2.0 Summit on the beauty of designing within constraints.
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By Owen ThomasComment by Whocares: If you think about it.. MySpace had limitations on the amount of photos you could upload, and the amount of... more » | Other threads
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followup
Earlier today, we reported on Twitter cofounder Evan Williams's plans to make money by charging advertisers for the privilege of spamming users with Twitters. Supposedly, the "microblogging" startup doesn't want to insert ads within Twitters. But it looks like it's testing how receptive Twitter users might be to such a program, by appending helpful "tips" to the end of messages. [This Is Going to Be Big] -
techcrunch40
The TechCrunch40 attendee who's been brutally parodying the conference on Twitter as "Techcrunch40" says that the service — whose founder, Evan Williams, is a TechCrunch40 panelist — abruptly changed his username to "NotTechcrunch40." [Twitter]
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By Owen ThomasComment by Keymaster: Who else thinks the latest batch of WiFi interrupts were the result of putting blocks in place to keep our... more » | Other threads
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mysteries
Who's behind TheFunded.com? Not Jason Calacanis
Inc. magazine is digging into the mystery of who's running TheFunded.com, a website which lets entrepreneurs rate venture capitalists. Writer Max Chafkin makes four guesses: Gawker Media publisher and Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton; Digg founder Kevin Rose; Blogger and Twitter founder Evan Williams; and blog blowhard Jason Calacanis. Asked by Chafkin, Calacanis denied being "Ted," the mysterious man behind the site. A curious stance, since until recently, Calacanis was eagerly attempting to take credit for TheFunded.com. Never one for subtlety, he told friends of his plan to leak a rumor to Valleywag that he was behind the site. Alas, no, Jason: You only wish you were clever enough to come up with an idea like TheFunded.com.
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By Owen ThomasComment by mozzer: Laurent - know you were kidding, but... Nah, can't be FSJ. Dan Lyons just ain't plugged in enough in the... more » | Other threads
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By Owen ThomasComment by DaveMcClure500Hats: @FB: shure, Valleywag is for ripping on folks. but timing is everything. and yours... isn't. more » | Other threads
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twitter
Why venture capitalists hate profits
I hate you, Paul Kedrosky. Why? Because you've said, more perfectly than I ever could, why venture capitalists love profitless companies like Twitter, which has just raised a financing round from Union Square Ventures, the New York-based venture capital firm run by Fred Wilson and Brad Burnham. Companies with real business plans, making real money? It's cheap enough to start a company these days that savvy entrepreneurs don't need venture capital, funding themselves from a few angel investors and reinvested profits. It's only the clueless, the hapless, and the willfully profligate types like Evan Williams of Twitter, who want to fumble around with a fun toy for as long as they can get away with it, on whom VCs can make the tall dollars.
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By Owen ThomasComment by thelifter: What's funny is that my company got a pass from Union Square and we're a profitable company, and we have... more » | Other threads
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built to flip
As if he hasn't already made enough money from Google, Blogger founder Evan Williams cashed in from today's sale of presentation software startup Zenter. [evhead]
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Comment by Figaro: "Since I knew we weren't likely to get around to that project, I offered it to them. They liked it,... more » | Other threads
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odeo
[SCOOP] Odeo Buys Back Soul
Odeo, a podcasting site started by Evan Williams, who already made a tidy little fortune selling Blogger to Google, is buying back the share owned by investment firm Charles River Ventures. A source told Valleywag, Evan made the decision to dump investors (the venture capitalist aren't happy), which leads us to believe Williams still greatly cares about the company and has plans for Odeo's future. The source also says Evans never needed the money but was scared not to take it, and Charles River is now shopping around for a new podcast companies to invest in. More » -
charity
Internet Millionaires to African AIDS Babies: Drop dead!
Marketer and pro-blogger advocate Curt Hopkins is a good and reasonable man. Good because he's running the Blogswana project, in which students will help those affected by AIDS in Africa tell the world about their plight. Reasonable because when he asked the following Valley people — people known as good souls with a passion for world-changing technology — for financial support, he expected a few yeses and a few nos. More »
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By Nick DouglasComment by JasonCalacanis: Never got an email... send again. more » | Other threads
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1-34 of 34 for "Valleywag, Evan Williams"
