The Greenhouse Effect

When you put a bunch of plants or flowers in a greenhouse under the proper
conditions, they'll flourish. And when you put a bunch of young, eager
networkers in a bar under the proper conditions, they, too, will flourish.
At least that's what Greenhouse for Startups was hoping would happen on
July 19 at the Turtle Bay Grill and Lounge. All the way up on 2nd Avenue
and 52nd Street, I caught up with Alley-night networker regulars like
Havona Madama of Lawiggroup and Jan Bergthorn of Inkfarm. Near the
entrance, I chatted with Stephen DeNichilo of EarlyBirdCapital.com. He
told me he'd just interviewed Robert Levitan of Flooz.com just the week
before (per my recommendation). Dennis Grady of Greenhouse told me this is
their inaugural event in New York, but they've had them in San Francisco
and Toronto several times before.

A bit further into the lodge-lounge, I saw Larry Paskowitz of
SavingsYellowPages.com and met Steve Turk and Christopher Wojick of N2W
Media. They just moved to New York from Cincinnati to pursue their
business plans of a marketing ASP.

Just as I finished chatting with Anne Shelton of Appnet about the New York
Junior League and volunteerism, I was barked at by Lloyd Fremed, bizdev
manager for PSINet. He said he was told he should meet me! He was told by
-- guess who? -- his partner-in-crime, Gene Trivell. They chatted a bit
about the New York Venture Conference and other parties in the Alley. And
after this dialogue rounded out, I made my way out to the Marriott Marquis
for the NY Venture Conference cocktail party.