Gawker: valleywag, nate westheimer

SXSW, the Conference for Julia Allison and Other People Lacking Real Jobs

Scott Kidder — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 18:00:00 EDT

What recession? More than 10,000 revelers are expected for this year's SXSW Interactive conference in Austin, Texas this week. With no real work at hand, they're hitting the parties hard — especially the unofficial ones.

Take last night, for example. The conference's official happy hour was packed, while the cocktail party hosted by Break Media, CollegeHumor, and other panelists from the "Comedy on Television and the Web" panel was far more relaxed. Attendees included CollegeHumor's Ricky Van Veen and The Office's BJ Novak. In between buying dozens of Kamikaze shots, Break Media CEO Keith Richman complimented Mahalo's Jason Calacanis's poker game. (Calacanis is a noted gambler, so much so that we sometimes wonder if he might have a problem.)

Break Media CEO Keith Richman, former Valleywag editor Nick Douglas, and New York writer and comedienne Caroline Waxler

We arrived at Digg's Second Annual Big Digg Shindig at Stubb's BBQ too late to see the live Diggnation taping — though we hear it was packed shoulder to shoulder — but just in time to see fanboys mob Diggnation host Kevin Rose and dispensable sidekick Alex Albrecht for autographs en masse.

NY Tech Meetup organizer, proven wantrepreneur, and host of The Interwebs Nate Westheimer

iLike's Ali Partovi and Hype Machine's Anthony Volodkin

Valleywag alumna and Boffery cofounder Melissa Gira Grant with Automattic's Matt Mullenweg

After a stop at an impromptu Next New Networks party, we headed to the Driskill Hotel. Microcelebrity egoblogger Julia Allison was flanked by fans who showed up after she sent a message on Twitter seeking reassurance of her self-importance. She has actual fans! Three of them!

Wantrepreneur no more

Nicholas Carlson — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:20:00 EDT

BricaBox founder Nate Westheimer didn't like it when we called him a "wantrepreneur" in our posts about his various publicity stunts. With BricaBox closing, Westheimer won't have to worry about that anymore! [CenterNetworks]

Commenter of the day: innonate

Paul Boutin — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 19:40:00 EDT

"You're a dick, Owen. And you run fake stories every day anyway." — Double-crossed April Fools entrepreneur Nate Westheimer demonstrates his Valley CEO potential. And let this be a reminder: People say Valleywag will stab you in the back. That's a lie. Valleywag will stab you in the face.

Gullible journalists agree to prank their readers

Owen Thomas — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 12:00:00 EDT

Nate Westheimer, a New York entrepreneur best known for holding a Silicon Alley popularity contest, attempted to persuade Valleywag to participate in an April Fools' joke. We said we'd cover it, so here's the story: Right about now, if Westheimer's prank goes as he told us, Mashable, CNET blog The Social, and Silicon Alley Insider should be attempting to persuade you of the existence of a new startup called Urlrurl.com. The website converts long Web addresses into shorter ones, as TinyURL does. Unlike TinyURL, its shorter URLs all redirect users to a YouTube page with a Rick Astley video, a silly stunt known as "rickrolling."

By sheer noncoincidence, Westheimer will be pitching his startup at a tech meetup in New York tonight. We wonder who's the sucker here — hapless Web readers, or the reporters who lined up to trick them and boost Westheimer's profile for the day? We suggest you check how dutifully each participant repeats Westheimer's list of "talking points" in his email below. Then ask yourself how this differs from the way they cover startups on any other day of the year.

New York wantrepreneur, VC in training can sing and D.A.N.C.E.

Nicholas Carlson — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 13:20:00 EDT

Meet wantreprenuer Nate Westheimer and venture capital associate Kristian Hansen. Westheimer founded BricaBox, a publishing platform which you still haven't heard of, despite publicity stunts like the "Silicon Alley 100: People's Choice." Hansen you might know because his boss cofounded Wallstrip, which used to feature Lindsay Campbell, whom you definitely know. Here's the pair's lipdub to Justice's "D.A.N.C.E." As the song goes, fellas,"The way you move is a mystery." The clip is below.

Silicon Alley wannabe lists 99 other nobodies

Nicholas Carlson — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 15:59:07 EST

Here in New York's so-called Silicon Alley, we occupy ourselves by filing stories about people setting up meetings to talk about organizing events to increase awareness of necessary preconditions for entrepreneurship. This leaves us with no time to do anything as tiring and complicated as, say, actually writing software. Bricabox founder Nate Westheimer and the Silicon Alley wantrepreneur community have their answer to the old white guys on Silicon Alley Insider's top 100. It's the Silicon Alley 100: People's Choice. Problem is, because its order was decided by nominations and votes, it's full of self-promoters you've never heard of, such as tech "activist" Dana Spiegel. Yes, he's the guy who takes the top spot. Telling that there are more people on this list than there are votes for the winner.