The Bitly Story

The Bitly of today was not the Bitly that got launched. Bitly was launched by visionary founders as a site where if you got bit by a dog, you would take the picture of the dog, the bite, and your face in pain, and you would post the pictures online to share with the world. That was the idea. But it was way ahead of its times. The word spotting had not been invented yet.

And so Bitly pivoted and became the URL shortener that you know today. And it has been quite a success, would you say?

Alexa's PaperlessPost

Image via CrunchBaseI first met Alexa Hirschfeld when she was sitting on a panel during Social Media Week 2010. We have met here and there, stayed in touch, an email here, an email there. I brought this idea months ago. I said let me do a few blog posts about your startup. Finally looks like I get to do it. We are meeting Friday. She says they just moved to a new office. It is near Union Square. Most tech startups in Manhattan are near Union Square for some reason.

This is not going to be an act of journalism. I am not a journalist. This is not a professional blogger out to gather material either. This is one tech entrepreneur reaching out to another. But this is the age of social media, so it is not just going to be a let's-catch-up kind of conversation. The conversation will happen and then it will spill over to my blog, which is just fine by Alexa.

A Small, Historic EatUp

So around noon I showed up. Oleg was there, his wife was there, his brother was busy serving.

Amy Cao of FoodSpotting showed up. This was not my first time seeing Amy, but this was my first time talking. And we talked at length.

There was this guy. He said he was just passing through town. He was in the city for a few months. He showed up. He said he knew Amy from meeting her at a few events.

So when it was time for the group photo, it is this guy and me, with Amy taking the shot. And I am feeling a little awkward. I hope she got the truck in the background. The truck matters. I am just an eater.

Both the dude and Amy took pictures of my food. My lunch was on the house.

Amy and I first talked on Twitter. Then I saw her briefly at the FoodSpotting panel the first day of Social Media Week, but did not get to talk.