The darker side of Facebook’s HQ: Eerie night shots show social networking …
July 26, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
By
Lee Moran
Last updated at 9:09 AM on 26th July 2011
It could be straight out of a James Bond movie.
With its laser defence systems, industrial style corridors and exposed aluminium air pipes, Dr No would seem perfectly at home as he plotted his route to world domination.
But while this eerie establishment is indeed in the midst of grabbing a grip on global affairs, its not with its military might – it is, instead, as the new California HQ of social networking site Facebook.
Futuristic: ‘The turnstiles use lasers to detect if you walked through without badging in. Lasers!’ posted Aaron Sittig on his Facebook group
Strange: ‘Standard seating. Not sure why all the desks have recycling bins rather than trash cans,’ he said on his photography
These spooky snaps of its new 57-acre Menlo Park campus at night are in stark contrast to the shots, released in February, showing spacious, brightly coloured offices bathed in Silicon Valley sunlight.
The latest set of pictures, uploaded by designer Aaron Sittig and obtained by the TechCrunch website, show Facebook’s darker side – and it is not just because they were taken after hours.
Back to the future: ‘In the IT help zone’ looks more like a pensioner’s living room
Hidden: A little nook where designers can meet up to talk shop
Alongside the turnstiles that use lasers to tell if visitors are not badged up and the factory-style floor lines, the campus’ Building 10 also has purple-glazed windows and chalkboard paint.
Instead of a coffee table, designers will have to use upturned wooden boxes, with some people actually facing walls as they work.
Industrial: The lines on the ground are supposed to recall factory floor markings
Upstairs, downstairs: There is a distinct lack of decoration on the walls
There’s even a rusty iron girder with spray paint running through one of the boardrooms and wires dangling between the rafters.
The photos have attracted criticism from online commentators who have ridiculed the minimalistic setup in comparison to the sprawling couches and soft furnishings its competitor Google has become known for.
Exposed: The aluminium air pipes make the offices seem like a manufacturing warehouse rather than the HQ of the world’s biggest social networking site
Innovative: This is the screen for a new conference reservation system
Defamer Australia website said about the laser turnstiles: ‘Another Facebooker responded that they look like something out of Gataca. Right, except the evil corporations in Gataca only pried into your DNA.’
And on the sparse hallways it added: ‘Long hallways are a ‘Facebook tradition,’ according to the caption on this one. A creepy tradition! Sort of like reading people’s private data.’
Protection: Metal fences surround the offices
Although the building has the capacity to house 9,000 employees, Facebook is currently believed to only have around 2,000 staff.
But according to reports it has already started buying neighbouring buildings as it plans to expand even more in the coming years.
Orange and yellow: The Facebook at night photos are in stark contrast to these colourful ones released in February
Office: A meeting room behind open windows has a whiteboard and a monitor on the wall, along with carpet tiles on the floor
Facebook is predicted to see revenue of between 1.2 billion dollars and two billion dollars this year.If it goes public next year its value could be astronomical and dwarf the $8.3bn LinkedIn was valued at in May.
Facebook bought the site from Sun Microsystems which moved out earlier this year after the firm was bought by Oracle.
Bare: This picture of what appears to be a relaxation room features a cold concrete floor and stools scattered around the room
Simple: A whiteboard in one of the open-plan rooms is next to two upturned boxes used as stools or tables and an odd crystal-shaped light hanging from the ceiling
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Bringing Sand Hill Road to cyberspace
July 26, 2011 by admin
Filed under Lingerie Events
For years, the world of venture capital largely has been shrouded in a veil of secrecy. Introductions were made in person over coffee or cocktails, startups were pitched on a physical whiteboard, and deals were sealed with handshakes and eye contact. Even as websites such as Facebook and LinkedIn brought a lot of both casual and professional social interactions into cyberspace, venture funding was still done largely offline. But in the past 18 months, one website has started to change all of that — in a big way.
AngelList started in February 2010 as a simple email list to alert wealthy angel investors to the tech industry’s hot and interesting startups. Since then, the tool has grown at warp speed: It is now a full-fledged social networking site that brings together investors of all sizes with a wide variety of companies looking for funding. Earlier this month I sat down with AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant to get a look at how the site has grown and where it’s going from here.
The facts and figures Ravikant revealed in our conversation were pretty impressive: AngelList now has 2,300 investors and more than 10,000 companies with registered profiles on the site. The network has directly facilitated between 400 and 600 startup fundraises, and is currently helping with an average of one to two fund raises per day.
The AngelList website now has a number of features reminiscent of social networking or online dating sites, to allow both investors and startups to present their best selves — and separate the signal from the noise when looking for new partners. (Click image to enlarge. One more screenshot is included at the bottom of this post):
The size of AngelList’s community is even more impressive when you take into account that not just anybody is allowed in. “Curation is very important. We keep out the bad actors, and we remove people from the site if they get negative reviews, if they’re people who are just kicking tires or running pay to pitch forums,” Ravikant said. “We’ve removed companies if we couldn’t verify the claims they made about who has already invested in them. And there are also a lot of good companies we can’t send out on AngelList at all. We can’t help everybody.”
The site almost became too popular earlier this spring, Ravikant said. AngelList started to dial back its growth purposefully, partially in response to criticism that the site was helping to foster an overly exuberant angel funding environment. “Actually in February our volume was just insane. We were getting 40 to 60 companies trying to join per day. There was definitely a seed stage frenzy, and we felt the quality was slipping,” he said. “We deliberately locked the site down, we raised the bar and lowered the volume.”
AngelList has no near-term plans to start generating revenue through ads or imposing commissions on the deals it helps facilitate. Ravikant has funded the site’s development with personal money from himself and his co-founder Babak Nivi and an investment from the Kauffman Foundation, a non-profit focused on fostering entrepreneurship. Although I could see AngelList emerging as a logical acquisition for a number of social networking sites such as LinkedIn or larger media companies, Ravikant maintains that he’s not focusing on longer-term strategies at the moment. “We’re still figuring it out, and we’re not in any kind of rush,” he said. After all, if they need fresh funding, they probably know where to go to find it.
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