BoomTown » party

Is Google Scary? Not to Silicon Valley, Even at a Party for a Book About How Scary It Could Be!

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:21:47 +0000

While at a book party for author Ken Auletta in San Francisco last night, BoomTown took the opportunity to ask those gathered whether they were scared or not of Google and its growing power.

The Auletta book covers a lot about the search giant, but also drills in on how traditional media and advertising, as well as the government, have all become increasingly wary of Google’s hegemony over key businesses on the Web.

But as it turned out, the Silicon Valley types I queried had nothing but attaboys for Google (GOOG). Oddly enough, many mentioned how they love the food served up at the Googleplex.

Here’s the video of the interviews, with scary up-close shots, with investor–including in Google–Ron Conway, almost-not CBS (CBS) Web dude/almost investment dude Quincy Smith, online classified czar Craig Newmark, Slide CEO Max Levchin and Google PR honcho David “I love my Soylent Green” Krane (see pertinent movie video clip below):

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Author Ken Auletta Talks About Google and Its "Lack of Emotional Intelligence"

Kara Swisher — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:50:35 +0000

Guess what? Google has too many Spocks and not enough Captain Kirks.

This is one of the many interesting insights BoomTown gleaned from a video interview last night–which you can see below–with well-known New Yorker scribe Ken Auletta, who has just written a new book, “Googled: The End of the World as We Know It.”

This “lack of emotional intelligence” at the search giant, said Auletta, reminded him a lot of the subject of one of his previous books: Microsoft (MSFT).

Oh, the delicious irony!

Auletta was feted at a lovely party last night at the San Francisco house of Common Sense Media’s Jim Steyer, where a range of Google (GOOG) execs, Internet folks and fans gathered to talk about the book.

It’s all about Google, its history and, most important, its impact on the world. And how you look at the powerful search giant depends entirely on whether you are the changer or the changed, as Auletta stresses in multiple anecdotes in the book.

Traditional media, for example, have certainly been mucho irked of late about the impact of digital technologies on their businesses and have not been shy about casting blame most heapingly on Google’s Silicon Valley plate.

And government regulators are also giving the company the hairy eyeball, much as they had previously done to Microsoft.

Auletta and I talked about all of this and more in the video interview below, in which he notes that he told Googlers at a talk at their adorkable Googleplex HQ in Mountain View, Calif., yesterday that they need to focus less on being engineering brainiacs and more on trying to understand how to deal with fears of their growing power.

Here’s my interview with Auletta about this, as well as what old media needs to do to deal with all the change Google has wrought. (And you can see interviews I did with guests at the party, too).

And below that is one of the disturbing number of mash-up music videos about “Star Trek” buddies, the highly illogical Kirk and the Vulcanish Spock, the geek bromance of all time.

[ See post to watch video ]

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Kara Visits the Women's Conference (Questions for Ashton Kutcher, Please!)

Kara Swisher — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 08:57:20 +0000

This morning, BoomTown will be onstage at California First Lady Maria Shriver’s well-known Women’s Conference in Long Beach, to moderate a panel titled “Changing the World Through the Web” for a crowd of 1,800 people.

The panelists for my session at what has become one of the top forums for women’s issues include Hollywood actor/producer, Katalyst co-founder and Twitter demigod Ashton Kutcher (pictured above, of course); Facebook’s Randi Zuckerberg, who leads the social networking site’s elections, breaking news and social change initiatives; Premal Shah, president of online microloan site Kiva.org; and Joe Rospars, founder and creative director of Blue State Digital and new media director for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

In other words, as a group, they are all either prettier, smarter or better for the planet than anything I have ginned up so far.

But, to be safe, send some question suggestions quick that you think I should ask in the interview–via Twitter @karaswisher.

In any case, I shall press on and try to conduct myself with some kind of tech dignity, as I query the group on how the Web–especially social media–can empower people to change the world and be more than just one big pool of mundanities, meaningless status updates, silly apps and online gossip.

Speaking of which, it was a minor shock to run smack into reality show whatever-she-is Kate Gosselin at a speaker party last night, who is here to flack a book about–of course–her kids, titled “Eight Little Faces.”

No, I did not make that title up and I suppose it takes all kinds.

But it was especially surreal, since other speakers include–how shall I put this delicately?–much more serious and substantial women, such as primatology legend Dr. Jane Goodall, women’s rights activist Eve Ensler, Obama Senior Adviser Valerie Jarrett, a spate of women news legends such as Katie Couric, and even–my personal favorite, for her cheery butter-loving nature–celebrity chef Paula Deen.

For those interested in seeing some of the all-day event online, there’s a live Webcast from the Web site, which you can access here (the Twitter hashtag is #wc09

I will, natch, post a video report later.

Bobbing for Apple, PC Hide-and-Seek and More: Swisher Boys Throw a Windows 7 Launch Party!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 12:17:01 +0000

To be totally honest, BoomTown was a little late getting a request in to Microsoft to host a Windows 7 Launch Party.

Thus, no “special Signature Edition of Windows® 7 Ultimate and your very own Windows® 7 Party Pack to share with your guests” for a shindig at my house!

As you might imagine: Massive, massive bummer.

While Microsoft (MSFT) PR head Frank Shaw begrudgingly invited me to his party, flying to Seattle for it seemed like too much fun to have in one lifetime.

So, because we admire the very gumption of Microsoft marketing types for trying to make a software launch festive, which many have mocked mercilessly, the Swisher boys and I pressed on and created our own party to mark the launch of the much anticipated new operating system software.

With Windows 7 officially in stores on Oct. 22, the software giant hopes its new offering will erase all memories of Vista. And so far, reviews, such as Walt Mossberg’s here, are pretty good.

After a rocky start, including disinviting all the All Things Digital staff from the proceedings for reasons you will see in the video, Louie, Alex and I proceeded to party down.

The festivities included Pin-the-Moustache-on-Steve-Ballmer, Bobbing for Apple (AAPL) and, of course, a very exhausting game of “Search”–also know as Hide-and-Seek–for the Google (GOOG) PC.

All in all, a memorable evening at the Swisher household, as you can see in the video below:

[ See post to watch video ]

(All joking aside, ATD staff do regularly use both Windows and Apple computers, as well as all the various browsers, to make sure our site works well on all platforms. That said, no Apples were harmed in the making of this video.)

Sale of iLike to MySpace–$13.5 Million in Cash, $6 Million for Talent Retention–Delayed Over Tax Issues (Really!)…Plus, the List of Other Suitors!

Kara Swisher — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 06:25:06 +0000

The board of iLike planned a meeting earlier tonight to go over a buyout offer by MySpace, several sources close to the situation said. But it was suddenly canceled because of some thorny tax implications related to the talent-retention part of the deal to purchase the social music start-up.

This does not mean the pending acquisition is in jeopardy, sources said, and it could be on track to be signed as early as today, barring any more complications.

That is what both iLike and MySpace execs are hoping, said sources, one of whom described the outstanding issues as a “technicality.”

What’s also been unclear is the actual price the social networking giant is paying for iLike, which has been reported as about $20 million.

In fact, only $13.5 million will be paid upfront in cash, with about $8 million of that money likely going to one of its major shareholders, Ticketmaster Entertainment (TKTM), due to its preferred shares.

Another $6 million has been promised by MySpace in forward payments to retain some key employees–including iLike co-founders and twin brothers Ali and Hadi Partovi.

Although those employees can remain in Seattle, where iLike has its HQ, they must stay employed at Beverly Hills, Calif.-based MySpace for two and a half years to get their money.

It’s that talent part of the deal that caused the Partovis to cancel the iLike board meeting, which they explained to key investors was necessary due to some confusion over how the money paid to these employees would be taxed.

A person briefed on the issue said that if it was taxed as compensation, it would have a much higher tax rate than if it were considered long-term capital gains.

The Partovis said in the email that they were working on the problem with their advisers on the sale, Allen & Co., as well as with lawyers and accountants.

Tax snafus in the middle of a sale are not exactly the way the entrepreneurial Partovis envisioned it was going to go for iLike (see my various video interview related to iLike below) when they created the compelling music sharing and recommendation service in 2006.

After only a few years, the innovative start-up claims it has 50 million registered users overall.

A lot of that growth was due to iLike quickly becoming one of the most popular widgets on social networking sites like Facebook, where it has also been the top music application, with 10 million active monthly users.

The Partovis–who once were close with execs at Facebook (see my party video below), particularly founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg–placed great faith in its growth lifting all Web 2.0 boats.

It did not turn out that way, though, especially from the important financial point of view, and iLike scrambled to diversify.

The iLike service recently began offering a music downloading service, for example, as well as other such features, all of which would be attractive to the music-centric focus at MySpace.

Once an Internet sensation, MySpace has been struggling to restructure itself after losing momentum and buzz in recent years, as well as a huge advertising revenue drop in its most recent quarter.

Its owner, News Corp. (NWS), replaced its founders with new management four months ago, including former Facebook exec Owen Van Natta as CEO.

After making major staff layoffs and rejiggering management, Van Natta and his new team have been working on an overhaul of the MySpace product and seem to be refocusing it to become a global music and entertainment service.

MySpace also has a joint venture with major music labels, MySpace Music, which has been trying to attract consumers and build a viable business. Sources said MySpace Music could also buy into the iLike deal or simply license its technology to improve its features.

Thus, purchasing iLike would fit in well with MySpace’s overall plans.

And iLike has also been in need of a fix itself.

For all its popularity, especially on Facebook, it has moved slowly toward profitabilty, and its $17 million in funding has been dwindling, as has its viability as a standalone company.

Back in more frothy Web 2.0 days, iLike’s generous funding gave it a valuation of more than $50 million, which has also lost steam over time and as the economy has worsened.

In the last quarter of fiscal 2008, for example, Ticketmaster wrote down its $13 million investment by $6 million.

Tensions between its execs and iLike have gotten worse over time, although some thought at one time that Ticketmaster would buy iLike.

No longer, which is why the founders turned to Allen & Co., as MediaMemo reported as far back as November, to find another big investor or buyer.

Wrote Peter Kafka: “Delivering free music on the Web has so far proven to be a high-cost, low-revenue endeavor…”

So, the New York deal-making firm ginned up a small group of suitors, which included Facebook, Activision Blizzard (ATVI) and Microsoft (MSFT), as well as MySpace.

Of the three, Activision was most serious, with interest in integrating iLike’s community and technology tools with its Guitar Hero franchise.

But Activision never actually made a formal bid, said sources.

Both Microsoft and Facebook also considered the purchase, but sources said they would only offer stock in a deal. But iLike wanted cash in the deal.

The Partovis were also was wary about working at either place.

Both Partovis, for example, had worked at Microsoft (Ali after selling it LinkExchange in 1998 for $265 million; Hadi several times, once following Microsoft’s acquisition of Tellme Networks, which he co-founded).

As it has turned out, in its short life, iLike’s last, best alternative is apparently MySpace.

“Look, iLike has been shopped around for a while, and while the team and technology are great, it only has one choice and that’s to be sold,” said one person involved in the various scenarios. “The question for the buyer then is whether it was worth it to pay up or just move on and do it ourselves.”

So until the bean counters settle this IRS nightmare, here is my video interview with Hadi Partovi about a year ago at iLike’s HQ in the Capitol Hill section of Seattle, when times were a little more hopeful:

[ See post to watch video ]

And here is a very dark and very shaky video I did when iLike threw a fete in Silicon Valley to celebrate its start-up two years ago and to send some appreciation in Facebook’s direction–it is so dated that Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, who is in the video, is still at Google (GOOG).

(Full Disclosure: News Corp. also owns Dow Jones, which owns this site.)

Kara Visits The Lobby Party on Sand Hill Road (As Opposed to the Sandy Beaches of Hawaii)

Kara Swisher — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 23:55:23 +0000

Last night, BoomTown went to a lovely party thrown by David Hornik, the August Capital VC who also runs The Lobby conference in his spare time.

He threw the event because those who attend the annual invitation-only gathering in Hawaii wanted to get together again during the year in Silicon Valley for even more schmoozing.

I went to the first Lobby in the fall of 2007 (you can see my video of that below too), so Hornik let me in to have some pizza and beer at August’s offices on Sand Hill Road and use my Flip video to ask those in attendance where they thought the digital sector was in terms of the economy and innovation.

So here’s Hornik, angel investor Brett Bullington (who is also in the 2007 video, but in shorts) and BillShrink’s Peter Pham, as well a merger of MINIs.

Here’s the video (with my 2007 one below it):

[ See post to watch video ]

Get Ready for a Liveblog of the Yahoo Search "Chalk Talk": No Word Yet on Erasing Google's Market Share

Kara Swisher — Tue, 19 May 2009 17:33:52 +0000

Later today, as BoomTown reported last week, Yahoo is putting on a search party.

Well, not a “party” party–although there will apparently be some lunch noshing at the “Search chalk talk,” during which top techies at the Internet giant will talk up the strategy for its more innovative products, such as Build Your Own Search Service (BOSS) and Search Monkey.

Presenting at the event with be: Prabhakar Raghavan, head of Yahoo Labs and Yahoo Search Strategy; Larry Cornett, VP of Consumer Products; and Lee Ott, senior director, Mobile Search.

Yahoo (YHOO) has a search share that hovers around 20 percent, compared to the more than 70 percent that Google (GOOG) has.

At its HQ in Silicon Valley last week, Google put on a similar show-off, called “Searchology,” about its latest search innovations.

And, although they are clearly No. 1 and No. 2, both Google and Yahoo are bracing for the launch a major overhaul of Microsoft’s (MSFT) search offering, which is expected soon and code-named “Kumo.”

It will be interesting to see what Yahoo’s techies focus on, especially as the company’s brass continue to talk with Microsoft about a possible search and online advertising partnership.

I’ll be liveblogging the Yahoo event, which begins at 11:30 a.m. PDT.

Please see this disclosure related to me and Google.

Dear Dad: You Lost the Election Because the GOP FailWhaled on the Web

Kara Swisher — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 09:45:44 +0000

Almost-First Daughter Meghan McCain (pictured here) gave the Republican Party the analog equivalent of an unhappy emoticon yesterday in a column in The Daily Beast, predicting the political party will lose power quicker than a faulty iPhone if it does not get more Web-savvy pronto.

BoomTown always liked GOP Presidential candidate Sen. John McCain’s sassy spawn, who had a pretty good blog–deliciously called McCain Blogette.com: Musings on Politics From a Pop CultureGirl–during the campaign and was always coming out with some little nugget that I am sure made her PR handlers cringe.

Well, there she goes again!

In a post titled, “Why Republicans Don’t Get the Internet,” Meghan McCain noted flatly:

The Republican party isn’t exactly Internet savvy. That’s no secret…This has been a source of personal frustration for me for a very long time. Unless the GOP evolves as the party that can successfully utilize the Web, we’ll continue to lose influence.”

Thankfully, it gets worse!

Writes Meghan:

I know this aggravates the old school political operatives to no end, but it’s true. The Obama administration understands that my generation spends most of its day on a laptop or a BlackBerry, and that using the web is easy way to communicate their ideas to their constituents. Making a website, Facebook group, or YouTube video entertaining and enticing is where grassroots campaigning begins. President Obama currently has around five-and-a-half million supporters on Facebook; my father has around five-hundred thousand.”

Sorry, Dad!

But apparently not all that much, because she ended her piece with a zinger about the GOP’s new Web effort, the Rebuild the Party site, essentially declaring the party a wizened Luddite with no hopes of ever beating the BlackBerry-loving Obama.

…The website is about as provocative as a blue suit, white shirt, and red tie. At the time that I write this, the video on the homepage features various individuals, most of them I would guess between the ages of fifty and sixty, explaining why they consider themselves Republicans. Had I still been an independent, there is nothing about this website or video that would sway me as a twenty-four year old woman to join the GOP…Until the Republican party joins the twenty-first century and learns how to use the Internet, its members will keep getting older and the youth of America will just keep logging on to the other side.”

Meghan McCain is definitely right about the unusually sleepy video–which only pops when they focus on dead Republican former Presidents Ronald Reagan and Teddy Roosevelt:

The Video I Forgot to Post From the Web 2.0 Summit Last Week

Kara Swisher — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 13:26:22 +0000

I blame post-election exhaustion for rendering me comatose after Tuesday, which is how this video I did at the Web 2.0 Summit in San Francisco last week got stuck in my to-do-later pile.

(I did manage to get the MySpace Music party video up though, but that was because it was more fun!)

Well, it has since been fished out, including interviews with conference organizers John Battelle and Tim O’Reilly, as well as Demand Media’s Richard Rosenblatt (who is apparently scared of me, which is just the way I like it) and Microsoft’s man-in-Silicon-Valley Dan’l Lewin.

The overall message of the Web 2.0 Summit: Batten down the hatches, except tech always rises to the surface like some kind of econalypse-fighting styrofoam.

Well, we will see about that particular miracle, but here is the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

The MySpace Music Party: The No Lionel Richie/They Still Won't Stop Believin' Edition

Kara Swisher — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 22:55:34 +0000

Let’s get this out of the way: BoomTown completely missed Lionel Richie perform, cooling our heels outside behind the rope line at the MySpace party in San Francisco last night.

Major bummer.

That aside, I did finally get in and did a video at the rocking event, which the SoCal-based social-networking site–owned by News Corp. (NWS), which owns this site too–threw at the lovely Old Mint building, after the day’s proceedings at the Web 2.0 Summit.

It featured that exclusive performance by Richie, and also song-spinning by DJ AM.

But mostly, it was the scene of a lot of wild partying, with a lot of swinging, and packed most of the night, even as the supposed gloom of the econalypse was settling over Silicon Valley.

So here it is, including MySpace PR head Dani Dudeck, refusing to sing for me, as well as a madly-dancing-but-no-commenting Brandee Barker of Facebook.

(In my Richie-less addled state, I mentioned Neil Diamond’s “Hello, Again,” rather than Richie’s “Say You, Say Me” in the video. Sorry!)

Also, don’t miss the strains of Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’”–which has become the infamous song of the moment in the digital sector.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Party at Larry's Crib: NetSuite's 10th Anniversary Dinner

Kara Swisher — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:00:41 +0000

BoomTown has been lagging in getting up this lovely video I did from a dinner party last Thursday, thrown for NetSuite’s tenth anniversary, which was held at one of billionaire Oracle founder Larry Ellison’s many houses–this one in the tony Pacific Heights section of San Francisco.

NetSuite (N) is one of the pioneers in the broadly termed software-as-a-service space, selling an “integrated web-based business software suite, including Accounting software/ERP software, CRM software, and Ecommerce software.” Essentially, that’s hosted software solutions for medium-sized businesses or divisions of larger companies.

Zzzzzzzzzz, right?

Actually, it is an important topic, as businesses actually do begin to embrace the idea of putting themselves increasingly in the so-called cloud, which is Silicon Valley’s trendiest term du jour.

It is a topic, in fact, that Microsoft is going to be blabbing about all week, starting today. The SaaS space, including its cloud computing efforts, will be Topic A at its Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles.

In any case, after a lovely tour of Ellison’s house–Ellison co-founded the company with former Oracle (ORCL) exec Evan Goldberg and has been a major NetSuite investor–by NetSuite’s PR guru Brooke Hammerling, and some dinner chatter, I did an interesting video interview with NetSuite CEO Zach Nelson about the direction of the sector.

Here’s the video:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits the OutCast Communications Annual Party

Kara Swisher — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 15:00:02 +0000

Gas prices through the roof?

Mortgage crisis continues?

A looming recession?

You almost have to admire Web 2.0’s fight for their right to party.

Last night, it was quite a festive mood, as a mess o’ tech press and a bunch of digital movers and shakers showed up at OutCast Communications’ Seventh Annual CEO Dinner, held in the Grand Hall of San Francisco’s historic Ferry Building.

Big clients of OutCast include Facebook and Yahoo, as well as a lot of hyper-trendy start-ups.

Here is a lovely video I did, featuring OutCast’s T.J. Snyder and Margit Wennmachers, investor Ron “Sister Woman” Conway, Yahoo (YHOO) communications czar Brad Garlinghouse and PR’s Nicki Dugan, Facebook’s Brandee Barker, VC Stewart Alsop and the incomprehensibly iPhone-addled Robert Scoble:

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits "The Future of the Internet" Book Party!

Kara Swisher — Mon, 12 May 2008 17:00:29 +0000

This past Saturday night, BoomTown attended the tony San Francisco book party for Jonathan Zittrain’s new book, “The Future of the Internet–And How to Stop It.”

It was hosted by megablogger Arianna Huffington and Melanie Ellison, an old friend of Zittrain’s from high school, as it turned out.

And BoomTown took our Flip video camera, of course.

For one, it was held at Ellison’s stunning Pacific Heights home, with a lot of Internet and San Francisco wattage in attendance, including Melanie’s husband, Larry Ellison, and Mayor Gavin Newsom.

By the way, Zittrain is professor of Internet governance and regulation at Oxford Internet Institute, Oxford University, and co-founder of Harvard Law School’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society.

And the book is actually not about stopping the Web–perish the thought, as what would I do with my life without my beloved Internet, which I would marry if it were legal?

Instead, according to Zittrain, my beloved Web is in deep, deep trouble!

He is justifiably worried about innovation continuing and the book is a bracing call to fix some of the Internet’s serious structural and other problems, before it collapses in a giant heap of too-tightly controlled mundanity.

I’m for that! Let Web Wackiness Worldwide (WWW!) reign!

In that spirit, here is a video of the party, in which I ask everyone the key question: What is the future of the Internet?

The video includes some book party speeches and thoughts from Craigslist’s Craig Newmark, Jim Steyer of Common Sense Media, Accel Partners’ Jim Breyer, Techdirt’s Mike Masnick, Zittrain and, of course, Huffington (and I also got her to impersonate Tracey Ullman impersonating Arianna to up the wacky quotient) .

And also three Internet clowns trying to impersonate me. Wackier still!

Here’s the video (there is an odd voice/video disconnect in the Zittrain and clown sections at the very end that I am trying to fix):

[ See post to watch video ]

Kara Visits the VentureBeat Party!

Kara Swisher — Fri, 02 May 2008 09:03:32 +0000

Last night, dressed in my kindergarten soccer-coach best (sneaks, sweats and athletic socks–glam!), I ventured over to the Tenderloin district of San Francisco to attend VentureBeat’s party in honor of the launch of its new digital media blog.

Held at the Ambassador club on Geary Street, it was as if 1999 had never ended, and the huge crowd was partying like it was, well, 1999.

Shoulder to shoulder–or, in my puny case, shoulder to stomach–entrepreneurs, PR folks and a healthy smattering of press jammed into the venue, chattering about valuations, venture deals and other vacuous topics of Web 2.0.

Attendees included Mashable’s Pete Cashmore, Craigslist’s Jim Buckmaster, blogger Dan Gillmor and Microsoft-man-in-Silicon-Valley Dan’l Lewin (who gave us bupkis info about the deal, as you can see in the video).

Also in the video, in order, Meebo Co-Founder Seth Sternberg (fresh from a big funding); VentureBeat’s new editor of its digital media blog, Eric Eldon; Lewin; Gillmor; Valleywag’s Owen Thomas; and, finally, VentureBeat Editor and Founder Matt Marshall.

[ See post to watch video ]

A Tale of Two Parties in Silicon Valley, Part 2: iLike Kisses Up to Zuckerberg

Kara Swisher — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 08:49:20 +0000

Why shouldn’t the Partovi brothers–Hadi and Ali, both longtime serial tech entrepreneurs who sold their previous companies for big scores–give a little love back to that nice boy, Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook?

So, last night, they threw a party to celebrate their start-up called iLike and also send some appreciation in Facebook’s direction.

After all, their social music discovery service is one of the most popular third-party applications on the hot social network, with seven million Facebook users (out of 11 million total), hypercharging the Seattle-based iLike.

Funded by Ticketmaster (IAC), Khosla Ventures, Bob Pittman and with a cast of top tech players as advisers, it is one of the widget wonders of the moment.

Facebook founder Zuckerberg was at the party, as well as many others in the Facebook widget universe, which is ruling Silicon Valley at this moment, with their zombie bites and silly polls and cartoonifying software.

They partied in the backyard of a tricked-out house in the fancy Silicon Valley neighborhood of Atherton–the home of Elevation Partners’ Marc Bodnick, an iLike board member.

There, a much hipper and younger demographic than the earlier August Capital party had a late dinner of salmon and all manner of other treats under the stars.

That was capped by a concert from San Francisco’s popular band, Third Eye Blind, which has had many big hits including “Semi-Charmed Life.”

By the looks of things at the iLike party, it is a completely charmed one for the Partovis.

[ See post to watch video ]