Gawker: valleywag, sand hill road

Sand Hill transients to finally have a home

Megan McCarthy — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:56:20 EST

At long last, the needy residents of Menlo Park's Sand Hill Road will have a nearby dwelling worthy of their stature. Stanford University is turning 21 acres into the luxury Rosewood Sand Hill hotel, and aiming squarely at the venture-capitalist market for its pool of guests. The hotel is expected to open in 2009. Proposed amenities include a 15,000-sq. ft. deluxe spa, perfect for unwinding after a long day listening to pitches and emailing on BlackBerrys. It goes without saying that aspiring spa workers should be well-trained in thumb reflexology and hand massages.

Paul Cloutier needs a sense of humor, says employee

Owen Thomas — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 14:04:57 EDT

Remember the ihate.vc website created by Jason DeFillippo, CTO at magazine startup 8020 Publishing? The site, until this morning, displayed a big middle finger directed at venture capitalists, an ill-advised gesture for an executive at a capital-starved startup. DeFillippo has now redirected ihate.vc to a definition for "sense of humor." We assume he was hoping to have his boss, Paul Cloutier, 8020's controlling and devious CEO, look the term up. Good luck with that, Jason.

Sand Hill Road gets the finger

Owen Thomas — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 12:18:20 EDT

Venture capitalists are always running around prattling about how they "love entrepreneurs." Alas, lovelorn moneybags, it seems the feeling is not requited. Jason DeFillippo, the CTO of 8020 Publishing, a user-generated magazine publishing startup, has registered the domain name "ihate.vc" and posted the above mash note to investors. I can't imagine this bodes well for 8020's future fundraising efforts. (Screenshot from ihate.vc)

Facebook's new hire leaps from frying pan to fire

Owen Thomas — Tue, 10 Jul 2007 16:59:28 EDT

What to make of Chamath Palihapitiya's hire by Facebook? Immediately before joining the red-hot social network, he worked as a venture capitalist for the Mayfield Fund. And last February, he attracted controversy for his comments about the privileged society of Silicon Valley in an art film, Living Pictures/Men in Gold." Palihapitiya, who's ~~Indian~~ Sri Lankan, spoke of his intention to break through the old boys' club. But in going from a venture capital firm to Facebook, it would seem he's just going from the old boys' club to the new boys' club.

Here's how the San Francisco Chronicle summarized his comments — and how Mayfield spun them after the fact:

But Mayfield Fund venture capitalist Chamath Palihapitiya said that despite his success in Silicon Valley, he still sees a white male circle of insiders that he can't penetrate, with exclusive dinner parties and country clubs that he isn't part of.

Predictably, Mayfield, Palihapitiya's employer at the time, claimed that his comments were taken out of context and that Palihapitiya believed that Sand Hill Road was a "meritocracy."

Whatever. Palihapitiya's departure from the world of venture capital, not five months after the brouhaha erupted, by itself suggests that all is not meritocratic at Mayfield. But if he thinks he's leaving a world of privilege for a league of scrappy strivers, he's sorely mistaken. At Facebook, after all, he's going to be working for Mark Zuckerberg, a graduate of Phillips Exeter Academy and Harvard College who grew up in Westchester County.

In Brief

rabruzzo — Mon, 23 Oct 2006 19:45:46 EDT

Om Malik discusses Microsoft's fear of online apps. Apparently they've never been to Ning, home of web2.0 abandonware, with notable apps like Who's a Bigger Douche. [Business 2.0]
Slate has a video history of youTube. Soon to be including clips of themselves on Court TV [Slate]
NY Times covers Silicon Valley's secret to success. The "20-minute rule...if a start-up company seeking venture capital is not within a 20-minute drive of the venture firm's offices, it will not be funded." So you future startup CEOs, take a good look. You're not on this map, you're out. [NYTimes]
Washington Post notes AOL executives have been spared prosecution due to a five-year statute of limitations on fraud. Can someone mail the U.S. Attorney's office a free 90-Day AOL CD so we can finish this? [Washington Post]

Is Sand Hill Slave for real?

ndouglas — Wed, 08 Feb 2006 07:33:12 EST

Oh noes! Could Silicon Valley's anonyblogger be an imposter? Is the Valleywag vs. Sand Hill Slave interview worthless? Bernie Cohen writes in an e-mail titled "Is Sand Hill Slave 4 real?":

The so-called Sand Hill Slave claims that Sand Hill Road is no closer than 40 miles to any body of water.
(while dissing Ticonderoga Capital)"...You name your firm after a fort that was...renamed after an Iroquois term meaning "Land between two waters" and your address is on Sand Hill Rd., Approximately [sic] 40+ miles away in any direction from bodies of water..."

-Sand Hill Slave http://www.sandhillslave.com/journal/

Now how is Sand Hill Road not within 40 miles of any body of water? Either the Pacific Ocean and San Francisco Bay don't qualify as bodies of water in "her" eyes, or the Sand Hill Slave is a bit of a hoax. Even VC admins are not so spaced out to think that Sand Hill Road is not within 40 miles of any body of water.

Perhaps we will soon see anonymous blogs from VCs dissing their admins. Now *that* would be good. Lots of juicy stories to tell, I'm sure...

So I checked — and apparently there is an ocean to the west. AND A BAY.

Has anyone else missed these bodies of water? Because I was assured before moving here that Silicon Valley was in a landlocked state.

Is Sand Hill Slave anywhere near Sand Hill Road? Did she just forget about the Pacific Ocean? Sometimes that happens.

Is she even a she? Is this Silicon Valley's weak answer to James Frey? More to come in Anonyblogger Scandal News.