Me on Stage at a Strip Club. (Sadly, I'm Serious)

Here's some clips from my London book launch event, which in Robert Loch's infinite politically correct wisdom was held at the second oldest strip club in London. It sounds shadier than it was. It was actually an amazing venue and the proper business-y crowd and Fidelity Ventures sponsorship poshed it up more than my Minnie Mouse hairbow ever could have. If you've heard me speak, you've probably heard half of this before. If not, enjoy! Thanks again to Loch, Washy and Carr for an amazing event. Let's do, say, Germany next?

Is Your Startup Going out of Business?

My guest today on TechTicker was Keith Rabois of Slide. Before Slide, Keith was an early member of the PayPal mafia and an early exec at LinkedIn. He also has an advisory role with Sequoia Capital -- where among other exploits he pretty much hand-delivered YouTube to the firm. In other words, in a sea of engineer-minded entrepreneurs, Keith actually knows a thing or two about the business side of startups. He also has opinions and isn't afraid to voice them.

I had to de-Southern myself before taping as I usually sound like I'm saying "Rab-a-way" instead of Rabois. No joke, Mr. Lacy thought it was spelled this way for about the first six months I knew Keith. Ah, the downside of being on camera-- proper pronunciation!

The funniest backstage moment this morning was when the control room told me my guest was ready and I sat down, shuffled my notes and looked up to see a very, very old man in the monitor. "Um, that's not Keith," I said. Oddly enough, the guy sort of looked like a 50-year-older Keith, so I half-wondered if the downturn was just aging him. Turns out, the studio was just confused.

So here are the clips in case you didn't make it over to TechTicker today. The first one is on all the layoffs in the startup world last week (some 250 jobs all together and counting) and what separates companies that are seeing opportunity in the downturn from those seeing doom and gloom. The second clip is about how all those layoffs and hard-to-get-series-b-rounds will ripple into Silicon Valley's macro economy. And the third is about Slide itself: a company planning to spend its way out of the downturn.

YouNoodle Makes Me Feel Much Better about My Finances

Here at SarahLacy.com you could say we're investing in the growth of the business. Think the User Generated Book Tour makes money? HA! My credit cards are wheezing from overuse. And the very talented Olivia certainly isn't volunteering, nor should she be. Combined with a new mortgage and an upcoming $10,000 electrician bill, Mr. Lacy is getting a little antsy about all the money flowing out of our accounts. YouNoodle just made me feel a whole lot better.

The new startup boasts an algorithm that crunches all kinds of data to tell you what your company will be worth in three years. SarahLacy.com will be worth...click for it....

Me in Israel!

This is a video interview that JD Lasica shot with me on the beach in Tel Aviv last April, just before the book came out. The fact that I look human and sound coherent is a testament to blush, the beach, JD's skills as a videographer and interviewer and the very concentrated pina colada I was drinking. At this moment my bronchitis was turning into pneumonia and I would collapse just a few hours later and be told I was too sick to even fly home! Even still watching it made me want to go back to Israel!

Discuss the Book: Who Is Your Favorite Mogul?

So given the Twitters from a dozen or so people who tore through the book this weekend, it's time to start a series of discussion threads. (Yay!) They'll all be tagged under "Discuss the Book" so feel free to weigh in later, if you haven't started reading or -- gasp-- haven't gotten a copy yet. ;) I promise I will read every last one, and probably comment back to all of them too.

I always like to discuss books I've read-- I was a literature major after all-- so this is just for fun or in case anyone has questions for me. A book has certain disadvantages over a blog when it comes to interaction, so this is also a somewhat clumsy attempt to skirt that. If even one person responds, I'll keep posting questions for discussion once a week. If no one does, I'll cry. JK, but I will likely focus my energies on other posts.

I'm starting with the first question I always ask readers: Who is your favorite "character"? I have to put it in quotes, because these are actually all real people and the book is not fictionalized in any way. But because it's written in a narrative style, people who don't know them tend to talk about them as "characters." You can take this question in any way: who is the most inspiring, who is the most entertaining to read about, who do you love to hate.

So far, I should say most people I've asked feel they "know" Max Levchin the best, but the favorite -- particularly for people outside the Valley-- tends to be Jay "F--- the Sweater Vests" Adelson. What do you think?

The best answer will win a prize. By best I mean either articulate, surprising or, ahem, the only one. Prize TBD.  Maybe a Tech Ticker T-shirt, maybe a signed galley, maybe one of those annoying Yahoo! buttons that yodels when you press it, maybe my sxsw speaker's badge- ha ha.

Ok, ready, set, comment!

Just a *Little* Sad

I Twittered earlier today that I was a little sad today and assumed it was post-book launch let down. Don't get me wrong: 125 rank on amazon, great reviews, and an *amazing* party made for an unforgettable week. But as I watch my Amazon rank slide back into the 300s I can't help worrying that my book won't make that mainstream crossover that I so dearly want it to, because I think the stories in it are amazing and inspiring and so many people don't get what Web 2.0 and entrepreneurship in the Valley is really all about.

I was explaining this over brunch to Mr. Lacy and our "adopted son" Tim Briner, and I kept thinking of this passage from page 194 of my book about the early days of Slide. (For context: Max Levchin is raising money and it's going very well so this is a flashback):

"He thought back to a time when Slide had just come out of the Maxcubator and he and a small team were working day and night to get the Slideshow up and running. Back then, he was hardly thinking about pimping out MySpace pages. The word widget didn't exist, let alone the idea of taking this piece of a Web site and putting it on another Web site without knowing how to code. So when Slide launched, the idea was people would download it to their desktop, like a screensaver. Max took a deep breath and released it into the Internet wild. And then heard nothing.

No one was downloading it! Max couldn't believe it. For years, he'd been so focused on brining a new idea to life, it had never occurred to him that maybe people just wouldn't want it. As he watched the stats go nowhere, he realized that it didn't matter he was Max Levchin, millionaire, dotcom success, founder of PayPal. All at once it hit him: No matter how hard he worked, he simply couldn't will people to use his product. They didn't care who the great Max Levchin was or what he'd done. Even worse, they didn't care about his Slideshow. It was crushing."

Me on My Book: Or Why Doing Interviews Is Actually Hard

Two days until my book comes out! It's very exciting and sort of scary. Portfolio ran an interview with me on their blog and spelled my name wrong. I was sort of relieved, because I wasn't honestly thrilled with how it came out. I blame myself, not the reporter, but I was laughing as I was saying some things and instead it came out sort of snarky in print. I kept reading it thinking, "Aw, that's not what I meant!" Probably reporter karma because I've heard that from sources over the years! Anyway, I'm linking to it because invariably people will accuse me of being too easy on all these Web moguls and I think I come off kinda jerky. . .

For contrast, here is a segment from Tech Ticker yesterday about Max Levchin, where my general excitement about those sections of the book probably come off as too complimentary. My co-host, Aaron Task, figured since everyone else in NYC was interviewing me about the book this week, he should to. He read it all weekend-- even writing notes in the margin!-- and asked some great questions. A few segments will post later today too.

Your Chance to Mock Valley Millionaires

So when you write a book, people and companies keep asking-- even begging-- to throw you a book release party. Then, publication comes, and you hear crickets. Also, bookstores apparently almost never do signings anymore. So I'm throwing my own party on my release date May 15. Here's the link to the open Facebook invitation. It's open to everyone, but the place (TBA soon) maxes out at about 100 people so no promises there won't be a line for latecomers!

Everything at the party is mostly donated (including the time of my friend Johanna Lopez who is organizing!) A generous sponsor appears to be white-knighting in to take care of a few expenses in exchange for me signing my hand off for a pile of books. (Happy to do it, people!) Because I sort of sprung this on Penguin, I will be fronting the cost for the books so you guys better buy copies!!

Anyway, more on the details later today. For now, your help on the drink list. A few liquor vendors are donating spirits, and we'll be coming up with cocktails named after the moguls in the book. I have an idea for "The Kevin Rose" and "The Max Levchin" already, but figured in honor of Web 2.0 and user generated content I'd solicit some suggestions for the others.

Facebook Platform Decline: Good or Bad?

There's a lot in the blogosphere the last few days about declines in Facebook developer activity. (Very impressive post BTW!) It sounds awfully inside baseball, but it's an important metric for the company to watch, and not only for the obvious reasons.

To play Devils Advocate here, what if the declines in activity are actually a healthy sign? It's possible.

Yes, LinkedIn Is Worth $1B

I've already criticized blogs that fall all over themselves for a scoop that's not in any way newsy or surprising. But at least they are telling you news. Even worse are blogs that re-purpose news without any additional insight or analysis. In the name of good karma, I won't link or call anyone out. But I don't think it's too much to ask to give people a reason to read your blog.

I am not giving people the news that LinkedIn is raising a round of capital and wants a nosebleed valuation. Again, like Twitter, not a surprise they can. Like Ning, Slide etc, not a surprise they are using Allen & Co. to do so. Like everyone else in the Web scene: LinkedIn is making a statement it's going it alone versus pimping for an acquisition, so put them in the column with Ning, Slide, Facebook, etc. (All of which are in my book, so Go Team Once-You're-Lucky-Twice-You're-Good!)

But I am giving you more than the wishy-washy "We'll-all-find-out-together!" analysis: Yes, LinkedIn is worth $1 billion.