Gawker: valleywag, surya yalamanchili

LinkedIn spends some of its new $53 million on a VC infomercial

Owen Thomas — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 21:30:00 EDT

LinkedIn has announced its new $53 million funding round in a bizarre way: by posting a video on YouTube in which its investors try to cast its $1 billion valuation as low, low, low — instead of breathtakingly high, which is what it is. What would have been vastly more entertaining: If LinkedIn marketer Surya Yalamanchili had taken some of his experience from The Apprentice and captured these VCs, reality-TV style, knifing each other in the back as they angle to get more shares in the company. Instead, we have a bunch of glorified bankers talking about what a great opportunity they've gotten — to buy roughly 5 percent of a startup with an eight-figure wad of cash.

The man who could make Julia Allison's reality-TV career

Owen Thomas — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 18:00:00 EDT

Star editor-at-large, having failed to make a splash in blogging, is now pinning her hopes on reality TV. Julia, if you're going to make it on the small screen, you need better advisors than a handbag designer and a former hedge-fund analyst. How about someone who's been there? LinkedIn marketer Surya Yalamanchili, a veteran of Donald Trump's The Apprentice, is the guy you need to talk to. Sure, he was fired from the show. All the more reason to seek him out, Julia. Let's be honest: If IT Girls is the best you can come up with, you're going to face a lot of rejection on Sand Hill Road.

Fired "Apprentice" star hired at LinkedIn

Owen Thomas — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:21:41 EDT

I was a bit surprised when Surya Yalamanchili, the former reality-TV star fired by Donald Trump from The Apprentice, told me he'd landed at LinkedIn. One would think his broadcast-TV star turn would afford him more than enough introductions in the Valley. Perhaps he likes a challenge. Yalamanchili, who previously worked for Procter & Gamble and started this week as LinkedIn's director of marketing, has traded packaged goods for social networks. His first task: Figuring out how to brand LinkedIn as new and improved. Despite the differences between the two sites, people won't stop talking about how Facebook will soon move in on LinkedIn's turf.