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Digital DUMBO Adds Workshop Series

By on May 13, 2011 9:09 pm in Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO

This just in from our pals at Digital DUMBO:

Our flagship monthly event has served as a platform for some of the hottest, most innovative companies in New York City to connect with a highly talented group of digital influencers and professionals.
The Digital DUMBO Workshop Series will be an extension of our marquee event, providing the community with an educational (not to be confused with boring) workshop series hosted by some of the same innovative companies that have helped shape what the Digital DUMBO community has become, but in a more focused setting. Workshops may cover any range of topics, and no idea is off limits.
If you’re interested in hosting a Digital DUMBO Workshop, please complete our online form and email Andrew Zarick (andrew@digitaldumbo.com) and Kaitlin Villanova (kaitlin@digitaldumbo.com)

The first workshop in the series will take place on May 24 12pm – 1:30pm at reRun at reBar [147 Front Street]. Featured speakers will be Ron J. Williams, Co-Founder of SnapGoods and Campbell McKellar, Founder of Loosecubes. Find out more here.

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Brooklyn Tech: Big Spaceship’s Joshua Hirsch

Brooklyn Tech: Big Spaceship’s Joshua Hirsch

By on January 25, 2011 10:15 am in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO, Profiles

It’s strange to think of a company founded in the year 2000 as a member of an “old guard,” but by DUMBO (aka the New York Digital District) standards, that’s exactly what Big Spaceship, a digital creative agency, is.

“It was all unfinished, raw space,” Joshua Hirsch, Big Spaceship’s Minister of Technology, said of their first home at 70 Washington Street, where a decrepit bathroom down the hall once showed up on a website they were creating for the horror movie “Identity.”
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DUMBO Touted as “Silicon Beach”

DUMBO Touted as “Silicon Beach”

By on December 7, 2010 10:55 am in Brooklyn Tech, Commercial Real Estate, DUMBO

It started, of course, with California’s Silicon Valley. Scotland countered with Silicon Glen. Manhattan boasted of Silicon Alley. India has its Silicon Plateau. Now, local real estate developers, including Two Trees, are promoting DUMBO as Silicon Beach. Continue Reading →

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Brooklyn Tech: Etsy

By on August 19, 2010 4:41 pm in Arts and Entertainment, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO, Shopping

Brown with one of many strange objects in Etsy's offices

If the décor of Etsy’s headquarters in DUMBO is any indication of what shoppers can find on its extremely popular website, then those in search of an octopus arm sculpture are in luck.

Billed as the only marketplace for buying and selling handmade goods online, Etsy was founded in 2005 by Rob Kalin, Chris Maguire, and Haim Schoppick with the motto “Buy, Sell, and Live Handmade.” Adam Brown, Etsy’s public relations manager, explained why the site is preferable to eBay for a particular kind of consumer.
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Brooklyn Tech: Brooklyn Digital Foundry’s Brian Lemond and John Szot

By on June 16, 2010 9:19 am in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO

At 11 years old, Brooklyn Digital Foundry is a dinosaur by DUMBO standards. But this self-described “old guard” of the industry remains on the cutting edge of traditional and digital marketing, thanks to the passion of founders Brian Lemond and John Szot, both trained architects in their late 30s who met at the University of Texas.

bhblog_lemond“We’ve always taken pride in that even though we do marketing materials for other people, we’ve never done marketing materials for ourselves,” Lemond said recently, sitting at a conference table in the Foundry’s white-walled Jay Street office. “Our reputation has been the thing that’s driven this business.” Continue Reading →

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Brooklyn Tech: Carrot Creative’s Mike Germano

By on May 14, 2010 12:26 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO

mike_germanoIf it is possible for a person to sit in a chair and bounce off the walls at the same time, then that is exactly what Mike Germano (@mikegermano) did on a recent Monday evening in the DUMBO spot ReBar. But his energy is channeled in the right direction: toward his company, Carrot Creative, and the Digital DUMBO scene, which he has helped cultivate.

At just 28 years old, Germano, who grew up in New Jersey and now lives in the Financial District, is a pretty accomplished guy. He served a term as city councilman in Hamden, Conn., from 2005-2007, during which time he founded Carrot Creative, a new media marketing agency specializing in social media.

“We help brands build on social networks, and teach them and help them in great ways for them to have conversations with their customers and really turn brands into people,” he explained. Some of those brands include Crayola, the NFL, Disney, Ford, and the Islands of the Bahamas. Continue Reading →

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Brooklyn Tech: Pontiflex CEO Zephrin Lasker

By on April 29, 2010 1:01 pm in Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO

zephrin_laskerYou know you’re in Brooklyn, or more specifically in DUMBO, when the conference room at a hugely successful digital marketing and advertising firm is nicknamed “The Dude,” after Jeff Bridges’s immortal character in “The Big Lebowski.”

Pontiflex co-Founder and CEO Zephrin Lasker, 38,  exudes a similarly laid back vibe. Seated at The Dude’s conference table (bought on Craigslist), he seems at peace in their DUMBO office, which is essentially one large, white-walled room that glimpses the Manhattan skyline. Lasker and his jeans-clad employees are devoted to building, refining, and selling a unique online advertising concept called CPL, or cost-per-lead.

I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but it turns out I’m not alone. “How do I explain to my mom what I do?” a giggling Lasker said he often asks himself. Continue Reading →

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Brooklyn Tech: drop.io’s Steven Greenwood

By on April 19, 2010 11:11 am in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech, DUMBO

bio-210x3001Steven Greenwood (@sgreenwood) rarely stops smiling when talking about drop.io, the two-year old, DUMBO-based company that, in a nutshell, powers content sharing online. It could be that Greenwood, who is 32, is enthusiastic about what he does as vice president of business development at drop.io, which recently spun off a service called PressLift that Greenwood created; or maybe he’s chipper because Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz just announced that his office is going to start using PressLift for all of its media needs. Whatever the reason, Greenwood’s positive outlook on his industry is not only echoed by his peers, it is refreshing in an otherwise dour economic climate.

“We’re actively hiring!” he exclaimed, sitting in a Union Square diner sipping a soda on a recent evening. Continue Reading →

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Brooklyn Tech: Purple Rock Scissors

By on April 5, 2010 11:19 am in Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn Tech

308361Self-described techie “geeks,” like Aaron Harvey and Alex Lirtsman of the DUMBO-based firm Purple, Rock, Scissors, are really anything but. Though they’re dressed in the requisite hipster apparel—zip-up hooded sweatshirts, skinny jeans, sneakers—and toss around terms like “search engine optimization,” “conversion,” and “analytic platforms,” Harvey and Lirtsman probably have more in common with behemoth Madison Avenue advertising agencies than with their artistic Brooklyn neighbors. But that doesn’t mean they don’t fit in. Continue Reading →

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