Internet Week: Party Like It's 1999

What was my Internet Week highlight? The Webutante Ball 2012 was the must attend event of the week, and BRUNI PR was in the house. I haven't seen Silicon Alley party like this since the heady days of the '90s. The Webutante Ball took me back to the days of Josh Harris and his famous loft parties. Though not everyone was in a gown and black tie, it was a great way for Alley entrepreneurs (and their dates) to celebrate another year of prosperity in the Alley. Reece Pacheco, the founder of Shelby.tv, was rightfully crowned King of the Ball this year. Shelby is one of the coolest video sharing sites around right now. Last year, it was Dens Crowley, of Foursquare fame. Sort of like the passing of the baton from one group of startups to the next.

Accelerators Are The Rage in the Alley

Why are accelerators so hot right now here in NYC?

The simple answer is "time compression".   Accelerators speed up the entire process of startup incubation by offering "mentors" who can school the young entrepreneurs, based on their own expertise and wisdom. 

The best accelerator around, in my opinion, is Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator.  Tomorrow, ERA 2, the second class to "graduate" will demo at the ERA Demo Day.  BRUNI PR, a mentor for last year's ERA 1 class, will be on hand. 

I'll be keeping on eye on STYLYT, which has already received some nice coverage in AdAge.  Basically, it's way for young female shoppers to create their own "collections" in collaboration with designers/brands.

LocalBonus and Dibsie are also interesting and could disrupt shopping. And, Appy Couple is founded by a couple vets of Web development and offers a do-it-yourself app kit.

Here's an overview of the ERA 2 class (from TNW News):


ERA’s new class includes startups from a diverse cross-section of industries, ranging from mobile and payments to fashion tech and e-commerce. But regardless of genre, all of these startups are looking to create disruptive companies in New York. Here’s the full 2012 winter class that will greatly benefit from the accelerator’s mentorship, $25,000 investment, free co-working space and more:

Appy Couple

Appy Couple lets you quickly, easily, and affordably create a gorgeous mobile app to share all the excitement of your wedding with invited guests. The Appy platform populates a mobile app in real-time, and includes features like picture uploads, virtual champagne, countdown, and geolocation.

Cinchifieds

Cinchifieds is the world’s simplest marketplace. Users catalog what they’re interested in buying or selling, and Cinchifieds does all the work, delivering matches directly to you. Cinchifieds makes buying and selling a cinch.

Dibsie

Dibsie makes it easy to find, organize and discover products online by integrating social networking with powerful search capability. Dibsie streamlines the process for discovering and sharing products by allowing users to search thousands of retailers and brands, then bookmark favorites for sharing through a mutually-curated catalog.

LocalBonus

LocalBonus allows consumers to use their existing credit and debit cards as their loyalty card at local merchants and gives merchants an easy way to deploy a rewards program to build customer loyalty.

Pictorious

Pictorious is a photo-sharing game that creates a fun way to explore the world, meet new people and earn awesome rewards and prizes. Pictorious also helps brands and merchants engage with and attract customers.

ShareRebate

ShareRebate is a referral tool that helps mobile app developers get more downloads. The referral tool seamlessly integrates into any mobile app and starts to offer users of the app rewards for recommending the app to friends and family.

Stray Boots

Stray Boots turns the walking tour on its head through its cell phone-guided, interactive urban games in cities throughout the U.S. Stray Boots curates the games and delivers them to customers’ phones via its proprietary software, taking urban explorers on an adventure that’s more fun, engaging and flexible than other ways to explore the city.

STYLYT

STYLYT is redefining the way fashion brands acquire loyal fans. Partnering with contemporary and boutique brands, Stylyt launches collaborative fashion design campaigns that allow any user to customize an item in a collection, vote on user entries and even choose the winning design entry to be manufactured and sold.

Wizpert

Wizpert is a real-time platform that instantly matches people who need advice with experts who are qualified to provide it on a wide range of topics from parenting to relationships and nutrition. Wizpert offers immediate access to a simple, helpful form of human communication. Talking.

WowWombat

WowWombat is an event sponsorship marketplace that provides an easy way for businesses to find and interact with their target audience. A business selects events to sponsor based on the demographics they want to reach and scale they can afford – while event organizers post event details to receive sponsorship.

NYC@SXSW

Who will win the battle for Buzz at SXSW?

The blogs (TechCrunch and Mashable) have anointed HighLight and possibly Sonar.me as the breakout stars for this year. But, my bet is on an NYC startup called Mobli, which will be releasing a new iPhone version of its app in Austin. Mobli is the hottest social media network around that no one has heard of -- yet. This cutting edge mobile app enables users to experience and share event-centric photos/videos and info. DiCaprio and Lance Armstrong are among Mobli's investors (and avid users).

Startups to Watch in 2012

So, which are the young NYC startups to watch in 2012? Here's my picks among the newborns in the Alley:

Fab.com
OnSwipe
Nestio
YouNow
Mobli
Taboola
EventNow
72lux
Shelby.tv
Pixable
Clothia
SonarMe
CityPockets
Solve Media
Lot18
BridesView
LocalResponse
Zaarly
TaskRabbit
SkillShare
Adkeeper
Conductor
CityMaps
UpNext
Centzy
BuzzTable
Kogeto
Kickstarter
CodeAcademy
GirlApproved
HeTexted

What do I base this on? Trust me, I've seen my share of startup pitches over the past year. About 12 NY Tech meetups (about 80+ pitches) , 10 UltraLight Startup meetup (60 pitches) , the ERA Accelerator program (10 or so young babes incubating) , three NY Video Meetups and a couple Fashion 2.0 meetups (and a slew of other meetups I can't even remember from this past year).

NanoRacks Rides Soyuz Progress

The hottest startups aren't all on Planet Earth. NanoRacks, a hot space research startup, had several payloads on the Soyuz Progress rocket that successfully launched Sunday. Kudos to Near Earth, a NY-based financial adviser firm, that is helping NanoRacks down here on Earth. They know how to "launch" Space startups.

TechStars’ Demo Day Unveils 12 Start Ups — NYConvergence.com

TechStars’ Demo Day Unveils 12 Start Ups — NYConvergence.com

Accelerators are red hot right now in Silicon Alley.

I'm a mentor at ER Accelerator, which is accepting applicants for its next "class" and participated in their DEMO Day recently. It was jammed and even got pickup in the New York Times.

But, I have to admit TechStars is the most famous accelerator around, thanks to the popularity of its Bloomberg TV reality TV show. Hat's off to David Tisch. We're all looking forward to watching this group. The last one raised $24 million.

CityPockets Acquires DealBurner's Daily Deals App - Tricia Duryee - Commerce - AllThingsD

CityPockets Acquires DealBurner's Daily Deals App - Tricia Duryee - Commerce - AllThingsD

Home-Goods Retailer CSN Stores Raises $165 Million - Digits - WSJ

Home-Goods Retailer CSN Stores Raises $165 Million - Digits - WSJ


CSN Stores, a BRUNI PR client, makes E-Commerce Investment history. The "Amazon of the Home" will use the investment to rebrand itself as Wayfair. You'll be hearing more about Wayfair.

CSN Stores Becomes Second-Largest Online Retailer of Home Goods in the U.S. -- BOSTON, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

CSN Stores Becomes Second-Largest Online Retailer of Home Goods in the U.S. -- BOSTON, May 31, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Online Giant CSN Stores Achieves Its Best Quarter Ever -- BOSTON, April 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

Online Giant CSN Stores Achieves Its Best Quarter Ever -- BOSTON, April 22, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --



BRUNI PR's newest client is CSN Stores, the "Amazon of Home Products", which just had its best quarter and is planning some major announcements in the coming weeks. 250+ websites are under the CSN umbrella. CSN is on track to become a $500m company by year-end. We're proud to be working with CSN.

Who won @ SXSW? (and does it matter?)

Who won the battle of the group messaging apps at SXSW? TechCrunch sez GroupMe, but Fast Society also scored points with a fine new version of its app.

Fast Society, a NYC-based startup, recently released a new group application that is “Built to Party.” Users with an iPhone and Android capable phones can send and receive audio messages, share their locations, text for free within the app, and “go back in time” to remember previous conversations with the group. (NYC Convergence).

"Fast Society is setting itself a part from other group messaging spaces by using its own platform, saving it a lot of money and adding flexibility. They are also avoiding becoming a social network, as they are designed just for single groups."

The startup launched in September 2010 and has raised $275,000 in seed capital. CEO Matt Rosenberg describes the company as “something that is edgy and dangerous. We’re not your mom’s startup. We’re young and aggressive.”

As an aging Boomer, I appreciate FS's demographic targeting. Why waste time on reaching older consumers who don't appreciate group texting? That's why MTV recently chose FS to promote its controversial "Skins" show. Watch this young Alley startup move "Fast" and catch up to GroupMe and other players.

The Visual History Album/ FotoBridge

When Academy Award - winning producer Jon Landau decided to digitally archive thousands of family photos dating back to the early 20th Century, he chose FotoBridge.

Digitizing your photos to DVD isn't just for Hollywood types and pro fotogs. FotoBridge's newest customers are Baby Boomer consumers who want to preserve their family's visual history.

There are an estimated 1 to 3 trillion Photos available for digitial conversion. That's a lot of old photo albums in closets.

Getting rid of that clutter is a great idea. But, picking a Photoscanning Service is also a chore.

Do a Google Web search on Photo Scanning Services and you'll see dozens of names. But, among the top ranked search results is FotoBridge (www.fotobridge.com). And, with good reason.

FotoBridge is the fastest growing photo scanning service in the US. With over
15 million images delivered so far, FotoBridge is the Number One choice for pros and Consumers. It recently introduced Home Movie/Video/Film to DVD, a hot new area.

FotoBridge uses a variety of the latest, most-advanced, professional imaging technologies and systems available today. Their Kodak scanners are specially modified models supported by Kodak for dedicated print photograph scanning.

Following scanning, FotoBridge enhances each digital image through "Intelligent Digital Finishing" (IDFSM) process. This process combines automated and manual techniques to resolve existing color, exposure, red-eye, highlights and contrast problems present in the original photos. IDF can often salvage poor photos and make good photos look even better.

FotoBridge has a Facebook page, a Twitter following and even a YouTube channel (with examples of their work.

JW Player: Download | LongTail Video | Home of the JW Player

JW Player: Download | LongTail Video | Home of the JW Player


Longtailvideo: Obama's video platform of choice

When President Obama gives his State of the Union Address in a couple weeks, it will be seen on the White House website (www.whitehouse.gov ) utilizing the JW Player, an online video platform from Longtailvideo, a leading NYC-based startup that dominates the open source video business.

Over 1.3 million websites now have the JW Player, which was developed by a famous Dutch entrepreneur nearly six years ago. (nicknamed "JW"). He's in the States and NYC this month. Welcome to the Big Apple JW. To learn more, go to www.longtailvideo.com

Outbrain: a new ad medium is born near Union Square

Can "Content Discovery" help save the newspaper industry?

"Content Discovery" provides online readers high quality, personalized content at the end of each article on publisher websites.

Outbrain (www.outbrain.com), a NY-based content recommendation company and new Bruni PR client, is the leader in this new internet Trend and advertising medium. The three year-old startup's mission is to serve "interesting content" to online readers.

Google finds info that you're looking for; Outbrain's platform finds content/info you didn't know existed.

Media Companies are flocking to this web technology because it enhances reader experience, increases traffic and provides a valuable new revenue stream. By offering "sponsored recommendations", they generate revenue from advertisers/brands promoting their content next to the publisher’s own editorial.

Outbrain data shows that readers don't mind if content is paid. As long as it's interesting, they will click and engage with the content.

Outbrain's client list includes many major Media players: Conde Nast, USA Today, iVillage, Boston.com (Boston Globe), The Daily Beast, TheStreet, Washington Post, Chicago Tribune, Newsweek, Seattle Times, VentureBeat, and Slate.

What's Outbrain's "secret sauce"?

Outbrain's proprietary technology personalizes content recommendations to the individual, helping each online reader discover new, interesting articles. The recommendations are based on contextual and behavioral algorithm.

Outbrain has raised over $18 million in Series A and B financing.

Outbrain's network reaches 150 million monthly users on the Web

Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze

Why Entertainment Will Drive the Next Checkin Craze

Philo TV wowed the NY Tech Meetup audience last week here in NYC. I've been testdriving it and love checking in while I'm watching TV. Tonite, Philo TV followers will be chatting about the latest Jersey Housewives show, not high brow cultural stuff, but enough to get some traction for this fascinating coach potato app. Kudos to Founder David Levy and his team.

LightSquared

Press Releases - LightSquared


I met Phil Falcone a few years back when I worked on a couple assignments for Harbinger Capital, which had become majority shareholder in Parmalat and was getting the message out to reporters covering Europe. The Italian press called him "Il Falcone", "the Falcon". Phil's lastest venture, a hugely ambitious wireless network called LightSquared, launched earlier today. Burson Marsteller is handling PR and has its hands full. Phil has to raise billions in debt to finance the project, and I believe, will likely prevail.

The Revenge of "Flogs"/ Four year Anniversary

AT&T Wireless PR (ATT_Wireless_PR) on Twitter


What's a Corporate PR Department's worst nightmare? A Twitter account that "fakes" your communications to the outside world. And, gets more attention than the "real" releases.

Ask AT&T's PR people. They are contending with a "fake" Twitter account that is making a laughing stock out of AT&T's PR Department and PR agency (probably Burson or H&K). Just today, NYT tech editor Damon Darlin lists the fake PR Twitter acct. as one of the "things he's following" right now, on a daily basis. Amazing endorsement from my favorite tech editor on the planet.

Edelman PR, the nation's largest Independent PR firm, started this mess a few years back with their infamous "flog" , fake blog for the Walmart account, a early desperate attempt by the PR industry to get its hands around Social Media. Ironically, four years later (almost to the day), we have the new order of "fake" communications, this time from the "other side" of the PR equation.

Papa John’s Recruits Facebook Fans to Create Next Pizza

Papa John’s Recruits Facebook Fans to Create Next Pizza

Can you crowdsource your next pizza recipe? My dad, Americo Bruni, owner-founder of Bruni's Pizzeria, the "king" of South Jersey pizza, would be appalled at the idea of leaving these decisions up to the customer, but times change even in the pizza business. Can't wait to show him the poll results. Pineapple with tofu and kimchi on pizza? Mama mia.

My Foursquare Day (and Night)

Foursquare made history yesterday and I was proud to be part of it. I was one of the several hundred thousand or so Foursquare users around the globe who gathered to celebrate this amazing mobile LBS service/social network/game, which is morphing into a media platform, the CNN of young techies here in New York City. Foursquare hit the 1 million member mark as well as yesterday, according to Mashable and Techcrunch. I experienced the power of Foursquare Nation at the Foursquare Party in Hotel on Rivington Penthouse and partied with co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen, both rock stars of the reborn Silicon Alley in NYC.

The 15 Biggest PR Disasters Of The Decade

The 15 Biggest PR Disasters Of The Decade

U.S. Wealthy Lack Loopholes to Offset Obama’s Taxes (Update1) - BusinessWeek

U.S. Wealthy Lack Loopholes to Offset Obama’s Taxes (Update1) - BusinessWeek

Tax Time is just around the corner. Deferred Comp is making a big comeback as a tax saving solution.
BRUNI PR placement for NIP-Retirement Capital Group, a leader in this space.

USA TODAY analysis: Many CEOs took a pay cut in 2009 - USATODAY.com

USA TODAY analysis: Many CEOs took a pay cut in 2009 - USATODAY.com

BRUNI PR placement in USA Today Report on CEO Pay

Nestle vs. Greenpeace: How Not to Handle a Social Media PR crisis

Have a break? from Greenpeace UK on Vimeo.

The Nestle vs. Greenpeace PR battle that erupted this week shows PR pros what not to do in Social Media PR crisis: censor. When this Greenpeace video criticizing Nestle gained traction this week, Nestle's PR folks decided to try to muscle YouTube into censoring the vid. and deleting comments about it. Not a smart PR strategy. The resulting furor has increased coverage of the battle.

2010 Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW Finalists | SXSW.com

2010 Microsoft BizSpark Accelerator at SXSW Finalists | SXSW.com

NY startups featured at this year's SXSW BizSpark Competition :
AnyClip, Topguest , Knowem? , ChallengePost, Udorse

Toyota Turns To Twitter To Repair Its Image

Toyota Turns To Twitter To Repair Its Image

NYConvergence - A digest of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut digital media technology news: NY Tech Meetup Debuts New Monthly Feature

NYConvergence - A digest of New York, New Jersey, and Connecticut digital media technology news: NY Tech Meetup Debuts New Monthly Feature

Suspended jail sentences for Google | Video | Reuters.com

A major PR headache in Europe for Google : Suspended jail sentences for Google | Video | Reuters.com

A $3.5 Billion Effort Aims to Help Tech Start-Ups - NYTimes.com

A $3.5 Billion Effort Aims to Help Tech Start-Ups - NYTimes.com Will Silicon Alley get Silicon Valley money?

I Pissed Off A PR Spammer Today/ a Tale of Caution From TechCrunch

I Pissed Off A PR Spammer Today

Tiger Woods Apology Boosts His Standing Online | Andrew LaVallee | Voices | AllThingsD

Tiger Woods Apology Boosts His Standing Online | Andrew LaVallee | Voices | AllThingsD

Milabra

The 1 trillion images on the Web are Advertising's Next Frontier.

Pairing images with targeted ads is the Holy Grail for Advertisers. The reason: consumers rely heavily on images in search engine result pages.

The age of Visual Ad Targeting is just around the corner.

Google recently announced plans to begin matching images from its fast-growing Google Image Search with display ads. Presently, Google photos are indexed by text and other metadata.

But, a NYC startup called Milabra beat Google to the punch last year by launching the world's first contextual ad network with targeting based upon visual content. And, it's getting a lot of attention from major ad networks and digital chiefs at big ad agencies.

Milabra (www.milabra.com) uses cutting edge visual recognition software to see what's important in an image, and targets advertising based on that data. Visual media publishers simply add the Milabra tag to their site, and Milabra automatically segments and moderate their content into advertiser friendly "buckets", increasing their inventory value and improving their performance.

Why is visual recognition ad targeting so effective?
It actually connects with the hard wired patterns of the human mind to create a more effective advertising experience. It's the language of pictures. By connecting to our primary sense, sight, it connects with consumers on a more fundamental level than other forms of targeting.

Milabra has signed up a slew of Ad networks since it launched over a year ago.

Most of the leading digital chiefs on Madison Avenue have met with Milabra and are looking under the hood of its technology, developed by a Columbia University neuroscientist.

TechCrunch wrote a glowing post back in February after the startup raised $1.2m in angel investments. No ad trade or mainstream media coverage to date. Milabra was the talk of AdTech last week and recently premiered to rave reviews at the NY Video Meetup and AlwaysOnMedia.

Outbrain's OutLoud: Earned Media Maximizer

One of the biggest problems in the PR field called Media Relations is that media placements, these days called "earned media", have a limited shelf life. Sure, a media placement such as an article in the New York Times can live on forever in Google News Search, but how do you maximize the longevity of a "PR hit" in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal.

Outbrain, an NYC startup that provides content recommendation technology to over 25,000 websites, has come up with an answer: "OutLoud". “OutLoud”, lets customers submit articles, blog posts or videos for only $10 a month and have them distributed in a scaled and targeted way. "Amplify your earned media and positive press, build an audience for your corporate blog, or bring new audiences to your own crafted content" says Outbrain, which will be featuring OutLoud at this week's AdTech event. BTW: Bruni PR is using OutLoud to blast a recent Financial Times placements on behalf of Beyond Media, a New Brunswick NJ based client.

What if retailers had a Digg-like social media game that predicts what they should sell for the Spring 2010 season?

Believe it or not, Limited Brands is spending substantial money right now on just that. It has hired a new NYC-based startup called StyleHop to conduct "predictive" research on what young female consumers will be buying next Spring.

StyleHop has been gathering results from a panel of 10,000 monthly "StyleHoppers"/ users and feeding the findings to Limited. StyleHop (www.stylehop.com) CEO David Reinke thinks that Limited and other clients, including Calvin Klein, are spearheading a "revolution" in the use of predictive behavior research.

E.Factor: the largest Entrepreneur Group on the Globe

E.Factor (www.efactor.com) is fast becoming the largest entrepreneur group on the planet, approaching 1 million members, according to VP-Marketing Stephanie Frasco. E.Factor branches are sprouting up around the world, especially in Europe and Southeast Asia.

Another first for E.Factor: the first even Health Insurance plan for entrepreneurs. E.Factor and Access Health are offering the three-tier plans (individual/couple/family) to members.

Livestream Launches Twitcam

Livestreaming finally comes to Twitter as Livestream, a NYC startup, launches Twitcam.

Cairo: the new Call Center Mecca | The News is NowPublic.com

Cairo: the new Call Center Mecca | The News is NowPublic.com

UpNext iPhone app

You can fly like Superman around buildings on the amazing new UpNext NYC iPhone app. Google might offer a great Streetview of Manhattan, but this young NYC startup has come up with something that's on, well, a higher level. As you zoom thru Manhattan you can tap a building to see what's inside or search for bars, restuarants, hotels, etc. In the Top 20 in the Travel section of the iPhone app store. It's worth more than the $2.99 fee.

Plagium

Plagiarism is a huge problem today. During the past several months, Science and Medical journals have been reporting an upsurge in academia and the research community. Even high schools are now using software to check term papers.

How do you check to see if your content, words, quotes or ideas are being ripped off? Septet Systems, a NY-based computer/software consulting firm, has come up with a solution: www.plagium.com. This cool little Google-like interface allows you to type in content and check across the Web to see if anyone is stealing your stuff.

Bruni PR will be pitching this to Publishers Weekly and other key trades in the publishing world as well as the mainstream media outlets.

Startups To Watch in 2009

Which Silicon Alley startups should we be watching in 2009?

Here's the official BRUNI PR list:

Mogulus
Boxee
AdaptiveBlue
SkyGrid
BuddyMedia
Esty
StyleHop
E.Factor
Innovid
Aviary
Urbis.com
Adarky
10Gen
Beyond Media
Blip.tv
Kaltura
AdMob

Boxee Raises $4 Million

quick intro to boxee from boxee on Vimeo.

One of the most talked about startups in NYC has proven that VC money is available even in a tough economy. Featured in Forbes.com several weeks ago (thanks to the efforts of Bruni PR), Boxee is an amazing media sharing platform that allows viewers to share and rate videos, music and photos. Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures, one of the investors, calls it the "Firefox" of media browsing. This young startup first presented at NY Video Meetup and NY Tech Meetup just a few months back, and are now poised to partner with the media giants. Congrats to Avner Ronen and his team of young Israeli geeks.

Motrin Moms Campaign Implodes

Here's a great textbook example of how companies can misuse Social Media: the Motrin Moms campaign, which has raised a furor today on major blogs, including TechCrunch, Mashable and others. The "viral" ad pokes fun at mom who carry their babies, implying that they will need Motrin for the pain endured. The number of hateful parodies of this ad are cropping up faster than Obama friends on Facebook. The ad agency involved will likely kill the ad later today. Moreover, it's the number one topic on Twitter today, but not the kind of Twitter coverage any company would want.

Will Wall Street Crash burn Silicon Alley?

How will Silicon Alley (and Silicon Valley) fare in this new era of Fear and Loathing on Wall Street? Today, TechCrunch chimes in with a positive report:
So far the downward spiral of credit and financial markets seems to have left venture capital firms and startups relatively unharmed. Even though the IPO market closed completely in the second quarter (and opened again only slightly in the third), venture capital firms continue to raise money and invest in startups at a healthy pace. During the first half of the year, venture capital firms raised about $16 billion in 141 funds and invested about $15 billion in nearly 2,000 deals.

But, there are different views on the subject. Case in point: The Calacanis Nation enewsletter, put out by my old friend Jason, a real expert on crash and burn. (When his Silicon Alley Reporter featured the Alley Meltdown some years ago, he put a photo of the Hindenburg on the cover of his magazine, something I'll never forget as I watched my roster of Alley PR clients disappear virtually overnight).

Jason predicts that 80% of all startups (East and West Coast) will be out of business within the next year or so, as VC $ dries up. He cites three factors that kill startups: 1) bad idea, 2) bad execution 3) other outside reasons. Well, clearly, No. 3 is the big one to watch right now. A great startup can have the right idea, the right execution and still get ****** in today's business environment. Let's hope Arrington is right, and Jason is wrong. But, my bet is on my old Alley buddy, who saw boom and bust and boom again over the past years.

Reuters: It's Official, We are in a Bear Market

A News Alert just in from Reuters: The Bear Market is officially here.
What does it mean for Net startups? Time will tell.

New York City rules in Tech Jobs

According to a report released today from a tech industry trade group, New York and its surrounding metropolitan area leads the nation when it comes to the number of high-tech jobs. Rounding out the top five in order were Washington, D.C.; San Jose/Silicon Valley, Boston, and Dallas-Fort Worth.

New York had 316,500 high-tech jobs, while Silicon Valley had 225,300.

Trendrr: Obama beats McCain in Media Coverage

Who is winning the battle for media coverage?

Obama, without question. Check out this cool new graph from Trendrr, a service of hot NY startup Wiredset. This graph says it all. The media loves Obama.

TechSet Party NYC

The TechSet Party NYC at the Gansevoort Hotel was, without question, the highlight of Internet Week. Brian Solis, CEO of Future-Works, and Stephanie Agresta organized a fine party that was well attended by NY digerati, including Sarah Austin (Pop17), David Karp (Tumblr), the Mashable team (Pete Cashmore, Alana Taylor, Brett Petersel), Esther Dyson (angel investor), Caroline McCarthy (CNET), and others. Looking forward to more TechSet events here in NYC. These guys throw parties that remind me of the Josh Harris/Pseudo parties and Courtney Pulitizer get togethers in the Nineties Silicon Alley.

Internet Week: A Non-Event?

Ok, I guess it's obligatory to salute Internet Week. Kudos to Mayor Bloomberg for launching a "seed fund" for NY Internet companies this morning. Tomorrow nite, we're at the NY Tech Meetup, which showcases "the Top Internet Companies", and later, at the Web2NewYork/Center Networks "drinks4charity" (a good cause) party at Gallery Bar. On Friday,it's the Mashable Exhibit Hall party. I get to rub elbows with Cashmore and other luminaries. In between, there are a slew of events, ranging from the I Media panel, Net film shows, music performances and everything you can think of, some totally unrelated to the Internet or Silicon Alley. Go figure.

MashBash NYC Party

The MashBash NYC party at Webster Hall last Friday nite was one of the best Silicon Alley parties I've been to since the '90s. GrandMaster Flash performed for a VIP audience of several hundred. I hadn't seen Flash since '81 in the same venue, when it was called "The Ritz". Everybody was at this party, including Tumblr, Magnify, Kluster (which sponsored an open bar), DrawnbyPain (jeskid), Silicon Alley Reporter, Center Networks, Alley Insider, Diggnation, etc. (and Bruni PR, that's me in the Roma soccer cap).
Kudos to Adam Hirsch and his Mashable team.

Livestreaming the Italian Soccer Championship

The Italian soccer championship will be decided next Sunday. Inter and Roma are neck in neck for the "scudetto", with Inter having only a one point advantage in the Serie A ranking. What is certain is how livestreaming has changed the way Italians view and experience these games. There are approximately 20+ livestreaming tv channels on Mogulus that feature Italian soccer. If you miss the game or don't have a TV nearby, you can watch on your computer. Forza Roma!

Drawn By Pain/Webby Award

Drawn By Pain is one of the hottest web TV series to come out of Silicon Alley. We're all praying that Jesse Cowell and his jeskid production team wins the Webby Award for animation on Tuesday. Go for it Jes.

Crunchgear Party: Empressr Impressed

Empressr wowed the Crunchgear party in NYC on May 1st at Red Sky bar with the "first visual story and presentation Internet application". (I'm the guy in the beige cap) Here's how the folks at Empressr describe it --

"Empressr was developed by Fusebox, an award winning creative and technology firm that creates rich Internet applications (RIAs), and advertising and marketing programs for global 1000 companies. Empressr was developed in response to what we saw as the limitations of existing presentation applications. If streaming video and Flash are more dynamic ways to present important information, then why shouldn't everyone have access to this medium? So our creative and technology experts teamed up to develop a way for anyone to create rich media presentations, easily. The result is the first-of-its-kind visual story telling and presentation application that is revolutionizing the industry"

$ Pour into NY startups/PWC study

Good news from Price Waterhouse. The US economy might be in the toilet, but the bucks keep rolling into NY.

Sixty-six area companies received $526 million in venture funding during the quarter, according to a report released by PricewaterhouseCoopers and the National Venture Capital Association. Funding was up 12% from the previous quarter and 35% from the same quarter a year ago.

Nationwide, venture capitalists invested $7.1 billion in 922 companies. Funding was down 8.5% from the fourth quarter and 5% from the same period a year ago.

Trendrr

Trendrr was the highlight of last week's NY Tech Meetup. It's Graphing meets Social Media. Read/Write/Web has a fine post/endorsement this week:

"Trendrr currently offers up data from 17 different data sets -- and the site is always adding more. These are things like: stock charts, YouTube video plays, MySpace friends, comments, or profile views, Amazon sales rank, Google News mentions, etc. Users can also input custom data via the site's RESTful API or by hand. Users are allowed to track up to 20 data sets at a time.

Once Trendrr is tracking your data, it can then be mashed up into comparison graph. Data can be left absolute or scaled relatively, and the site supports line, area, bar, and scatter graphs. These charts can then be embedded, linked to, or exported via excel, xml, or json. Trendrr can also export data via its new simple graph syndication API."