December 17, 2008
First Round Capital Holiday video
First Round Capital, one of Powerset’s investors, had a really innovative idea for a holiday card.
The partners in the fund visited all their portfolio companies around the world and danced with them. In this video, you can see Barney Pell and Lorenzo Thione dancing with Josh Kopelman in the lobby at Powerset.
I found it really touching to watch the joyful spirit in all these startup companies even in the tough economy that is making life difficult for startups.
Posted by barney on December 17, 2008 at 7:52 pm | 2 Comments
June 22, 2008
Talin’s 50th Birthday Party
Last night I hosted a party for my good friend Talin, to celebrate his 50th birthday. Talin had notified people that he had a surprise theme for the party, which turned out to be a social experiment. Talin contributed a pile of $100 bills, one for each year of his life, and said that the only rule was that the group of attendees had to figure out how to spend it before midnight. They even had to figure out the process by which the decisions would be made.
In the end, after hours of partying mixed with negotiation and philosophizing, the money was allocated approximately as follows:
- $2000 to be spent on microfinance loans (each person would spend $100).
- $1000 on a program to stimulate Talin’s dating life in the short and long term.
- $1200 donation for the Electronic Frontier Foundation (to be matched by Google).
- $400 to buy Talin a Kindle reader, including an e-book version of The Game, by Neil Strauss, which is required reading for Talin’s dating life enhancement program.
- $400 to pay the caterers for who brought the yummy and nearly endless supply of dim sum.
Mike Arrington attended the party, his first time at Barney’s house, and was surprised to find how few of Talin’s friends read TechCrunch, but despite that he had a great time.
The whole photo set is here.
Posted by barney on June 22, 2008 at 1:26 pm | No Comments
February 28, 2008
Cyan Banister in Nerd Girl video
My friend Cyan is featured in this music video. It’s awesome!
I like the starting lyric: “Nerd girl, I don’t deserve you. I don’t get the references you allude to.”
Posted by barney on February 28, 2008 at 11:30 pm | No Comments