<![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, toni schneider]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: valleywag, toni schneider]]> http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/tonischneider http://gawker.com/tag/valleywag/tonischneider <![CDATA[With $29.5 million, Automattic cashes out some insiders]]> Automattic, the maker of WordPress blog-publishing software, has raised $29.5 million from the New York Times Co. and existing ventures.Not all of the money went straight into the company's coffers, however: Some insiders with vested options sold shares in the round. This is perhaps the most notable example of a new trend: Startup employees profiting from their stakes before a sale or IPO. Reports, however, miss the most tantalizing details: Anyone know who cashed out — founder Matt Mullenweg? CEO Toni Schneider? — how much they sold, and if they're buying any new cars?

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<![CDATA[Automattic's Toni Schneider touts an investment]]>
Wallstrip, the CBS-owned stocks videoblog, interviews Toni Schneider, CEO of Automattic, the blog software maker. Host Lindsay Campbell, as always, asks Schneider whether he's "long" or "short" a number of hot topics. Schneider shorts Facebook and Apple's iTunes, but, curiously, says that he's long Meebo. Curiously, because the Web-IM startup's buzz is mild at best, and Schneider, in the clip, doesn't disclose that he's an investor in Meebo through True Ventures, the venture-capital firm where Schneider moonlights as a partner. (While we're disclosing, I should mention that Schneider's company hosts my personal website, Ditherati.)

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<![CDATA[Blogger Dinners need booze]]> Dropped in on Dave Winer and Niall Kennedy's Blogger Dinner last night. A couple dozen bloggers attended the comfortable little affair at Henry's Hunan. I chatted with one — friend and blogger Nicole Lee — in a day-after dinner autopsy. Apologies to anyone we forgot to smugly name-drop.

Wag: So the Blogger Dinner. Who did we know there? Dave Winer, of course...
Nicole: Yeah. There was also Marc Canter of Broadband Mechanics...
Toni Schneider from Automattic [hired away from Yahoo — ed.]
Wag: Marc came with chocolate! [Picked up from the airport and marked "Happy Father's Day!"]
Nicole: which he said was a "bribe"
Wag: for reading his site or what?
Nicole: for us to generate site traffic i guess
Wag: All I could tell was Winer kept protesting. "This is a non-commercial dinner!"
Nicole: ... while everyone was trying to engage in commercial deals?
Wag: right, right
Nicole: Granted, most everyone was just sitting around eating. But there were definitely some talking about "enterprises" and "social networking"
I swear I heard Marc Canter toss out the words "people aggregator"

After the jump, we rag on Henry's Hunan.

Wag: And we saw Eric Lin of Phonescoop
Nicole: and Om!
Wag: last week my T-Mobile guy mentioned Eric.
Nicole: Phonescoop is famous
Wag: Apparently Eric Lin shops at the Mission District T-Mobile. I thought everyone delivered their phones to him on the feet of white messenger doves.
So you chatted with Niall Kennedy and Scott Beale for a while. What about?
Nicole: Well I talked to Scott about the success of Valleyschwag, and how I see that Laughing Squid sticker in almost all the packages
it's iconic! famous!
Wag: Damn, you got your schwag already?
Nicole: No no, I just browse through the Flickr tags. I'm too cheap to actually PAY for valleyschwag. Especially when I have 90% of the schwag given to me for free
Wag: So to map out the dinner for everyone — we had what, four tables at this place? Hunan? Henry's Hunan?
Nicole: yeah, Henry's Hunan. Which, I'll be honest, doesn't serve the best food. I mean, it was delicious.
Wag: I didn't wanna admit it
Nicole: But... there's better. There's a LOT better.
Wag: even for $12, there's better stuff.
Wag: So Om Malik held court in the corner table, with Marc Canter and...who else was at the Power Table?
Nicole:That was THE power table. Toni Schneider was also at that table, along with Dave I believe
Wag: I think Dave was at that middle table for a while, but he may have moved
Nicole: yeah. Him and Niall were switching tables
Wag: working the crowd
Nicole: Mingling and all that.
Wag: No fights that night, no arguments that I heard.
Nicole: No. I was half-hoping someone would lunge at you and say something like "Valleywag ruined my life" but sadly, no.
Wag: I just made sure not to get caught in the bathroom next to Winer.
Not because of Valleywag, I'm just saying, good advice.
Nicole:
um, right. NOT going there.
Anyway, I was a little disappointed. Not too many hipsters.
Wag: Mediocre guy-girl ratio.
Nicole: But it was cool to get a glimpse of the old boys crowd.
Wag: Like, 4 ladies, all very cool ones, but there's a lot of lame guyness to dilute
Nicole: You know what was missing though? Booze.
Wag: GOOD CALL.
Nicole: someone should've got some Tiger Beer going or something.
Wag:instead it was all green tea
Nicole: I think I'm spoiled by the Web 2.0 open bars.
Wag: So on a scale of 1 to awesome, what do we rate last night's dinner?
Nicole: hmn, how about we rate it ala ebay. wait, let me look for examples..
Wag: it's all "A++++++++++++" on there
Nicole: how about "omgwtfnobooze?"

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