IWonder what all the hype's about

The roaming searchlights weren't for the Doubleclick party at Laura Belle on Tuesday, October 5th, but you might have thought they were--based on the overflowing excitement for their party. This "coveted party in Silicon Alley and Wall Street" according to Wenda Harris Millard, EVP, Marketing at Doubleclick, was the official kick-off event for iwon.com. And what did (or could) you win? $10,000 a day, $100,000 a month or $1,000,000 on Tax Day!

Yes, there was a lot of hype, and Yes, there were a lot of people crammed into the swank club and Yes, the band was LOUD. Do bands have to be loud to get the crowd hyped up? Upstairs there were demos of the site, and downstairs Wenda introduced the stud-ly co-founders Bill Daugherty and Jonas Steinman from Irvington, NY. They're just another one of those stories about "two guys who were sittin' around havin' coffee one day and came up with an idea." With the backing of Neil Austrian, president of the National Football League and now Chairman of the Board, their interest began snowballing and culminated with $40 million backing from CBS. George Presto, II (Doubleclick), Katie Schending (Juno), Allison Tucker (consultant Boo.com) and Larry Pearl (eCom Advisors) were among the peeps waiting till 10:00 when the drawing for the first $10,000 give-away would occur. I also had a chance to briefly catch up with Nicole Berlyn of SixDegrees, Ben Austin of Comet Systems and Jenny Gilbert of Ad Age. Troy Tyler emerged from his overload of work with his start up of www.smartray.com to come out and hope to be the lucky winner. But, alas! The card was drawn and after a night of partying, only Joel Fisher of WorldlyInvestor.com was the sole winner. And what was he going to do with his $10K? "Iím going to Disney World!" he replied.