VCs in the front seat, VCs in the back seat

Beautifully executed, as always, but it was a lot less painful to watch when it was ripping off a hilarious Old Spice ad and not Rebecca Black.

via BrooklynBridgeVentures.com

On his blog this morning, New York City tech stalwart Charlie O'Donnell announced the creation of a new seed investment fund called Brooklyn Bridge Ventures. Mr. O'Donnell, who used to bike the 9.2 miles from his home in Bay Ridge to his last job—principal at First Round Capital in Union Square—says his is the first venture capital fund based in Brooklyn and that the borough "has the potential to be the very best place in the world to start a technology business."

Business Insider's sources say Mr. O'Donnell's fund will be $10 million. Betabeat has heard somewhere in the range of $10 million to $20 million and that Quotidian Ventures might be his first big LP, although Mr. O'Donnell would not return earlier calls to confirm. We have reached out to Quotidian and will update the post when we hear back.

For the past two years, Mr. O'Donnell, who founded Path 101, has been working at First Round, first as an entrepreneur-in-residence, and then, in November 2010, as a principal at the fund. On his blog, First Round's managing director Josh Kopelman said his one-year term was extended "after witnessing Charlie’s hustle and energy firsthand." He was particular critical to the firm, says Mr. Kopelman, in expanding its presence in New York as well as sourcing seven deals including GroupMe, which was acquired by Skype.

According to both Mr. O'Donnell and Mr. Kopelman, building his own investment firm has long been a goal.

"In fact, it’s what Henry Blodget told me I should do the first time I met him--back in May of 2007 during a pre-Business Insider lunch at Coffee Shop.  Josh Kopelman said the same thing to me about a year ago and we’ve talked a lot about firm building in my time at First Round."

At Brooklyn Bridge Ventures, the plan is to lead or co-lead seed rounds and helping with recruiting, PR, and product management. When we spoke in July about the tech talent crunch in New York, Mr. O'Donnell said he spent about a third of his time recruiting for First Round portfolio companies.

Another hallmark of his new fund? A Brooklyn state of mind. The Bensohurst native writes:

"Given that many of the companies I work with don’t even have offices yet, and that many of their founders and future employees live in Brooklyn, I won’t be surprised of the majority of the fund winds up being invested in Brooklyn startups.  It’s a great place to build a business--creative, less expensive, flexible, etc.  However, my goal is not to geographically limit the fund but to help create and leverage an ecosystem that connects and attracts talent and knowledge in such a way that people all over the city want to be a part of it.  I want to erase the barrier to attending a Meetup in Brooklyn and make building here a bigger part of everyone’s consideration set.  I’ll fund deals elsewhere for sure, but I hope to convince folks that you won’t want to be elsewhere."

Any doubts about his street cred, just check out the urban brick background to his new website. Or this inspirational video:

Made In Brooklyn from Brooklyn Bridge Ventures on Vimeo.

How I Live-Streamed Your Mother

A magical thing happened at IAC's headquarters this morning. A startup called Aereo displayed the most compelling argument for cord-cutting we've heard in awhile. It came in the form of a thumbnail-sized HD antenna. Sign up with Aereo and users get the right to license their own antenna, which are stored in a local warehouse. Then, log on via any web-enabled device (smartphones, iPads, even AppleTV) and ta-da, members can access major networks like CBS, NBC, FOX, ABC, CW, and PBS, as well as other local channels. Better yet, you also have the ability store up to 40 hours of programming on their remote DVR.

"No cords or cable required," the company's press release says pointedly. The service is limited to New York City right now, but only costs $12 a month. Throw in a Netflix account, Hulu, and you're probably good to go. Happy Valentine's Day, Dying Cable Industry!

Aereo (formerly called Bamboom Labs) also anounced a $20.5 million series A round led by IAC.

The startup previously raised $4.5 million. Existing investors, including FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, High Line Venture Partners, Highland Capital Partners and individual investors also participated in the series A. Along with the funding,  IAC chairman and Fox network creator Barry Diller joined Aereo's board.

As Mr. Diller told Media Decoder, Aereo's device represents a significant step in wrenching content from the “closed cable-broadcast-satellite circle.”:

“Anyone will tell you, whether it’s Amazon or Hulu or Apple, that they can’t get enough programming that people want to see to –so to speak, ‘break the chain’ — because all of the programming is controlled within the circle,” Mr. Diller said in a telephone interview.

Aereo founder and CEO Chet Kanojia, formerly of Navic Networks, seems up to the task. In addition to selling Navic to Microsoft in 2008, he also completed "doctoral-level work on the commercial applications of artificial intelligence." (Hmm, perhaps that DVR could use a recommendation engine?)

The company says membership is subject to availability, but beginning March 14th, members will be eligible for a 30-day free trial. For now, it's just working on iOS devices, but Aereo says in the next six weeks "anything that's web-enabled" will work. Please excuse us, we have to go sign up and see whether this new toy actually works in the bowels of Brooklyn.

Mr. Leidlein (redeye.firstround.com)

Jack Leidlein, who was hired last week by First Round Capital to be their head of talent, really loves to use the word “exceptional.” It makes sense, though; the very core of Mr. Leidlein’s new job--recruiting brilliant engineers to fill the ranks at First Round-funded startups--hinges on exceptionalism, and his knack for finding diamonds in the rough.

“The top level goal [of my new position] is supporting our portfolio companies in our effort to attract and hire exceptional talent,” Mr. Leidlein told Betabeat over phone. “The best way to build meaningful companies is by competing for and getting great talent."

In order to join First Round, Mr. Leidlein left his position as head of business operations and recruiting at Scribd, the social publishing site, where he worked for almost four years. Joining a VC firm--particularly one like First Round, with its focus on early stage companies--was something he’d thought about doing for a long time, Mr. Leidlein said.

In his new role, Mr. Leidlein will be splitting his time between San Francisco and New York, as 40 percent of First Round’s portfolio is located in the Alley, boasting all-stars like Birchbox and GroupMe. Mr. Leidlein will be mining both coasts for the most brilliant--and yes, exceptional--tech talent to add to First Round’s roster of seed funded startups.

So how does he plan to do it? His approach is twofold.

“First by building robust talent networks, meeting exceptional people and ultimately looking to connect them with the companies in our portfolio,” said Mr. Leidlein. He’ll also be working with First Round’s companies to provide them with actionable advice, effectively transforming them into recruiting machines. “At that early early stage, a lot of founders haven’t built teams [before], so helping them put the right foundation in place upon which to go out and try to find exceptional talent is going to be important.”

But exceptionalism isn’t the only thing that Mr. Leidlein looks for in a potential candidate.

“What I like to see when I go out to find talent is a real passion for whatever it is that they’re doing,” he said. “If you’re a developer, I love to see that passion represented through personal projects. When you’re not at work, you’re home building something, you’re creating something that you think is interesting and you’re sharing that with your network and spending your time doing what you’re most passionate about.”

An emphasis on community involvement is also key--devs who are active in the community that they work in, by attending events like Ruby meetups or contributing to someone else’s project on Github, prove that they’re passionate as well as a team player.

Mr. Leidlein is looking for that hustle, that drive. “I want people that want to work with exceptional talent, they want to sort of be the dumbest guy in the group on day one,” he said. “They want to feel like they can contribute and learn a lot from the people they work with.”

In that case, Mr. Leidlein, we did you a favor: perhaps you might find our Poachables list helpful.

The Hirschhorns

Accumulate enough animal-loving friends and you're likely to find yourself on the receiving end of emails like: Anyone want to stay in a sunny 2-bedroom apartment next weekend FOR FREE . . . and watch Buster while we're out of town? We promise he doesn't bite! Or, even the occasional: Okay, so maybe he does bite, but we'll leave a six pack in the fridge.

The idea behind Dog Vacay, a new service opening shop in New York today, is to offer pet-owners a third option besides pricey kennels and begging/bribing friends.

Like Airbnb, Dog Vacay lets users search a marketplace of homes by location--only in this case, it's for their fur-covered friends. The company vets potential hosts and lets customers leave reviews. It also offers insurance and veterinary care (through a partnership with VCA Animal Hospitals). Hosts are permitted to set their own price and schedule. Including insurance, range is about $15 to $100 per night, depending on the location.

"Kennels are crowded, overpriced, your dogs are in a cage all day," said CEO Aaron Hirschhorn told Betabeat when and his wife, cofounder Karine Nissim Hirschhorn stopped by our office last week. "You can ask a friend or a family member to pet sit, but you’re always calling in favors."

The startup, which has $1 million in seed funding from First Round Capital, Quest Venture Partners, and Baroda Ventures, launched in Los Angeles and San Francisco in early March, but this is its foray East. In fact, Dog Vacay is the second startup from Science, a Los Angeles-based incubator run by former MySpace CEO Mike Jones and Color cofounder Peter Pham, to try to break into the New York market in as many weeks. Eventup, another play on Airbnb, but for the events spaces, launched last Tuesday.

Thus far, Science hasn't shied away from picking startups that offer a different twist on a proven concepts. For example, Dollar Shave Club, a subscription-based service for razors, reminded us a lot of Birchbox.

The Hirschhorns, who own two dogs named Rocky and Rambo, started out of their home in California. Mr. Hirschhorn has a background in venture capital as a principal at Monitor Ventures; Ms. Hirschhorn was a screenwriter and filmmaker. After the concept took off, she said, "I quit my job, I wrote from home, and took care of dogs all day. Aaron helped me walk them and it was pretty remarkable the way we grew without advertising."

Understanding other pet-owners helped them build the site. "We’re neurotic about our pets, obviously," said Ms. Hirschhorn, which prompted them to offer meet-and-greets with potential hosts. She compared it to a dating site. "You have hundreds of options to choose from, so knowing your dog as well as you do," she said, owners are able to assess whether a dog that's socially anxious would work in a home with, say, another pet.

As of last week, Dog Vacay had about 400 hosts signed up in New York and another 1,500 waiting for approval. Thus far, about 30 percent of the hosts are professional dog-walkers or pet-sitters. "The stay-at-home moms, retirees, artists, writers, anyone who has a home-based business that can afford to take care of a pet," make up another large chunk, said Ms. Hirschhorn, adding, "We also see a lot of professionals, especially in New York, who want a pet, but maybe can’t commit to it fulltime and might take in a dog during the weekend." Betabeat would be lying if we said we'd never googled 1-800-RENTAPUPPY.

The main difference between New York and L.A. seems to be the lack of yard space and ranches, said Ms. Hirschhorn, although she noted a recent booking in Brooklyn where a customer found the host in the building next door. "It was ideal because it was right next to Prospect Park. They had maybe a one-bedroom apartment, but they were getting three long walks a day, which was more than the owner could ever do with their schedule."

As for monetizing this peer-to-peer marketplace, Dog Vacay takes a 5 to 10 percent cut from the host, but that fee goes down if you do more business on the site and incur more positive reviews. (Airbnb charges guests a 6 to 12 percent fee for booking reservations and charges hosts a 3 percent fee for every booking completed.)

Although the Hirschhorns have personally hosted over 100 dogs at their home, they're less active in that department these days. "On my profile," Mr. Hirschhorn noted, "It says, 'We’re very busy trying to grow this thing, but occasionally we do take another dog or two."

(Photo: waywire.com)

While you were clinging to your A/C unit over the weekend, Newark mayor and Twitter addict Cory Booker was ushering his new startup out of stealth mode. The company, called #waywire, is a media platform that combines original and syndicated videos with relevant user-generated content from young adults about what's important to them and their perspective on issues in the news.

Wait, didn't Al Gore have the same idea in 2005?

"Traditional news sources aren’t in any way talking to millennials," Mr. Booker tells TechCrunch. Perhaps the site can start with whether any young adult actually wants to be labeled a "millenial"?

Mr. Booker's cofounder in the startup is Nathan Richardson, #waywire's CEO. (He also goes by Nate.) Mr. Richardson was most recently the president of Gilt City. His departure for the startup world was announced on the heels of significant layoffs at Gilt Groupe in January. Sarah Ross, TechCrunch's former chief marketing officer, is also a cofounder.

The startup has already raised a $1.75 million seed round from Oprah Winfrey, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter, First Round Capital, and LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner.

Mr. Richardson tells TechCrunch that #waywire plans on launching with 10,000 minutes of original content hosted by "all-millenial newscasters," along with clips from more established news outlets. Video responses, like, say, a reaction to the Supreme Court's healthcare decision, from the #waywire community and your social network will appear alongside the professional content.

Booker believes “There are practical solution to [creating] more jobs, lower crime, better education. If more people could find their voice and be part of the national dialogue, we could solve these problems.”

Any discussion or rebuttal you record can easily be shared via social networks. In fact, #waywire plans on pulling in data from Facebook and Twitter to build a personalized newswire of what's relevant to each user. The startup also plans on offering a badge and reward system that lets trusted users determine what content to highlight on the platform.

In a promotional video shot in Washington Square Park (below), fresh-faced,  politically-engaged young men and women wag their fingers at the divisive soundbite- and celebrity-obsessed state of news today, eager to offer a more circumspect take on the issues. Aaron Sorkin would be so proud!

Mr. Goldberg on stage at the Fabby Awards last night (Photo: Laughing Squid's Instagram)

A scant seven months after Andreessen Horowitz "plowed" $40 million into Fab at a $200 million valuation, the pivot-happy flash sales site for design items just announced a massive Series C. The company closed a $105 million round led by Atomico, an international investment firm out of London run by Skype cofounder Niklas Zennström. The Wall Street Journal, which broke the news, says the new round values Fab at $600 million.

Yes, folks, that's a 200 percent jump in valuation in seven months. We bet even Fab doesn't sell a sleek-enough vessel to hold all that (theoretical) dough.

In a press release, Fab said ru-Net Technology Partners (RTP), the international fund backed by Russian billionaire Leonid Boguslavsky--with an office in New York City!--also participated. As did Palo Alto's Pinnacle Ventures and DoCoMo Capital and Mayfield Fund. (It's worth noting that Mayfield previously backed another flash sales venture, the troubled startup BuyWithMe, which was acquired by Gilt Groupe, the mother of flash sales sites, after major layoffs. Gilt Groupe, of course, later faced its own brutal round of layoffs.) Existing investors, including Andreessen Horowitz, First Round Capital, Menlo Ventures, and Baroda Ventures also participated.

In a blog post on Betashop, dated for tomorrow--guess the Journal beat 'em to it--CEO Jason Goldberg said financing will be put towards making Fab "the definitive global brand synonymous with design," noting Atomico's success in helping portfolio companies scale globally:

The new round of financing was led by Atomico. Atomico is an international technology investment firm focused on helping the world’s most disruptive technology companies reach their full potential on a global scale. Atomico was founded by Niklas Zennström, the co-founder of Skype. I first met Niklas and his partner, Geoff Prentice, back in March of this year. I was immediately struck with their long term view of our business and their perspective on the potential for the Fab brand. Through our discussions it became clear that Niklas, Geoff, and the entire Atomico team shared our vision for Fab. We believe that we have a special opportunity to create one of the world’s next great brands. We believe that Fab can become the definitive global brand synonymous with design. We also know that it will take a steady focus on making our customers smile. It’s not a leap to compare Fab with Skype itself, and with another Atomico investment, Rovio -- the makers of Angry Birds. Like Skype and Rovio, Fab is focused on developing and nurturing our long term brand relationship with our customers. We're building a franchise based on a consistent, thoughtful experience that puts customers first, not profits. We're focused more on ensuring the long term success of that franchise than we are with near term gains. We're in this for the long haul. Atomico is the perfect partner to help us grow.

Atomico is already helping us with our global expansion through their impressive footprint in London, Tokyo, Beijing, São Paulo and Istanbul.

Somewhere in Manhattan, we bet Gilt Groupe is shaking its head with some words of wisdom about growth that seems too good to be true. But this does explains the elated atmosphere at Fab headquarters last night where Mr. Goldberg got on stage for the "Fabby Awards." Here's a recent video from Fab on their spectacular run over the past year:

Time for school! (Photo: flickr.com/slambert)

First Round Capital has built a brand-new platform for startups seeking press coverage: HackPR, designed to connect them with journalists. The firm is hoping to replicate the same kind of buzz that made Warby Parker an e-commerce darling after an early profile in GQ. [TechCrunch]

Kids from Cornell got a tour of the New York startup scene yesterday. [New York Daily News]

Kleiner Perkins, Andreessen Horowitz and Google Ventures are all backing a startup called LendUp, which'll make small loans (think $300) to people with poor credit. Basically, it's an alternative to the traditional payday loan, with friendlier customer service. Good luck and God bless. [AllThingsD]

No, you're not just imagining it: There are Meetups everywhere, all the time, for everything. You're going to need to be strategic in your selection. [WYNC]

Please enjoy this cri de coeur against Instagram filters, which are basically photography training wheels. [Wired]

Mr. Gross.

Smart pivots can pay off handsomely. Earlier this week, Percolate, a fast-growing New York City-based startup that helps brands curate content, announced a sizable Series A led by GGV Capital, the same Silicon Valley VC firm that backed Buddy Media, which was acquired by Salesforcefor a eye-popping $698 million. Existing investors First Round Capital and Lerer Ventures also participated in Percolate's latest round.

Roughly a year ago, Percolate shrewdly changed its focus from helping users find the most relevant top stories toward a (more profitable!) service that helps brands figure out the most compelling content to push out to their followers--a process that starts by helping them interest graph, something that comes more naturally to humans.

The company now boasts a staff of 28 and more than 30 Fortune 500 clients. It has also achieved something of a startup novelty: profitability! The company's cofounders, Noah Brier (formerly of the Barbarian Group) and James Gross (formerly of Federated Media) have the right pedigree to assist their blue chip clientele.

By phone, Mr. Gross attributed Percolate's growth to "a rapid rise in social," he said. "For a long time marketers were waiting out to see if Facebook was going to be the zero sum game should they just focus on Facebook." But with Pinterest, Twitter, and Tumblr, "brands acquire audience in these channels and then they have to sustain and communicate with their audience in these channels and tumbl and tweet and Facebook all day long."

Demand has outstripped even Percolate's aggressive forecasts. "Marketers need technology solutions that relate to social," he explained. "It’s less about buying media and more about buying technology to help their operations."

Silicon Alley tends to specialize in companies that address the socialization of everything for enterprise customers. But Percolate stands out because it's "the only software that doesn’t assume the brand knows what they wants to say," Mr. Gross said. "Social is full of empty boxes, a status update on Facebook, what do I tweet about, a Tumblr box, Pinterest box, and what we’re trying to help the brand do is fill it with the right content that they can create in real-time."

In talking to marketers, he explained, "The biggest problem they have is that they’re going from  a production model where they create things like television commercials and billboard ads and they’re moving to a content model where instead of creating something every 3 to 6 months like a TV commercial is, they need to create something every 3 to 6 minutes. They don’t know what to put into that blank box." The biggest publisher on Facebook, he pointed out, is Coca Cola with 52 million fans. "If you think about it, these brands are massive publishers in these channels and of course what we know is that the bigger the audience, the more content you need."

So in essence, Percolate is helping brands do what the rest of us do everyday. "This is how you and I, as people who tweet and tumbl all day long, consume content," based on our interest graphs. The company's software figures out "the things they should be following to create content around and be relevant in real time." Mr. Gross offered the example of Intel posting a photo mash-up of the Intel robot against the backdrop of the "Gangam Style" video or Oreo taking the cookie "which is their most valuable asset, and placing it against things that are happening that day like the Mars Rover or gay pride."

The transition for Percolate's clients is moving from stock to flow. "The idea of 'stock and flow' is that brands are traditionally good at creating what’s called stock content. They’re like durable assets--it’s content that’s based on very slow moving trends. This is the content that’s created traditionally like television commercial you should know an agency studies trends and research and then you create a big piece of media from that. The average television commercial costs about 3 to 5 million dollars to create and 18 to 22 weeks to create and then it stays in market for 3 to 9 months." That kind of thing brands excel at, but they're less sure-footed when it comes to flow.

"Where our technology really helps in the systemization standpoint. If you’re a multinational global brand and you support 35 markets which means you support 35 languages stuff like that, then you need to do that at sort of a local relevant level as well. You can sort of see where brands are dealing with these massive challenges globally," he said. Chief marketing officers want to be able to do through technology "as opposed to the infinite amount of people you’ll need to hire in order to reach the 15 million people you reach from a social audience perspective."

But don't mistake Percolate's ambition or investment from GGV Capital--partner Jeff Richards will be joining the company's board--as a sign that it will follow Buddy Media's acquisition strategy.

"The big thing we liked about Jeff is that he sees the tremendous opportunity in social and he sees the tremendous opportunity in the marketer becoming the person that takes over social and is buying software to scale their organization." Rather, the model Mr. Gross is looking to comes from the private markets. "I admire companies like Bloomberg, which is a private company but the way they’ve built that company for the past 20 some odd years, they have a very different model, they run from a software perspective. From a lot of financial models in New York City, it’s something we emulate."

Here's a novel idea for flexing your consumerist impulses on Cyber Monday: organize your shopping by a company's cap table. For Cyber Monday, First Round Capital, which specializes in ecommerce, has set a site that shows off exclusive deals from portfolio companies like Birchbox, Chloe & Isabel, Refinery 29, Hotel Tonight, UrbanSitter, TaskRabbit, DogVacay, One Kings Lane, and more.

Honestly, we're surprised New York techies haven't already set up a buy local site that encourages only shopping at startups for Christmas.

"The real power of [the site]," First Round partner Phineas Barnes told Betabeat, "Is the ability to reach out to the tech community for people who care about the First Round brand." Many of Birchbox's subscribers "are probably not in the tech community, but plenty of people in the tech community would enjoy Birchbox or giving it as a gift," he added by phone during a car trip back into the city.

In a blog post introducing the holiday site, First Round managing director Josh Kopelman noted portfolio companies' experimentation with the ecommerce business model like subscription (Birchbox), curation (Fab), and vertical integration (Warby Parker). "These companies," he wrote, "have now go on to to raise over $350,000,000 in follow-on capital and will be shipping hundreds of thousands of products this holiday season to customers all over the world."

Mr. Kopelman was also careful to note the gifting site "isn't meant to replace our annual holiday video." Considering First Round went the Rebecca Black route last year, does that mean we can expect a "Gangnam Style" parody for 2012? "Maaaaaybe," said Mr. Barnes.

We thought for sure First Round would go with "Gangnam Style," Silicon Valley favorite. But apparently, the spray-and-pray strategy favored by investors also applies to parodying viral hits. Hence the cost of doing business with First Round also means aping Bieber protégés. Gotta say, that production quality doesn't look very "run super lean eat the ramen," as the founder getting his head bopped on by someone else's crotch croons.

If you're wondering why some people say, "the past five years or so of startup mania has been insufferable and obnoxious and annoying," here is one example.

So, do you think they put participating as a clause in the term sheet?

Killer Diller. (Photo: flickr.com/techcrunch, by Dave Getzschman)

Hey, look: It's some actual news out of CES, which has absolutely nothing to do with Evernote-integrated refrigerators! New York-based, Barry Diller-backed TV-streaming service Aereo has been teasing an expansion for some time now, and in a speech today from CEO Chet Kanojia, the company made its move.

The service will roll out to 22 new cities, including Boston, Atlanta, and Washington, D.C, starting in the late spring. Aereo will continue its "Try for Free" program in each of the cities, so would-be cord-cutters can get a taste, but it'll be invitation-only at first. 

To fund this attempt at world conquest, the company also announced it's closed a $38 million Series B led by IAC and Highland Capital. Get money, ya'll. Previous investors including FirstMark Capital, First Round Capital, High Line Venture Partners and "select individuals" also threw invested. The round was actually oversubscribed, Mr. Kanojia told Betabeat by phone from CES. Aereo was aiming for $30 million, but when financiers came clamoring, he said, "Alright." The additional capital will be used to build up infrastructure, marketing and cover some considerable legal bills. "We decided that we were gonna go into expansion mode and it came together very very quickly."

The cities were chosen based on population density, how many households get over-the-air broadcasts, and the age of the population. Age is a factor, he noted, because the majority of Aereo's customers tend to be 35 and under. "It's a great fit for their lifestyle," he enthused. "This is not your dad’s cable TV." Customers "use it as it fits their life."

Expansion plans were also related to proximity to Aereo's homebase. The headcount has doubled since our feature about Aereo in May, but it's still a small team, so they wanted to be able to, "knock off as much ground cover as we can in a two hour flight," adding, "L.A. has never been a TV town." Cities that get the service include: Boston, Miami, Austin, Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Washington, D.C., Baltimore, Denver, Detroit, Minneapolis, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Tampa, Cleveland, Kansas City, Raleigh-Durham, Salt Lake City, Birmingham, Providence, and Madison, WI.

All told, that new ground covers 97 million new potential customers. If you look at the younger demographic in those market, it could mean 30 million people, said Mr. Kanojia. Although he declined to disclose subscriber numbers, he did say usage numbers--the metric Aereo focuses on--is "extremely strong."

Of course, this depends on Aereo clearing all its present legal hurdles. Sure, they managed to avoid a preliminary injunction, but broadcasters are far from done fighting. We asked Mr. Kanojia whether her expected more lawsuits from local affiliates in new cities? "I don’t know who can sue us or not," he said with characteristic nonchalance. "Frankly I'm not too worried or focused on that." After all, if you start "obsessing" over every incumbent, that hardly leaves time for convincing people to cut the cord.

This post has been updated to include our interview with Mr. Kanojia. 

There have been a rash of reports recently about Facebook's mercurial approach to third-party developers. The social network may not want to be "in the business of king-making," by boosting--or suppressing--traffic to popular apps, as Douglas Purdy, director of developer products, told Reuters. But Facebook is increasingly willing to shut the castle gate on competitors.

While Facebook claims it's an effort to stop spam and promote apps that add value to the network, "Developers say the crackdown is an attempt to stifle applications that compete with Facebook-owned services," or pay for ads on Facebook, the Wall Street Journal reported last night.  

This past Friday, MessageMe joined the ranks of apps like Vine, Voxer, and Yandex's social discovery app Wonder, in getting blocked from Facebook's platform.

But it would be hard to make the case that MessageMe--a rich, incredibly easy-to-use app that lets users send doodles, locations, photos, Google images, videos, iTunes songs, and even Snapchat-like drawings on photos--doesn't add value considering Facebook reportedly tried to acquire the app.

Rather, cofounder Arjun Sethi told Betabeat, he was informed Friday that MessageMe was not compliant with platform policy guidelines related to duplicating Facebook's core services (i.e. Facebook Messenger) and that "they’d be shutting off access to our users to get to their friends list."

Mr. Sethi said his team "worked over the weekend and basically removed the feature. So if you looked at the app now it’s not there anymore." When we downloaded the app last night, the option to find friends on Facebook still showed up, which would have been a welcome option considering only seven early adopters from our contact list were already on the service, but MessageMe is that supremely rare app we actually wouldn't mind bugging our normal friends to join.

That explains why, in a blog post today revealing seed funding from True Ventures, First Round Capital, Google Ventures, SVAngel, Resolut.vc, Andreessen Horowitz, Greylock Partners and Social+Capital Partnership raised last year, MessageMe also announced that it picked up more than 1 million users since launching (with the Facebook connection) on March 7th.

The company said it's sending more than 500 notifications per second worldwide and that in the U.S. alone, users have shared more than 10 million doodles and more than 4 million songs on iTunes.

Facebook's social graph may be in the midst of midlife crisis, but MessageMe's features are perfectly suited to the current state of discourse, which seems to be frozen in adolescence.

Mr. Sethi said his team's background is in social gaming and they plan on introducing in-app monetization when the time is right, rather than advertising or selling data to third-parties. (The "stickers" and "money" buttons next "video" and "doodle" are currently turned off.) The same cofounders previously collaborated on a company called Lolapps, which was acquired by a Korean company.

When it came time to build MessageMe, they took their inspiration from the more personal social network Path and its so-called "stickers," as well as the Chinese messaging app QQ and the older BBM-style messaging on Blackberries. "When you look at our product, you can see there’s a PIN system so we focus a lot of our attention on that as well, rather than like some sort of public broadcast of usernames," he explained.

(An earlier version of MessageMe's blog post noted typically "Asian" messaging behaviors becoming more mainstream.)

And like Path, MessageMe sets its sights smaller. "We’re not focused on the replication of your Facebook graph," he explained. "We’re focused on having you communicate with people that you want to communicate with the most and people that you feel you can be yourself with." The average customer, he said, will have a network of 20 to 25 people they spend their time chatting with, rather than hundreds of Facebook friends.

That may be more than just a defensive posture. As John Herrman recently wrote on Buzzfeed, app developers at SXSW were "actively planning for the graph-rot contingency" by "leveraging to build separate graphs of their own." Besides at this point, getting booted off of Facebook offers its own little media boost.

Mr. Sethi acknowledged that tensions between Facebook and developers were rising. "I do feel like some developers are feeling the pain depending on the type of applications they’re making. It’s just part of like a natural cycle of any platform or ecosystem, depending on what is core to them."

However, that hasn't been the case between MessageMe and Apple. "Our product is competitive with iMessage and they’re not revoking access for us. So I think it just depends on the way each company thinks about the platform and product."

In the meantime, DM us if you want our MessageMe pin? We really want to spend the morning sending doodles and most of the people on our contact list are venture capitalists. :(

This is a guest post from Gary Sharma (aka “The Guy with the Red Tie”), founder and CEO of GarysGuide and proud owner of a whole bunch of black suits, white shirts and, at last count, over 40 red ties. You can reach him at gary [at] garysguide.com.

First things first: Mark your calendars for this Sunday March 31, when Game of Thrones returns for Season 3. Finally!

The city recently announced NYC BigApps 2013, the fourth annual BigApps competition, an ongoing series of software challenges to promote government transparency and innovative new technologies. It's your chance to solve big issues with data and design and maybe win $150,000 in prizes. There are also a series of events planned, starting with the BigApps expo and hackathon at eBay next week, on April 6.

Kaplan and TechStars are partnering to launch the Kaplan EdTech Accelerator, a three-month intensive program for ten startups in New York City from June to September. What kindsof companies are they looking for? Apps, platforms, K-12, higher ed, professional ed, and everything in between. Deadline is April 14. You can apply here, and there's an info session on April 2. Contact Phil Schwarz at edtechaccelerator@kaplan.com with any questions. 

The Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) and the NYC EDC are partnering on a new initiative called Design Entrepreneurs NYC, a free, intensive mini-MBA program for local fashion design business folks. The program kicks off May 30 and the application deadline is midnight on Sunday, March 31.

My buddy Steve Rosenbaum, NYC EDC’s Entrepreneur-at-Large, is holding office hours on March 26 (12 p.m. to 1 p.m.) to answer all your startup questions. Register here.

Betabeat is bringing back The Pitch! The ten startups with the most votes by midnight on Thursday, March 28, will have their pitch vetted on camera by Nikhil Kalghatgi (SoftBank Capital) and Steve Schlafman (Lerer Ventures), vying for the chance to take home $10,000 in funding.

You've probably heard of Startup Bus and some of you may know of the Startup Ship. Now I give you the Startup Plane! British Airways recently announced the first of its UnGrounded innovation lab flights that will assemble a hundred tech luminaries at 30,000 feet on a flight to London on June 12 to devise a platform for connecting tech talent with big problems around the world. Crazy, huh? So what's next? Startup Rocket? (Come to think of it, that's not that crazy. Elon Musk, call your office.)

If you have an innovative technology idea or solution to fill an unmet need in type 2 diabetes care delivery, then you should check out the Healthcare Innovation World Cup. Prize money totaling $75,000. Finals in New York City on May 10. Deadline to enroll is March 31.

And now let's see what's going down in the Alley this week...

The Test Tube
It’s like speed dating, but for usability testing. Over the course of an hour and a half, you'll be paired up with 5-6 other NYC companies and take turns to giving and getting feedback on your ideas.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 5 p.m. @ We Work Labs, 175 Varick Street, 4th Fl.

Hack SummerStage Kick-Off Event
A challenge to developers to build an app that engages the 280,000+ attendees of SummerStage's annual Summer Long Festival.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 6:30 p.m. @ We Work Labs, 175 Varik Street, 8th Fl.

Want to Be on TV? How to Get Noticed by Media
You've heard the fairy tales. Get a plug by Oprah or The Today Show, and your business skyrockets. But how do companies really get media coverage? Learn from Colleen DeBaise (Entrepreneur.com), Marissa Feinberg (Green Spaces), Rod Kurtz (OPEN Forum) and others.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 7 p.m. @ Green Spaces, 394 Broadway, 5th Fl.

General Assembly Presents: Heart Beats
Hosted by Matthew Brimer. With special guest DJ Sean Glass. For one night, leave your work at work and come for an evening exclusively devoted to your deepest non-professional passions.
Tuesday (Mar. 26), 7 p.m. @ Tribeca Grand Hotel, 2 6th Avenue

How I Transitioned: Stories of Transition from Corporate America to Startups
With Vinay Jain (formerly Skadden, now at Shake), Leonard Li (formerly Oracle now at General Assembly) and Veeral Shah (formerly BNP Paribas, now at Equitally).
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Alley NYC, 500 7th Avenue, 17th Fl.

March MakeIt NYC: Cubes, Manufacturing & More
With Keith Ozar (3D Systems) introducing the Cube and CubeX 3D printers and Matt Behr introducing 3Sourceful, an upcoming service that helps makers find their manufacturing mojo.
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ NYC EDC, 110 William Street

Startup Grind NYC
Fireside Chat with Andrew Rasiej (founder, Personal Democracy Media and chair, NY Tech Meetup)
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Center for Social Innovation, 601 W. 26th Street, #325

Rise of the Female Entrepreneur
With Kate McAleer (Bixby), Sanchali Sundaram (Ingo), Jane Zhu (SleepBot), Melissa Shin (Dagne Dover), Sam Stephens (Oatmeals) and Courtney Spritzer (SocialFly NY)
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ NYU Kaufman Management Center, 44 W. 4th Street

Business+Startup by First Round Capital & Foursquare
With Eric Friedman (Foursquare), Chris Fralic (First Round Capital), Scott Pollack (American Express), Wiley Cerilli (SinglePlatform), Lauryn Ballesteros (The Leadership Symposium), Kenny Herman (SinglePlatform) and Anand Chopra-McGowan (General Assembly).
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 6:30 p.m. @ Foursquare HQ, 110 Crosby St

Fashion Disrupted: How Tech Is Changing The Way Consumers Shop
With Mike Hofman (Glamour), Bryan Wolff (Bonobos), Jyothi Rao (Gilt Groupe), Sarah Paiji (Snapette), Claire Mazur (Of A Kind) and others.
Wednesday (Mar. 27), 7:30 p.m. @ WeWork Lounge, 177 Lafayette Street

NYC Gaming March: Demo Night
Demos by Death Goat, Super Jetroid, Beat Blocks, Warping War Pig, Story War, Organic Panic and Worm Run.
Thursday (Mar. 28), 6 p.m. @ Microsoft, 1290 Avenue of the Americas

The 2nd Columbia University Earth Summit: Driving Collaborative Solutions
In light of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Sandy, this year's Earth Summit focuses on Driving Collaborative Solutions, bringing business and social leaders together with academics and students to foster the new leadership required by today’s complex world.
Thursday (Mar. 28), 7 p.m. @ Columbia University Faculty House, 64 Morningside Drive

Open Tech NYC
How open source is driving the NYC tech scene. From locally grown open-source projects to startups and big enterprises that run on open source to new organizations and collaborative models.
Saturday (Mar. 30), 9:30 a.m. @ Hunter's Point Event Space, 47-40 21st Street, Long Island City

More events on the horizon...
Opening Party for F.A.T. GOLD: Five Years of Free Art & Technology on Apr. 1 @ Eyebeam
Kaplan EdTech Accelerator (powered by TechStars) Founder Information Session on Apr. 2 @ Kaplan HQ
Taboola Talks: #ContentYouMayLike with The Weather Company & WIRED on Apr. 3 @ Taboola HQ
Entrepreneurs Roundtable 57 on Apr. 3 @ NYU Stern School of Business
Startup Demo Night Series #16 (ft Mo Koyfman) on Apr. 4 @ Chadbourne & Parke
FinTech Hackathon on Apr. 6 @ AlleyNYC
Startup Brunch on Apr. 7 @ East Village (TBA)
British Invasion on Apr. 8 @ Greenhouse
Big Apple Smackdown: Silicon Alleys 1st Annual Ping-Pong Tournament! on Apr. 14 @ SPiN New York
Kingpins of Silicon Alley on Apr. 15 @ Bowlmor - Union Square
2013 International Space Apps Challenge led by NASA on Apr. 20 @ AlleyNYC
NYTECH Presents: Designing for Touch on Apr. 24 @ Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz
NY Tech Day on Apr. 25 @ Pier 92
Women Entrepreneurs Rock the World 2013 on May 8 @ Altman Building

Until next week. Stay thirsty social, my friends! ;)

(DANIEL MIHAILESCU/AFP/Getty Images)

Get ready to wail and gnash your teeth: DogVacay, the L.A.-based "Airbnb for dogs" that allows you to board your dog with vetted hosts, has just raised a $15 million Series B, from investors including Foundation Capital, Benchmark and First Round Capital. This brings the company's total raised to $22 million.

In a remarkable literary feat, PandoDaily managed to produce 910 words about this development. "The pet services market is just the sort of 11-figure analog opportunity that VCs salivate about disrupting," for your information, and DogVacay's investors feel they've got something really special on their hands:

“DogVacay’s momentum since we originally invested is similar to the trajectory we saw in other marketplace companies such as eBay, Yelp, Uber and GrubHub,” says Benchmark general partner and DogVacay board member Bill Gurley in a statement today.

Call us when devoted pet parent and raccoon tosser Kevin Rose gets involved. Now there's a VC that loves his dog.