Jessica Alfieri

writes everything you see here.

• “The Helmet is Now An Object of Desire”

  Jul 15, 2008 tagged as design, motorcycle helmet, style

  Yeah, these may be schmancy, but I don’t think they’ve captured “desire”.

  

  
  

• Chin Sprigs

  Jul 9, 2008 tagged as beard, chin, facial hair, style

  A must-read for those requiring facial hair advice.

  It begins with the political. Segues to the all-important issue of style. And ends with a little TMI.

  
  

• The “Web Heavies”

  Jun 19, 2008 tagged as Esquire, startup, style

  In Esquire’s latest Style series (it’s not online yet, so July 2008, p 94), they introduce us to “the next generation of Web[*] heavies,” as the boys “mix sharp tailoring with unexpected twists, and even try to sell us on their startups.”

  *STILL capitalizing web, are we?

  The stone-faced visages on the pages that follow make my startup friends look like the jackasses a lot of people think they are. Art direction is art direction, but come on, let’s see a little personality, people.

  Anyway, these are the web startups Esquire believes in, and the poster boys they’ve chosen to represent.

  1. stickK.com – a goal-setting service that uses your actual cash as collateral motivation. Freakonomics has covered this and similar services before. Jordan Goldberg.
  2. Blip.tv – infrastructure for all those make-your-own-tv-at-home types; and they take a cut of the revenue. Mike Hudack.
  3. TableXchange.com – buy and sell restaurant reservations at auction. Unfortunately, this guy represents what I hate most about this issue’s style feature. The sullen look, the almost-pruned lips, the holier-than-thou posture. THIS is not what the internet is about, Dwight Lee.
  4. Edopter.com – user-based trend analysis for marketers with a prize system built in, so advertisers can distribute product to winning users. Matthew Rosenberg.
  5. iminlikewithyou.com – real-time games for players and spectators with a video ad monetization model built in. Charles Forman.
  6. Kaltura.com – trying to become the Wikipedia of video (and apparently they have an actual partnership with Wikipedia). Ron Yekutiel.
  7. Urbis.com – review system for media creators, in which users control popularity. Seems to be another “community” built as a marketing tool for media companies. Steve Spurgat.
  8. Normative – Record company that treats each new release as a web startup. Jakob Lodwick.

  Edited to add:

  Jordan Goldberg of stickk

  

  Dwight Lee of TableXChange

  

  Steve Spurgat of Urbis

  

  Jakob Lodwick of Normative