Gawker: valleywag, nirav tolia

Valley blowhards gush forth advice

Owen Thomas — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:00:00 EDT

Professional annoyance Kara Swisher, the BoomTown blogger, went to a how-to-survive-the-downturn gabfest, and all she got was this lousy video. Captured on her Flip camera: Mahalo CEO Jason Calacanis, who didn't predict the downturn; Nirav Tolia, the Epinions cofounder — an entrepreneur — who hasn't laid anyone off since the last bubble burst and is surely rusty; Google investor Ram Shriram, who has way too much money to care about such mundane affairs as a recession; and Fast Company videoblogger Robert Scoble, who is cheerfully clueless as ever. The bright side: If Scoble is saying companies need to conserve cash, perhaps we've hit a market bottom.

The Lobby's leisurely entrepreneurs

Megan McCarthy — Thu, 25 Oct 2007 18:53:30 EDT

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
Kevin Rose (and his new haircut) from Digg with Joshua Schachter from the Yahoo-owned Del.icio.us. One question: Is this really Meebo CEO Seth Sternberg? I don't recognize him looking so unnerdly. (Photo by: bradley23)

The end of the Benchmark boy's club?

Megan McCarthy — Fri, 31 Aug 2007 15:59:57 EDT

An anonymous post about Benchmark Capital on VC-bashing site TheFunded.com piqued our curiosity. Titled "Don't Play with Women", it's a pretty damning claim:

Benchmark has said publicly that they will never fund a woman-founded company. They've never had a woman partner. And the mood seems to be like a frat party (a real turnoff to women).

So far, 13 voters have agreed with the statement, while 2 have disagreed.

We're wondering, when and where did any Benchmark partner really make such a claim? (Seriously, can anyone help me find it? I've been looking all day with no luck.) Secondly, well, i'ts not really true, right? Benchmark-backed E-Loan was cofounded by Janina Pawlowski. And Sarah Leary, pictured here, just joined Benchmark, along with Nirav Tolia, as an entrpreneur-in-residence — the surest way for a startup founder to get backing for a new venture.

Update A spokesperson for Benchmark writes in:

What follows are 4 more examples of Benchmark funding/recruiting women CEOs of public companies.

* Meg Whitman/eBay
* Donna Dubinsky/Handspring
* Lorrie Norrington/Shopping.com
* Maggie Wilderotter/Wink Communications

Call me if you need clarification. My cell is [REDACTED]. And no, I have no idea where that ridiculous quote came from. Certainly not one of the Benchmark partners!

Nirav Tolia goes to Benchmark

Owen Thomas — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 23:11:48 EDT

The rehabilitation of Nirav Tolia is not just complete — it is, at long last, confirmed. The cofounder of Epinions, though tarred by old controversies, will announce tomorrow morning that he has, indeed, landed a long-rumored spot at Benchmark Capital as an entrepreneur-in-residence. (Back in March, Valleywag emeritus Nick Denton was told by several people Tolia was heading to Benchmark.) He'll be joined there by Sarah Leary, a former Epinions executive, and both hope to look at startup ideas having to do with online community and user-generated content. (We'll hold our tongue.) Tolia called Valleywag to share the news.

Of his past transgressions, which included doctoring his resume to say he worked at McKinsey (he hadn't) and completed his Stanford degree (he later finished it), he had this to say: "I did it, it was wrong, it was dumb, I won't do it again." And he had news of interest to Valley oldtimers: He's thinking of restarting Round Zero, the '90s boom-era networking group famed for its lavish dinners and raucous arguments.