Thursday, June 19, 1997

Webgenesis party (The Globe)

NEXT ON THURSDAY'S roster was the Webgenesis party. I had a lengthy talk with Todd Krizelman, the well spoken 21-year-old CEO. He told me how he and Stephan Paternot started their successful online community "The Globe" while at Cornell University. Like many new media start-ups, it began in a "window-less office with halls like submarines," and soon grew into a large loft office space. The devoted family of employees seems unique to this group, but not once you speak with Todd. This group really cares about nurturing their employees and brought most of them down with them from beautiful Upstate New York. This party was a big "thank you" to its employees, advertisers, and press. "The Globe's" success online (dozens of marriages from people who met on the site) makes sense when you see the environment it's created in--sofas provided for late night programming, dinners, rides home, and you can walk around in your socks (but "you can keep your hat on"). Also enjoying the party were Nick Butterworth, Heather Nelson, and Kamuti Kiteme of SonicNet, and Michael Winter of SiteSpecific.

(Appeared originally in @The Scene in the @NY newsletter)