Alive and Well in Silicon Alley

NY Times ^ | 03.12.06 | WARREN ST. JOHN

[CAWats]

Prescient words, it turned out. Mr. Robertson faced a barrage of withering questions and eventually slunk offstage to mocking laughter from the audience.

"I got ambushed," he said afterward. "I didn't know it was a 'Gong Show' thing."

Rambunctious technology gatherings in Manhattan? Venture capitalists on the prowl? Geeks having fun at the expense of suits? What was this, 1998?

In fact, it was last Tuesday, and the bustle around the New York Tech Meetup, which began with just four attendees a little more than a year ago, is but one bit of evidence that reports of the death of Silicon Alley may have been greatly exaggerated.

Though few new-media entrepreneurs would say it loudly for fear of jinxing themselves, Silicon Alley is buzzing again. In recent months a number of Manhattan new-media companies have been involved in heady high-dollar deals that carried a faint but alluring whiff of the good old days. Start-ups are once again popping up like mushrooms in Manhattan, and last May the New York Software Industry Association opened a technology incubator at its headquarters at 55 Broad Street. It now houses 14 new companies.

[Carry_Okie]

Free people, driven to create, will eventually produce, with or without buckets of money.