Gawker: valleywag, amy muller

Get Satisfaction all about customers pleasing themselves

Melissa Gira Grant — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 17:20:00 EDT

Cra-zazy customers hardly need to be told where they can take their complaints: They just need an outlet. Get Satisfaction aims to automate the bitchfest. Bonus: Its president is Lane Becker, one of Valleywag's most lovably lubricated crush objects — clothed, bespectacled and interviewed in this clip from Web 2.0 in New York. Becker's founding cohotties are Thor Muller and Amy Muller. The "frictionless" solution to demanding customers, who will blog about your inadequate service as soon as look at you, was hatched out of the mayhem caused by their mail-order grab bag business for previously free conference tchotchkes, Valleyschwag.

Lazy News: "Web 2.0 has a local address"

ndouglas — Mon, 17 Apr 2006 12:40:19 EDT

Welcome to Lazy News, the new Valleywag feature that saves you the time of actually reading news articles. The first article we'll slice-and-dice is the San Francisco Chronicle's business feature from Sunday.

Title: Web 2.0 has a local address
Subtitle: South Park, the neighborhood that fostered the dot-com boom, is back
Trend angle: San Fran is back too — the whole Valley is back. And this time the businesses are real.
Poster children: Adaptive Path, Rubyred Labs, Wired, Technorati, VideoEgg, Mule Design Studio, and other tech companies from Bryant to Brannan, Second Street to Third Street
Photos: Aerial shot infographic, kids in the park, street signs, and Rubyred's Thor Muller at the Cereal Bar.
Lead: South Park startup Rubyred Labs has a trendy Cereal Bar.
Sources: Scott Beale (Laughing Squid founder, photographed the Cereal Bar); Janice Fraser (CEO of South Park stalwart Adaptive Path); Matt Sanchez (CEO of startup VideoEgg); Jesse Blout (mayor's director of economic development); Jeffrey O'Brien (a senior editor of long-time South Parker Wired Magazine); Neighborhoodparks.org; Max Applegarth (owner of local cafe Caffe Centro); Jonathan Nelson (founder of online marketing agency Organic); Jonathan Wright (from burnout dot-com BigWords.com); Maggie Mason (mighty blogger and writer); Elvis Jessie Presley (homeless man); Jonathan Grubb (Rubyred co-founder and cereal analyst); Amy and Thor Muller (Rubyred co-founders and Noe Valley baby-raisers)
Best line: "I saw 20-year-olds in head-to-toe Prada and said, 'This cannot last'" — Maggie Mason
WTF: The tumbleweed story

Web 2.0 has a local address [SF Chronicle]

Geeking out: Rubyred Labs Cereal Bar

ndouglas — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 17:50:28 EST

Web-and-mobile design firm Rubyred Labs held its regular Cereal Bar breakfast this morning. This week's cereal social (held every Monday at Rubyred's office in SF's Soma district) was documented by camera-not-for-hire Scott Beale.

Also present was SF Chronicle writer Dan Fost, doing a piece on Rubyred Labs. Will the article be long, insightful, and feature large photos of the beautiful people at Rubyred? Of course. The only question is which section the piece will dominate: Business and Tech or the Datebook?

Neighbor Adaptive Path's Amanda Willoughby: "It's the only startup with a dress code and a two-drink minimum."

Co-founder Jonathan Grubb: "Damn it, we always run out of Fruity Pebbles."

After the jump, Rubyred dumps the whole "web design" deal for a catering gig.

Photos: Rubyred Labs' Cerealbar Photos [Laughing Squid]

Co-founder Thor Muller: "We're switching our business model to 'classic diner.'"

Thor: "More accurately, we're switching to a 'party venue' model."

Final co-founder Amy Muller: "Actually, we're all going to model. We're shooting for the next American Apparel catalog."

As hard as everyone tries to party, a meeting breaks out.