I’d like to welcome Sarah Lacy to Team TechCrunch as a permanent addition to our editorial and writing team. Lacy, who was kind enough to write part time for us in February during my vacation, will continue to write Valley Girl, a biweekly column for BusinessWeek. She will also continue to co-host Tech Ticker on Yahoo Finance.
You can read Sarah’s previous posts on TechCrunch here. She’s starting on a new book on global entrepreneurship and will be traveling constantly for the next eighteen months. While away, she’ll meet with local startups and entrepreneurs and cover the most interesting ones here at TechCrunch. You can also expect a healthy dose of Sarah’s unique editorial style regularly as well.
Sarah is an absolutely terrific writer, never pulls punches and really gets Silicon Valley. We’re extremely lucky to have her join us, and I can’t wait to read her stuff.
You can follow Sarah on her personal blog and Twitter. Her first book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good: The Rebirth of Silicon Valley and the Rise of Web 2.0, is available here.
lol sai did predict this or they linked to the post that predicted this and more things. when does techcrunch network start ?
Whatever Sarah, just show us your tits x
Here is the rest of the story. According to Evans Data, about 98 percent of programmers are male. Within this demographic, there are always a bunch of chump doofuses who can’t get a date. So they lash out at anything with breasts and a heartbeat. Many of these apparently read TechCrunch.
But there is more to the story. It’s obviously to anyone with eyes that women tend to take a disproportionate number of the soft jobs in tech. They are taking marketing jobs, accounting jobs, legal jobs, HR jobs. They are taking anything but their relative percentage of engineering jobs. Don’t tell me about women engineers and programmers. They are a tiny minority. That’s a simple fact ladies, so deal with it.
But where does that leave Sarah and others like her? It means that there are a lot of programmers and engineers who don’t believe she has proven herself to be technically competent to write about tech. Well, it really is a complicated area. A lot of writers, including New York Times’ Joe Nocera, really don’t have a clue. They get picked on a lot too. So, getting picked on comes with the territory. If you happen to listen, programmers and engineers are constantly at each other’s throats. It like a 24×7 dick measuring war.
We should just be glad that Sarah Lacy acts like a lady, doesn’t bleach her hair, and doesn’t force on us a lot of sexual innuendo. HEAR ME? We should be glad about this. There are a lot of bad writers and people who we would hate to read. So, we should probably just be glad TechCrunch didn’t hire Kathy Sierra.
Thank you Michael. Thank you Eric. Thank you Sarah. You guys keep it fresh and interesting.
Great comment.
Buggers and vipers to follow:
Finally. But I think most of the penile psychosis bedroom yanker boys won’t understand what you just said. They are too busy sporking their puds.
A lot of programmers also enter the profession so they don’t have to deal with women in the first place. Us … and plumbers, roofers, car mechanics, and insect exterminators.
Whatever, as Arnau said, show us your tits already!
Go back to megarotic Yawner, and whack off for free. This is a place for mens not boyz.
Don’t forget Irina Slutsky. I had the misfortune of being interviewed by her at LinuxWorld a few years ago. Anytime someone talked about something even remotely technical, she’d do her bobblehead doll impression.
A+ to your post.
Stupid article.
Arnau and Yawner. If either of you could manage to keep your hands off your dick for five minutes, you might become human again. Frikin losers.
I wank, therefore I am.
Surely a bit of self pleasure is a very human trait.
damian, surely you’re a narcotic induced comatose self abuser, of the hell destined kind.
WTF!
Sarah Lacey an “award winning author” ?
**~~~Americanns cannn do annytheeeing**~~~**`~~~..
Congrats to TC and to Sarah! This a great hire for TC — along the lines of the Heather Harde hire. Sarah brings some new flair to TC that will be fun to read.
Christian Anderson
What? Arnau and Yawner?
When did they start giving internet access at juvenile delinquent hall?
Or maybe the guards at the Hague just got off duty.
Welcome, Sarah! Great to have you writing
Welcome, Sarah. Looking forward to seeing more of your posts up here.
Oh, and never forget this one: http://downfore...neorjustme.com/
Welcome Sarah!
Gag me with a spoon.
one of sarah’s posts: http://www.tech...ke-the-present/
it has Stunning new information:
“Of course, the Internet is still very young.”
“But then again, everything has happened faster on the Web. No other technology has been so rapidly adopted by such a large number of people. ”
Thanks captain obvious!
oh f*** you troll.
I enjoyed Sarah’s editorial stint on TC during the last few months and look forward to reading more.
Ben, just because you enjoyed what Sarah (your friend?) wrote, it does not necessarily mean that it was good, or even mediocre. Not at all. You have no idea of what good writing is.
Sarah isn’t a friend of mine, I don’t think I’ve ever met her and I know that on two occasions I’ve totally trashed her in her comments on her blog
(amusingly, I went to search for them but either her blog isn’t indexed by google or she’s removed the comments cos I don’t get any results)
I’m actually pretty well known for bashing the Lacy’s, Arringtons and co when they need to be bashed. But also hand our praise when deserved.
I may live in the echo chamber of SV but I like to think I keep it real.
Those aren’t points, they are steps to an argument/point. You are a stupid wanker.
After re-remembering Michael’s anti anonymous hate, I take back the stupid wanker comment. I’d like to change it to that I respectfully disagree.
yay!
“This is where Tomorrowland and the Jetsons come in”
**~~~Americanns cannn do annytheeeing**~~~**`~~~..
EEEEeeeeeee
Welcome Sarah <3
Sarah, we’re lucky to have you. I really like working with Sarah because she requires zero editing.
Hey!
HAHA
Wow, really? I’m sure Sara would prefer that everyone just forget about her disastrous Mark Zuckerberg interview last year at SxSW, but I know I never will. It was an absolute catastrofuck to watch her throw softball after softball, all while appearing to hit on him. The audience was literally asking for her to stop quite a while before her performance ended. She may be a great writer, but I can’t imagine her doing any real investigative journalism.
i havent
Sarah Lacy’s articles on TC, while Arrington was away, added something to the mix: fluff and feelings –her own, plus more details about her personal life [and almost empty apartment] that most TC visitors would care for.
Of course she has her followers… but speaking for myself, always pressed for time, I visit TC to learn about progress and innovation on the IT field, both topics beyond Sarah’s reach.
As I suggested before, she is a young cute version of Kara Swisher {WSJ} who never understood the entrepreneurs she was talking to and what she was writing about. Sarah will also need to learn IT topics really *really* fast…
TC is changing, Arrington is changing. Shoot, we are all changing!
Sarah’s writings will certainly attract a different crowd to TC: the beginner tech-chicks and a few guys in touch with their softer, touchy-feely side –
I will certainly avoid reading her articles…
Paul
whatever.
my thoughts on that event:
http://www.tech...-witch-burning/
Michael, it doesn’t sound from your 2008 post like you were in the room for the interview we’re talking about. It’s understandable to be skeptical given how things flame up on twitter, etc, but it was basically as bad as reported. The video has a relatively narrow view on the room (its on her, not on the crowd, which was in at least 2 large rooms), and only the two Zuckerberg and Lacy are mic’d. I have no doubt that he is very hard to interview; Zuckerberg is very young, didn’t appear to have a whole lot of confidence, charisma, or much public speaking ability. Anyway, I could go on and on. I won’t be able to trust reporting from Ms Lacy after seeing the interview first hand *and* how she so negatively reacted to the crowd.
you guys need to think about all the hate you’re so happily spreading, anonymously, around the Internet. May not be what you want to contribute to the world at the end of the day.
“you guys need to think about all the hate you’re so happily spreading, anonymously, around the Internet.”
Michael,
All of my replies include my full real name.
txaaa @MichaelArrington its your audience that is being picky and they have a reason, not everyone is hateful, it just shows how much we care about some subjects and people, the same reason why we check techcrunch, we expect a certain level of quality, i guess.
as i see it sarah… did a pretty lame interview, and until today it kinda seems like for her it was something positive… it wasn’t… she can spin it as much as she wants, its not even if it was her fault or not, it just came out not so good, and during the interview and after she apparently to me didn’t show a lot of professionalism, but well, stuff like that happen to the best of us, so i don’t hate her one bit and if she does a good job on techcrunch even better, at least i like a lot of people have some reservations about the quality of her work here, but we will see and i welcome her to techcrunch ^_^
There should be a statute of limitations on constructive criticism. Bringing up an interview from a year ago is ridiculous. All the Sarah Lacy haters wish they had her job/fame and/or would love her to interview them. Softball questions or not, I’d take an interview from her anytime.
Amazing that “people” can be so critical of TC when they neither pay for it nor are paid to read it. Reminds me of the nut job fans who argue in chat rooms and comments about their favorite sports teams. Hate Kobe? You wish you had his fame, game, and $.
Welcome Sarah! Looking forward to your posts.
well some people just hate good things
Well… spreading hate anonymously or otherwise is pretty lame.
@pking: on the contrary! i seem to get another job offer every time the six of you anonymously bring it up! knock yourself out. also, way to spell my name right.
PS: a word of advice… retaliating on a comment board is like being in a mud fight. No one goes home clean.
…and if this does not work out, there is always CNBC.
(happy hate fun for all…….)
Just kidding, don’t know you but wish you the best…
sarah is the toughest writer i’ve ever met. if she cries herself to sleep every night like I do, I haven’t heard a word about it.
I honestly don’t know anything about you, but your reaction here is not flattering.
I hope this isn’t the real Sarah Lacy replying. It sounded kind of immature. I don’t think it is appropriate to be that cocky and uninhibited in front of your employer particularly when the topic is about your qualifications.
“never pulls punches”
Just as long as she is not interviewing Mark Zuckerberg.
Come on, *someone* had to say it…
P.S. Here is the interview just in case anyone was living in a cave last summer.
http://www.crun...rson/sarah-lacy
Robert,
I think Sarah and the rest of Silicon Valley have moved on from that incident.
Why can’t you?
I havent
Economy is bad… cannot afford to move.
interview the most famous luckiest geeks on the planet what can you expect. sometimes your only as good as the person your interviewing. be the first to interview a true internet game changer and make internet history.
InterviewLocator.com – pure skill
So Danny, you speak for the entire Silicon Valley now?
Robert,
No. Maybe you are right. The valley has never forgotten.
Since the valley hasn’t moved on, I bet that she can’t get a gig with Yahoo, a book deal, write for Businessweek, or get a writing gig for Techcrunch.
@Danny Roa — Please trust me on this one: we are all trying to forget that lame interview.
But… we can’t help ourselves, we are all dogs and we always fall for a cute face and cute buns. Michael is obviously under the [hormonal] spell, but to write that “sarah is the toughest writer i’ve ever met” is a hard slap on the face on all the other TC writers — with the exception of Robin, who is kind of so-so… you know?
This is very smart move by Michael that will bring TC closer to the mainstream media and closer to an offer he will not be able to refuse.
Sarah’s abilities as a journalist and writer are irrelevant at this time. What counts is the value of her name’s “brand” and her connections and the perception by some [big, big money] that TC is finally growing into a property that will appeal to a much wider audience, a more valuable advertising channel, etc.
Mike, I can almost see a big pile of cash waiting for you just around the corner. One thing though: don’t buy a Lamborghini. They are an absolute expensive pain to maintain.
I haven’t. The Internet has a long memory.
It’s still waiting for an apology from Tech Crunch regarding their lies about Last.fm a few months ago.
Still silence. But at least they’re hiring other mediocre bloggers to write more untrue pieces for us all to gripe about.
Hi Sarah! Welcome back!
… from the shameless spammer “From India”
Please get lost!
Hey where have you been? Do not mind the anonymous losers!
Oo The Nigerian = Ubewe = Anjali Sen …. the same retard spammer *From India*
Pleeeeeeeease!
@Charlie Chaplin,
Stop writing bullshit, you racist asshole.
@you again – March 20th, 2009 at 5:13 pm PDT,
Stop spamming, you racist asshole. What’s wrong in her comment? Shut the fuck up and get lost from here.
Good to have you Sarah!
Congrats to Sarah! I look forward to reading her posts.
Is that the real Veronica Belmont? I mean the REAL VERONICA BELMONT??? Who broke my HEART by leaving Cnet’s podcast for Mahulo?
You broke my heart Mrs Belmont only way I can recover is if you go back to Cnet.
Haha…. I’m sorry! My Tekzilla videos are syndicated on CNET TV, so that’s about as close as it’ll get!
Veronica Belmont? Never heard of her.
Congrats. Thoroughly enjoyed her posts thus far. Great addition!
Great addition. Nice to see TC aggressively expanding its brain trust. Cheers!
Sarah,
I’m looking forward to your articles on Techcrunch and also in your new book.
“Once you’re lucky” is one of the most enjoyable books I have read that I finished it in just a few days.
Mike,
Thanks for convincing Sarah to go on board permanently.
well she’s been begging us to work here for so long, i finally relented.
kidding!
It’s exactly the opposite, actually.
Great move Sarah. Congrats!
Excellent
Awesome.
congrats to TC on getting Sarah, you need a little less ego-male driven writing
Welcome. I’m looking forward to your contributions.
The TC editorial team is getting stronger everyday!Congrats to TC and to Sarah!
Did you notify her beforehand that TC readers are bunch of misogynists?
How could we be misogynists when we don’t even know what that means? har har har
I love Sarah’s work – this will be great to see!
Great writer, even better blogger, welcome properly Sarah
nice to see a bit of class here also
just kiddin Mike
not judging yet but so far to shallow of a writer for me ( based on TC posts only) maybe time ( and more posts) will prove me wrong
i’m just going to assume it was a spate of weak articles on her part while michael was gone. i trust michael must have more thoroughly read her corpus than i and has a more accurate knowledge of her skill level
in any case, time will tell.
Man, so much spite. Good luck Sarah.
JC.
Great addition! Welcome, Sarah!
Great move, TechCrunch. Not so good for me — I should be working, not reading TC. Sarah’s writing is worth reading — but I wish had the minutes back I wasted reading comments from the anonymous creeps who have no jobs/life outside of sxsw
congrats!
WOW!!! Sarah is certainly polarizing!!! But come on people… she’s covering technology startups not the Iraq war. I don’t think there is this much hate directed at Judith Miller who basically cheerleaded the US into war from the cover of the NYTimes. Now SHE deserves this type of virulence. So she flubbed an interview at SXSW! She’s a writer first and foremost not an in person interviewer. Get over it!
she didn’t flub the interview. she was attacked by a crazy immature mob of valleywag loving losers.
I mean, as someone who was in the overflow room and not on Twitter, it was pretty clear that the interview was going badly. That said, I think the interview format tends to produce weak keynotes.
This year Tony Hsieh (head of Zappo’s) did a great one person talk, but Nate Silver (of 528.com) ended up with an interviewer that focused almost exclusively on the analytical aspect of what he does. I think the audience would have enjoyed getting a broader perspective.
Also think the dynamics of rabid twittering changed a bit this year. On a panel on turning a blog into a book, Guy Kawasaki straight up asked, “Who’s this person on twitter who thinks I’m being a dick?”, and they proceeded to have a perfectly reasonable dialogue.
sorry, meant 538.com, not 528.com, although really it’s fivethirtyeight.com anyway.
i too was viciously attacked by the immature valleywag gang. who ever took them seriously in the first place.
http://valleywa...ator-257568.php
Great addition Mike. Look forward to more of your writing Sarah.
Mike care to comment on my strong belief you guys are or have raised capital?
http://benkoo.c...ital-right-now/
There just seems to be too much growth at TC when ad rates are dropping…..
sure. we haven’t raised any capital and aren’t in the process of raising capital. so far ad rates have held very steady for us, we’re actually having a slightly better year so far than last year.
Good post Ben Koo
Even if TC isn’t raising more capital, it is obvious and essential that they need to invest in developing the TC product and brand.
For what its worth, in addition to the obvious strategy of building a larger network of tech-related blogs, I reckon TC increase the depth of information/intelligence in Crunchbase.
There really should be an incentive for companies to post more information. TC can develop special tools that can extract intelligence from it, and make it the Wikipedia of the Tech industry.
Mark
Rates are dropping if you are a big site. Niche/vertical markets are doing well.
Good team. Congrats and my guess is, she’ll be heavily involved come TechCrunch60
Is Toronto on the pit stop list?
Thanks for answering back Mike. I really thought i had you guys pegged. The fact that all of this growth is bootstrapped is very impressive.
Keep it up!
Welcome Sarah,
I’ve enjoyed your writing.
i cannot say i’m a fan of lacy’s articles. i hope that her further contributions to techcrunch are better reasoned, avoiding the spurious conclusions she is known for.
I am currently reading the book, Once You’re Lucky, Twice You’re Good. I am a little disappointed. Everyone profiled in the book is a maven in their field and all the guys building these businesses have done a great job (including this site).
However, I am having trouble getting through it and tired of all the big sites getting credit for this crap. I started a social network in 1996 for car enthusiast. There are 1000s like this. So we didn’t sell for 1.4 billion to Google big F*ing deal. At least we are profitable.
The book is also too early to call this social networking wave a success. Has News Corp figured out how to make money on MySpace? Nope. Google is still having troubles making YouTube profitable.
The bottomline, too many people in this area think that going IPO or hitting 1 billion is the only measure of success.
If you want to read a real business book pickup something from Jim Collins: http://www.jimcollins.com/
Glad to see the Yelp guys know this.
Jim Collins is totally wrong.
According to him, these companies are “Good to Great” :
Circuit City
Fannie Mae
Good luck with that.
Andrew you have no idea what you are talking about, to put it bluntly. MySpace is $1B+ a year, YouTube is more than that (the going rate for the frontpage ad on YouTube is $300k a day – do the math).
These sites get recognized because they are used and influenced tens of millions of people all around the world. Your site simply isn’t in the same league, regardless of when it was started.
Well, I admit I’ve mostly only known Sarah the brand, not Sarah the writer before now. I look forward to seeing if she lives up to the hype.
As for the mudslinging on here, I stand by my comment yesterday that folks need to stop personally attacking the writers. Itr’s lame. Argue points with facts and opinions…attacks simply make you look desperate. Likewise though, today I would like to express my desire that the writers not lowering yourself to responding to the insults with insults.
You see, when I read some users comment thats lame and degrading, I picture some loser troll in a dark room illuminated only by their screen hunched over a dirty keyboard, empty cans of red bull strewn about, spewing their garbage across the internet.
I see TC journos as reasonably normal people, sitting at a desk or table with daylight shining over a clean laptop, a Lifewater on the table and granola bar in hand, talking sense and adding value to the Internet. That’s why I’m here. When you start engaging and likewise responding to the maladjusted little losers, unfortunately my image of you starts to morph and warp. I start to see Red Bull cans…
I know social media is about engaging in convos with your audience and I like seeing you in the comments, but remember what your grandma said…if you don’t have anything nice to say…
Congrats Sarah!
Welcome to Sarah.
BTW, Sarah received the all-time high honor in terms of visits at http://media.te...techcrunch.html with over 1,700 views among hundreds of top media personalities. Does that mean she is popular? I think so and she deserves it.
I think this move is great for both Sarah and TC. Congrats to you both.
good luck with the future posts. it’s always nice to read stuff on TC.
I for one welcome our new @sarahcuda overlord.
In all seriousness — welcome, Sarah. Don’t let the haters get to you. Great to have you on board. I enjoyed your articles while Michael was away.
It would be cool to have a “Thumb up” function for each article, so that we can provide a quick an simple feedback for the articles.
To avoid trolls, you should not add a “thumb down” counter.
Best thing i have read here in weeks. Let her have free reign and draw other talented journalists to the team.
Well Sarah made it to wikipedia, a measure of success in my book.
http://en.wikip...wiki/Sarah_Lacy
Note that the majority of that page is about the Zuckerberg incident. That’s how fame / success / celebrity can work nowadays. You become infamous and that turns into fame over time thanks to an incredibly forgiving public. Make note of this if you want to become well known and successful yourself
Sarah —
Loved your book! Can’t wait to read the next one. Keep up the good work!
Tom
Congratulations!
i may not always agree with everything Sarah says, but i certainly find myself consistently entertained with her writing & opinions… sometimes to the point of blogging my own retort, but hey she also does some excellent reporting on the geek community too.
congrats Sarah & hope to see more of you on TC