See the Flash Version Here.

I had a nice ‘jab’ at geeks staying away from the more ‘athletic’ sports…

The first half of the night was a position round for all the teams. The second half of the night had the top two teams dueling it out in front of a crowd of 60 people cheering on one of two teams. We even had a news station there capturing all this on video.

It was quite the upset, just a few weeks ago, Socialtext was hanging around 4th place. In the past 3 weeks, they’ve pulled out all the stops to bring their standing into 2nd with the start of the finals. it was a social network vs. wiki challenge, who would win?

Well, the wiki seems to have kicked ass and taken names. Socialtext came from behind to beat facebook and steal the bowling 2.0 title.

bowling 2.0 Final Rankings:
#1 – Socialtext
#2 – Facebook
#3 – Meetro

Here are current standings.

So facebook is holding strong in #1, meetro and veeceebo are tied, and women 2.0 still isn’t making the charts…

So Facebook is still holding tight on #1, Socialtext has inched their way to #2 and Meetro/Flock/and Veeceebo are tied (taking #3, #4, #5 respectively.)

We removed the handicap from the league, so the old rankings are OUTTA here!!! Click the pics below for a larger file.

Rankings as of week 4 [Aug 7, 2006]

• #1 – facebook.com [7 wins, 1 loss]
• #2 – meetro.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with flock)
• #3 – flock.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with meetro)
• #4 – socialtext.com [5 wins, 1 loss]
• #5 – VeeCeebo [5 wins, 3 losses]
• #6 – videoegg.com [4 wins, 4 losses]
• #7 – a9.com [4.5 wins, 3.5 losses] (how you get a half I have no idea)
• #8 – skype.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #9 – mymint.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #10 – pbwiki.com [2.5 wins, 5.5 losses] (what’s up with these 1/2 points???)
• #11 – 3bubbles.com & stirr.net [2 wins, 6 losses]
• #12 – women 2.0 [0 wins, 8 losses] (come on now, is the sterotype really being fulfilled?)

Files

If you would like to run some of your own stats, feel free to play around with this spreadsheet that Dan Bragiel put together:
* bowlinginfo.xls

Another fun night at Palo Alto Bowl! Video by Ryanne and Jay from RyanIsHungry.com. Enjoy!

There are too many events that are heavy on the professional and networking side, but not many events where people just hang out, drink a few beers, and trash talk the competition. We started tossing around ideas of competitive sports, but quickly threw that idea out as we figured most geeks aren’t too physical! Then a joke came out… “Why not bowling?” After we all had a few good laughs, we said, wait a minute, bowling would be kinda cool… After all, it’s a sport, it’s competitive, beer pitchers are of the plenty, and it’s completely ironic to have all these high tech companies hanging out in such a low-fi atmosphere. Half the bowling machines look like they were produced before the Atari was invented!

So we thought about the idea a little more and decided we needed to make this happen. We reached out to a few companies and ppl really bit into it. We started talking to bowling alleys to see what was required to start a league. Heck, most of us here at meetro hadn’t bowled more then a dozen times in our life. For some, the last time they bowled was at a friends 6th grade birthday party.

We sent out a few emails and everybody was really excited on the idea. So we reached out to a few more companies, and they were excited about the idea as well. Then it was picked up on valleywag and interest exploded, we had to start turning companies away!

Many thanks to Ryan Is Hungry who filmed another fun night at Palo Alto Bowl for Bowling 2.0. This is a great video of Team Skype and Team PB Wiki dualing it out on the lanes…

As part of a podcast segment on Tea Time, they asked me a few questions along the lines of “What’s happin’” in sunny palo alto, tune in to some details on how bowling 2.0 got started. Or just make fun of my stutter on the segment intro.

Download MP3.

a9 takes the lead and veeceebo is trailing in 12th, you would think we ranked the teams alphabetically…..

So we had a mention in the Mecury News today where a number of teams were profiled. However, at the time of publishing, they seemed to have made an error with my name, calling me Vinnie “Tortelano” which is pretty far off from “Lauria” but at least it still falls into the same ethnic pool

Another name mistake takes the cake though, pbwiki’s name is displayed on the alley boards. The alley mistook their company name for pbwili.com! There’s no domain there yet, but I have a few thoughts on an interesting web2.0 site that could fill pbwili with more then just P&B.

Ohh, and the stats from week #1 are up.

I swung by the alley last Thursday to see if they had scores tallied up yet, but they were having some computer issues (it’s that old pre 1.0 technology.) I’ll be able to pick up last weeks scores tonight and post them here.

Amy Andersen is founder and CEO of Linx Dating LLC and Rory Van Nest is one of Linx’ matchmaker’s.

Linx is an exclusive, by-invite-only, Bay Area based dating and social networking society created for the “marriage minded.” Linx’ main target of focus is linking the Silicon Valley male to the San Francisco woman, but is not limited to those specific geographic regions. So if you happen to be single and bowling with us, don’t be shy, introduced yourself and you might get an invite to be linked.

The Linx network deals with a very high caliber mix of sophisticated eligibles. Everyone has an exceptional background, great job, excellent education, many interests beyond the scope of their career, as well as, physically fit and attractive. As part of entrance into this private society, each client goes through a detailed admission process of being prescreened, interviewed, and being sponsored by a current member in the network.

Linx is offline, pursues zero advertising and can be considered the “hidden” source for exclusive Bay Area dating. It is based on a large network of friends and referrals to their most eligible friends. Members reap the benefits of services that go way beyond the scope of the core of the matchmaking business, including:

• Link & Drink networking events, newsletters, concierge services, society clubs, and participation in the beta release of Linx’ website. In fact, Amy is hard at work on her second venture which will carry over core principals from the offline model, yet to the online world.

Andersen and Van Nest are both alumni of USC and raised in the Bay Area. Andersen is from Marin County, lives in Palo Alto and LOVES the entrepreneurial environment the Valley has to offer. Van Nest lives in San Francisco and enjoys the warm climates that PA has to offer too- so making the commute is no problem (or at least she says). Both ladies love social networking, spontaneous social circles ignited through bowling, a good sauv blanc, hot eligible men/women, and the end to a long work week.

Are you linked? Get linked and come say HI to us . We’ll be the ones wearing Women 2.0 shirts, so given that it is mostly men, it should be obvious.

From shampoo to eyeshadow, beauty product experiences are unique to every woman. Traditional sources of such information, such as magazines and mass media, are unreliable and not impartial. TheMintPages, on the other hand, is a neutral forum that provides personalized product reviews for those seeking honest recommendations from trusted users, a haven from the insidious motives of corporate self-interest. TheMintPages also allows women to seek out similar users with whom they can share and receive much-needed, much-desired beauty product info.

We are looking for an advisor in the beauty industry, for example the
VP of Marketing for Sephora or the beauty editor of a popular magazine
for young women. Please drop angie@themintpages.com a line if you
have any leads. Thank you!

That’s right, we have a Flickr group called “What’s in your makeup bag” where you can share the contents of your makeup bag with the rest of the world! Simply take a picture of your stuff whether it’s gathered ’round the sink or laid out on a table, upload it to Flickr, comment on the items in your bag, and add it to the group pool!

Stayed tuned each week for another video featuring at least one of the 12 companies bowling in the league.

I’m really pumped about the enthusiasm everybody had last night. Now we all know how good the sounds of 10 pins smacking against each other sounds. It was great to hear teams cheering and high-fiving as their team mates mopped the floor (without Ajax

I’ll be getting team points and individuals scores from the alley soon and I’ll put that up on www.bowling20.net along with some pictures and videos from last night.

(In this web 2.0 space, many companies don’t even have 4 folks at them

7pm
Palo Alto Bowl
4329 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306

Last week was the bowling2.0 kick off party. We had 10 of the 12 teams show up to mingle, drink, ask questions, knock down a few pins, and drink some more. We had a number of spectators show up, including some google interns.

Note: Photos courtesy of Joanne Wan of stirr.net.

Mostly taken by Will, Joanne, Angie, or Vinnie

#1, meetro.com

• Vinnie Lauria [capt'n]
• Antonis Proios
• Kagan Unaldi
• Paul Bragiel
• Samuel Stauffer

#2, a9.com

• Matt O’Neill [capt'n]
• Susan
• Marisa
• ?

#3, facebook.com

• Matt Hehman ‘He-Man’ [capt'n]
• Nick Heyman ‘Nick’
• Teddy Underwood ‘Old Man Teddy’
• Kevin Colleran ‘KevCol’
• Meagan Marks ‘Meagan’
• Jon Warman ‘My Little Pony’
• Areg Maghakian ‘Areg’
• Yishan Wong ‘CraZn’
• Becca Sawyer ‘Spare Slut Sawyer’

#4, flock.com

• Gretchen Curtis ‘Gret’ [capt'n]
• Geoffrey Arone ‘Fredo’
• Will Tschumy
• Cindy Tschumy
• Lloyd Budd ‘foolswisdom’
• Julia Budd
• Mike Curtis

#5, 3bubbles.com & stirr.net

• Drew [capt'n 3bubbles]
• Mark Mansouri ‘Snuggles’
• Joanne Wan [capt'n stirr]
• Sanford Barr
• Sean Ness

#6, pbwiki.com

• David Weekly [capt'n]
• Nathan Schmidt
• Ramit Sethi
• Darren Allarde

#7, skype.com

• Jeff Reine [capt'n]
• Jed Clevenger
• Sara Gorman

#8, socialtext.com

• Erik Langner [capt'n]
• Julia French
• Alex McClintock
• Ross Mayfield

#9, Women 2.0

• Angie Chang, Women 2.0 & TheMintPages [capt'n]
• Amy Andersen, Linx Dating.com
• Rory Van Nest, Linx Dating.com
• Elea Chang, Women 2.0 & Flickrati

#10, Veeceebo

• Timmy C, Tim Chang, Gabriel Venture Partners [capt'n]
• Alexa Zhang, Omidyar Networks
• Baris Karadogan, USVP
• Christian Borcher, Cardinal VC
• Shawn Carolan, Menlo Ventures
• Tom Cole, Trinity Ventures
• Striker
• Matthew Fix ‘Fix’, Intel

#11, videoegg.com

• Matt Sanchez ‘Sr. Juevos’ [capt'n]
• Joe Hurd ‘Hurdle’
• Joe Johnston ‘Prince Albert’
• Nat Turner ‘The Intern’
• Derek Dukes ‘D-Rock’
• Kevin Sladek ‘Egg Man’
• Lauren Rogers ‘Eggette’

#12, myMINT.com – Money Intelligence

• Aaron Patzer [catp'n]
• Matt Snider
• ?
• ?

We removed the handicap from the league, so the old rankings are OUTTA here!!! Click the pics below for a larger file.

Rankings as of week 4 [Aug 7, 2006]

• #1 – facebook.com [7 wins, 1 loss]
• #2 – meetro.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with flock)
• #3 – flock.com [5 wins, 3 losses] (currently tied with meetro)
• #4 – socialtext.com [5 wins, 1 loss]
• #5 – VeeCeebo [5 wins, 3 losses]
• #6 – videoegg.com [4 wins, 4 losses]
• #7 – a9.com [4.5 wins, 3.5 losses] (how you get a half I have no idea)
• #8 – skype.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #9 – mymint.com [3 wins, 5 losses]
• #10 – pbwiki.com [2.5 wins, 5.5 losses] (what’s up with these 1/2 points???)
• #11 – 3bubbles.com & stirr.net [2 wins, 6 losses]
• #12 – women 2.0 [0 wins, 8 losses] (come on now, is the sterotype really being fulfilled?)

Files

If you would like to run some of your own stats, feel free to play around with this spreadsheet that Dan Bragiel put together:
* bowlinginfo.xls

There are too many events that are heavy on the professional and networking side, but not many events where people just hang out, drink a few beers, and trash talk the competition. We started tossing around ideas of competitive sports, but quickly threw that idea out as we figured most geeks aren’t too physical! Then a joke came out… “Why not bowling?” After we all had a few good laughs, we said, wait a minute, bowling would be kinda cool… After all, it’s a sport, it’s competitive, beer pitchers are of the plenty, and it’s completely ironic to have all these high tech companies hanging out in such a low-fi atmosphere. Half the bowling machines look like they were produced before the Atari was invented!

So we thought about the idea a little more and decided we needed to make this happen. We reached out to a few companies and ppl really bit into it. We started talking to bowling alleys to see what was required to start a league. Heck, most of us here at meetro hadn’t bowled more then a dozen times in our life. For some, the last time they bowled was at a friends 6th grade birthday party.

We sent out a few emails and everybody was really excited on the idea. So we reached out to a few more companies, and they were excited about the idea as well. Then it was picked up on valleywag and interest exploded, we had to start turning companies away!

And that’s how bowling 2.0 started.

- Vinnie

Where:
Palo Alto Bowl
4329 El Camino Real
Palo Alto, CA 94306
(650) 948-1031

When:
Every Monday night, 7pm – … (games 7-9, retire to the alley lounge afterwards)

Who: 12 Teams (team #, team name)

• #1, meetro.com
• #2, a9.com
• #3, facebook.com
• #4, flock.com
• #5, 3bubbles.com & stirr.net
• #6, pbwiki.com
• #7, skype.com
• #8, socialtext.com
• #9, Women 2.0 (themintpages.com & linxdating.com)
• #10, Veeceebo
• #11, videoegg.com
#12, myMINT.com

Founders:

PBwiki is the web’s leading wiki host – nearly 100,000 wikis are hosted with us! We believe in simplicity, speed, and profitability. Since we only have three fulltime employees, we’ve enlisted the help of our part-time support crew and advisors to help us keep the team rounded out.

Company page.

Flock Bowling 2.0 Team Members

Geoffrey “Fredo” Arone

Will T

Gret

Lloyd (aka Foolswisdom)

Company page.

Meetro is location-aware social messenger, it allows you to meet new people, right now, who are nearby.

We’re friendly outgoing folks over here and figure we should try to use technology to encourage meeting ppl in the real-world, rather then just continuing down this virtual communications path. While the internet is great for communicating, there’s still something about meeting face to face that you miss out on over the web – whether that be for a chat over coffee, meeting a new friend, a business lunch, or throwing back a few beers over a bowling game.

The company started in Chicago and moved out to Palo Alto at the end of 2005. We’re having a lot of fun building a social network that encourages folks to meet new people. Meetro is completely photo and profile based. Rather then seeing boring handles, you see people’s pictures along with their complete profile and their friends (so you know if you’re connected to them.)

Check out our client, it don’t cost nothing… As as soon as you sign on, you’ll have the ability to start talking to people right now. Including us here at the Meetro HQ. We’re on everybodys buddy list to help you out if you have any questions or listen to any feedback you want to throw our way.

http://meetro.com

On the web, trash talk is easy – leave a few nasty comments on techcrunch and move on. In the real-world, it’s a little more difficult. Try telling a9 they have no chance of picking up the 7-10 split and they’ll come back to you with a beer in one hand and a shakin’ fist in the other…

The league officially kicks off next Monday right here in the heart of Silicon Valley, Palo Alto Bowl. We’re throwing a kickoff party on Wednesday to introduce all the teams to each other. If you want to cheer a team on, come check out the first party.
Who’s gonna come out ahead in this league? I dunno, but we’ll be keeping stats, so check back often. Now it’s time for me to go practice my No Drive No Five’s.

Bowling 2.0

Welcome interested bowlers. Are you getting pumped to show yourself out there on the lanes? Have you been practicing hitting down that double wood? Are you ready to throw back a few cold ones while playing a nationally accredited ‘sport!’

What better place to start the Bowling 2-dot-ohh phenomenon then in the heart of Silicon Valley at Palo Alto Bowl!

…

I’m following up with a few more companies, I’m looking to hit a 10 team league. So if you want to pass this along to other folks, let them know the list might be full, but they can check in with me.

The league will go for 8 weeks with each team bowling at least once a week (preferably on the same night.) If there are any blackout weekdays/dates, please let me know.

…

Best,
Vinnie ‘fast eights‘ Lauria

I think so… we’re starting a little web2.0/startup bowling league out here in the valley. We looking for some friendly competition, and who knows, maybe some cash prizes to go along with bragging rights.

So do you think your team has got what it takes? Meetro has been staffing bowling ringers for months now preparing for this moment. This would be a weekly league, with teams around 4 ppl (all teams should be the same size.) Typical leagues run 10 weeks, but that might be too much commitment for some (hell, startups live and die in that about of time.)

So if you think you’re company is interested, please send me a note. Details to follow.

Feel free to pass this on to other companies, but I may have to close off the invite list at some point.

I haven’t even mentioned the best part…. Bowling shirts with your name and company logo… Now you can finally fit in with that hip swingers crowd.