Valleywag: Ben Trott

Six Apart founders return from Disneyland, mouse ears held high

Owen Thomas — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:00:00 PST

All right, all right: Perhaps it was a tad bit mean-spirited to begrudge young parents their first vacation to Disneyland with a child. Six Apart president Mena Trott, who spent the weekend in the happiest place on earth with husband and CTO Ben Trott, is hilariously unapologetic about taking a vacation right after laying off 16 staff members at the blog-software company they cofounded. Beating Valleywag to the punch, she's written the worst captions she could invent on pictures of her highly adorable daughter and way hot husband at the theme park. Not that this will be any comfort to the people she laid off, who will only remember how Trott followed up the cuts by announcing that she was going to Disneyland in the manner of an NFL player who just spiked a football in the end zone.

Layoffs? They're going to Disneyland!

Owen Thomas — Sat, 15 Nov 2008 01:00:00 PST

Six Apart, the San Francisco blog-software company which helped spark the blogging boom, just laid off 16 of its 200 employees. And its top executives took a 15 percent paycut. Such noble sacrifice! Except that those cutbacks have not crimped the holiday plans of cofounders Ben and Mena Trott. She surprised her husband with an irony-free trip to Disneyland. That they can so blithely afford the trip reminds me of persistent rumors that the couple cashed out some of their shares in the privately held company when it took an earlier round of venture capital. (Photo by Jackson West)

Journalists do it for the lulz

Owen Thomas — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 15:00:00 PDT

The trolls will always be with us, because the Internet is full of insane sociopaths. Charming sociopaths, clever sociopaths, perhaps even magazine-profile-worthy sociopaths — but sociopaths all the same. Wired profiled a videogame-heavy set of Internet trolls in January. The New York Times Magazine hunted and nabbed bigger game this weekend — Jason Fortuny and the troll known as "Weev," who was photographed for the story (above). This photo in particular may draw fascinated stares.

At one point, Weev says that he's the hacker known as Memphis Two. "Weev says he has access to hundreds of thousands of Social Security numbers," Matt Schwartz writes in the Times piece. "About a month later, he sent me mine." Now Schwartz knows how Six Apart cofounders Ben and Mena Trott feel.

Their Social Security numbers, as well as those of other Six Apart executives and investors, were leaked on the Internet last year. At the time, a tipster told us he believed that Memphis Two, working in conjunction with a Six Apart employee, was responsible. While working on an unrelated story, I received a call from someone who identified themselves as Weev; the caller ID indicated the call came from Technorati, a startup located one block from Six Apart's headquarters. How can such a small world contain such a large hate?

(Photo by Robbie Cooper/New York Times)

Mena Trott's future millions to fund daughter's therapy sessions

Owen Thomas — Thu, 31 Jul 2008 11:40:00 PDT

In June, Six Apart's Mena Trott told a CBS reporter, on camera, that she thought her baby was ugly. "Babies that age are kind of meh," she said. "I mean, Penelope has always been cute in our eyes, but looking back at pictures we think 'this is cute?' Not throw-up ugly, but definitely not as cute as now." Her comments did not air, but she inexplicably posted them on her blog, where Penelope — who is actually very cute, as the above still shows — will surely read them years from now. Her husband Ben, who cofounded the blog-software maker, made it on TV with an appropriately fatherly statement: "We just actually feel that she is that cute." Ben, who's pretty cute himself, has always been the shyer one in the Trott family. But we're starting to think he might have the makings of a better spokesperson than the loose-lipped Mena. Ben's TV appearance:

Six Apart exiles its troublesome child to Russia

Owen Thomas — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 23:53:24 PST

Since acquiring LiveJournal in 2005, Six Apart has gotten little but grief from the blogging site. Now, at last, it's gotten some cash. The San Francisco-based blog-software company has sold LiveJournal to Sup, a Russian media concern. Ostensibly, the purchase of LiveJournal two years ago was meant to improve Six Apart's Web technology and accelerate its entry into ad-supported blog publishing. Instead?

LiveJournal's boisterous users taxed Six Apart's already stretched management. Fan-fiction writers, whose output was often not for the squeamish, made the site a home. So-called "griefers," apparently dissatisfied with a tightening of site policies, published executives' Social Security numbers. Founder Brad Fitzpatrick noisily quit the company to join Google. Users mocked an ill-conceived advertising campaign by sending then-CEO Barak Berkowitz 527 virtual "gifts" of Diet Pepsi Max icons, defacing his profile.

Berkowitz stepped down in September, replaced by Chris Alden, an executive who ran the company's money- and sense-making business, the paid blogging products TypePad and Movable Type. With the sale of LiveJournal, Alden's reign looks likely to be far less entertaining than Berkowitz's. That's a good thing for Six Apart, if not for gossips.

As for LiveJournal, Sup has made grand promises about respecting the community and appointing an editorial advisory board. Sup already operates the Russian-language version of the site, and is run by Andrew Paulson, an American entrepreneur. But let's be real: This is a company operating in Vladimir Putin's Russia, where the media increasingly is falling under state control, either explicitly or tacitly. One does not need to be a conspiracy theorist to find this prospect discomfiting.

Whatever happens to LiveJournal and its users won't be Six Apart's problem. Ben and Mena Trott, Six Apart's founders, are far too polite to say this about their LiveJournal adventure. But they should: "Goodbye, and good riddance."

Six Apart founders' heir presumptive

Owen Thomas — Wed, 10 Oct 2007 15:48:48 PDT

Who is Penelope Trott? According to a Twitter sent by Six Apart executive Anil Dash, a close confidante of Ben and Mena Trott, the founders of the blog-software company, she's made him "smile all day." We can only guess that Penelope is the name of the Trotts' long-expected offspring. If so, congratulations. We await the day when Mena and Ben bring their daughter to work and declare, "Some day, all of this will be yours. Well, except for the parts we sold off to our venture capitalists."

Six Apart considered a LiveJournal and Vox spinoff

Megan McCarthy — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 16:00:37 PDT

We just heard an outlandish rumor: That San Francisco-based blogging company Six Apart, whose software powers many of the world's most popular blogs, considered splitting in two earlier this year, under former CEO Barak Berkowitz. But the company recently upgraded its CEO, replacing Berkowitz with executive Chris Alden, and a spinoff or sale is no longer on the table. By shedding its LiveJournal and Vox consumer blogging sites, Six Apart would have left behind enterprise blog service TypePad and the Movable Type software product — exactly the businesses new CEO Chris Alden ran before his promotion, which is likely why this old rumor is gaining fresh circulation.

A spinoff would have had financial appeal, of course, given the fad for social networks these days and Facebook's lofty mooted valuation. That is, of course, assuming Six Apart could have come to terms with a deep-pocketed buyer. But taking money off the table is the only aspect of this rumored deal that would have made sense.

First, there's technology. Six Apart executives have long maintained that the company's enterprise and consumer blog businesses complement each other, and share a lot of their core software. (An upcoming version of TypePad, the Web-based blog software popular with small businesses, will have new community features based largely on Vox, we hear.)

Then there's the founders' pride. Would Ben and Mena Trott have supported Movable Type and TypePad, the businesses they built up from scratch? Or would they have thrown their attentions to LiveJournal, the fractious personal-blogging service Six Apart acquired a couple of years ago, and Vox, the newer blog-cum-social network that's especially close to Mena's heart?

And then there's the IPO factor. With its combined businesses, Six Apart's revenue streams are nicely diversified between subscription fees, software licenses, and advertising. And even so, the company is barely big enough to draw investment banks' interest. Separately, its consumer and enterprise arms would have been more acquisition bait than anything.

So for now, a spinoff, having been considered and apparently dismissed some months ago, seems unlikely. But we do know that at least one member of the board is meeting with Alden, the new CEO, tomorrow. We can only wonder what they'll chat about. Anyone heard anything else? Please share. (Illustration by Tim Faulkner)

Happy birthday to the Trotts

Owen Thomas — Mon, 17 Sep 2007 14:28:54 PDT

It's a big year for Ben and Mena Trott, the husband-and-wife founders of Six Apart. The blog-software company was named after their six-days-apart birthdays; Mena just turned 30 yesterday, while Ben begins his fourth decade on Saturday. (Such a cradle-robber, that Mena.) Six Apart's board of directors just gave Mena the best present a founder could ask for — a new CEO, in the form of the eminently capable and blogging-savvy Chris Alden. Putting Alden, the former CEO of the Red Herring (back when it was an authority on tech, not its current incarnation) in charge should do much to clear up the company's bouts of less-than-transparent behavior. It's hard to top that kind of gift. So if you're in a generous mood, save it for the next generation of Trotts. The Trottlet, as some around the Six Apart office call Ben and Mena's next product release, is expected next month, according to their baby registry.

Silicon Valley's baby boom

Owen Thomas — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 07:45:23 PDT

I never intended for the blogger-baby story, which began with the birth of Ollie Kottke to A-list bloggers Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan, to become quite such a saga, but news has a way of happening. Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield are no longer expecting a baby — they have a daughter, Sonnet Beatrice Butterfield, according to fellow Yahoo executive Bradley Horowitz. Here's the rundown on the rest of the couples mentioned in yesterday's baby poll, which — well done, readers — you guessed correctly.

Alaina Browne and Anil Dash The foodblogger and Six Apart executive are not pregnant, though Dash has been looking a little chunky.

Heather Powazek Champ and Derek Powazek: Flickr's community manager and the famous Web designer are not pregnant.

Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield: Flickr's cofounders made no secrecy of Fake's pregnancy, which ended yesterday with the safe delivery of a newborn daughter.

Jennifer Granick and Brad Stone: The lawyer and New York Times reporter are expecting, and are telling people about it.

Maryam and Robert Scoble: Would you really expect Robert Scoble, whose blogger wife, Maryam, is pregnant, not to blog about the fact?

Now we all know: Ben Trott proved so irresistably hot that his wife and fellow Six Apart cofounder, Mena, found herself in a family way. Until recently, she'd been trying to keep the fact private.

To the pregnant couples: Heartfelt congratulations and best wishes. To Fake and Butterfield: Mazel tov! To Browne, Dash, and the Powazeks: Get cracking! Valleywag is going to need readers in 2025.

(Photos by Anil Dash, edyson, granick, jacksonwest, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, and simoncast)

The pregnant A-lister comes out

Owen Thomas — Thu, 12 Jul 2007 06:59:05 PDT

Mena Trott, cofounder and president of Six Apart, the blog-software company, is pregnant. There, I said it — and now, so has she. Trott blames her superstitions as a first-time mother for keeping the pregnancy a secret for so long. The lack of disclosure, though, has been uncharacteristic for Trott who, as a spokesperson for her company, has long made blogging about herself an integral part of Six Apart's publicity strategy. Six Apart's new blogging site, Vox, however, makes it easier to keep some posts limited to a small circle of readers — which is part of how Trott kept her pregnancy quiet. For a blogger, work and home life are never far apart.

Let's play hide the baby

Owen Thomas — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 13:26:02 PDT

Last week, the birth of a son (and future blogger) to Jason Kottke and Meg Hourihan reminded us of another famous Web personality who ~~tried~~had a colleague try, bizarrely, to claim that the mom-to-be's pregnancy was "off the record." (Memo to other would-be secret-keepers: "Off the record" is always a matter of mutual agreement between reporter and source, not something you can declare unilaterally.) We asked for guesses on who it was, and you had lots of good ones. Now it's time to vote, picking out the baby-hiders from among these glamorous A-list bloggers. Pictures of the people you've speculated about, and a poll, after the jump.

The contestants: Alaina Browne and Anil Dash, Heather Powazek Champ and Derek Powazek, Caterina Fake and Stewart Butterfield

Jennifer Granick and Brad Stone, Maryam and Robert Scoble, and Ben and Mena Trott

(Photos by Anil Dash, edyson, granick, jacksonwest, Scott Beale / Laughing Squid, and simoncast)

Valleywag Hotties champion: Ben Trott, so hott

ndouglas — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 17:09:47 PST

The final face-off is over. Ben Trott trounced Jim Buckmaster (76.3% to 23.7%) to claim the Valleywag Hotties championship. The Six Apart co-founder was swept to victory by an adoring army of Livejournal users (and by being hot as hell). Craigslist CEO Buckmaster has gracefully conceded. I, for one, welcome our new Trott overlord.

That's all for the Valleywag Hotties, Men's Edition. Next up are the Google Gals. Send your nominations — all ladies of Google are eligible — to tips@valleywag.com.

Jim, crushed by defeat, nearly drops the cat. [Source]

Valleywag Hotties final round: Jim Buckmaster vs. Ben Trott

ndouglas — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:53:45 PST

And now, the fight to end all fights.

Jim Buckmaster, Craigslist CEO and Jeff Goldblum lookalike, beat Jonathan Ive, Steve Jobs, and George Zachary.

Ben Trott, dashing Six Apart co-founder, whipped Kevin Rose, Max Levchin, and Jeff Weiner.

There can be only one. Polling ends at 5 PM Pacific.

Valleywag Hotties: Semifinals results

ndouglas — Fri, 17 Feb 2006 08:16:23 PST

Only two Valleywag Hotties left, after...

Jim Buckmaster (52.2%) stared down George Zachary (47.8%).
Ben Trott (58.4%) gunned down Jeff Weiner (41.6%).

I'm sorry, Zachary fans. And I'm even more sorry to post this e-mail from "Charlie Schmidt":

In that latest picture of George Zachary- "Caught in a rare resting moment" should read something more like - "On his way to breakfast hungover, George has to stop and lean against the wall to prevent from falling over." At least that is my recollection of how that picture was taken.

But hey, he looked great doing it.

So, next up, the final face-off. The grisly semifinals record after the jump.

Valleywag Hotties remainders

ndouglas — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 14:12:24 PST

Some troubling news of Hotties corruption:

Mena Trott and Anil Dash considered heavy Photoshopping for Ben Trott's face-off with Jeff Weiner. "We'll make him have a big package," said Anil. "Like a tripod."
Craig Newmark is campaigning for his CEO Jim Buckmaster. Craigslisters have joined the fray.
That photo you see? Yet another Buckmaster pic. Apparently there's a big stack of sexy Jim photos sitting somewhere.
George Zachary got a new pic in, and friends of his friends are pushing for him on the Junto Boyz blog.

The international Hotties juding panel has been contacted, possible frauds are being investigated, and several contestants will be tested for 'roids. Do your part to fight corruption: vote for Hotties fairly. (Then vote again at work.)

Current face-offs: George Zachary vs. Jim Buckmaster and Jeff Weiner vs. Ben Trott.

Valleywag Hotties semi-finals: Jeff Weiner vs. Ben Trott

ndouglas — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 11:22:42 PST

We've been too easy on Jeff Weiner. Some readers didn't realize we'd had him Photoshopped onto an underwear model. One guy said, "Geez, looks like I should go to the Yahoo gym."

So let's put the real Yahoo exec up against the real Ben Trott, co-founder of Six Apart. (Thanks to wife and co-founder Mena Trott for his new pic.)

Valleywag Hotties: Quarterfinals results

ndouglas — Thu, 16 Feb 2006 08:33:35 PST

In a round of clear winners, one race went turtleneck-and-turtleneck. Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster managed to topple the Master of Cool, Steve Jobs, thanks to a fierce campaign by Craigslist customer service rep (and founder) Craig Newmark.

The results:

George Zachary (67.9%) buys more love with his money than George Boutros (31.9%).
Jim Buckmaster (51.3%) de-lists Steve Jobs (48.7%).
Ben Trott (67.5%) blogs circles around Max Levchin (32.5%).
Jeff Weiner (55.4%) rocks the Photoshop to out-bare-chest Sergey Brin (44.6%).

Stat porn after the jump.

Part of: Valleywag Hotties [Valleywag]

Valleywag hotties: SOMA startup edition

ndouglas — Wed, 15 Feb 2006 12:18:37 PST

Two adorable San Fran dot-commers duke it out. Will Slide's Max Levchin pound Six Apart's Ben Trott into submission? Or will Ben win with that grin?

Valleywag hotties: Skins beat shirts

ndouglas — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 12:34:12 PST

Votes are in! We're wrapping up the first four hotties contests and moving on to more Valley men. A reminder: After the ladies (and the gents of a certain persuasion) have their fun, we'll start "Hotties: Ladies of the Valley."

So the results:

Ben Trott (55.4%) vs. Kevin Rose (44.6%)
Max Levchin (53.3%) vs. James Hong (46.7%)
Jeff Weiner (59.1%) vs. Jerry Yang (40.9%)
Sergey Brin (73.2%) vs. Larry Page (26.8%)

The winners will face off after another bout of round-one competitors. To the losers: sorry, guys, the Valley's a tough place. You all win Mr. Congeniality.

Earlier: Ben vs. Kevin
Max vs. James
Jeff vs. Jerry
Sergey vs. Larry

After the jump, the results in full graphical glory.

Valleywag hotties: The young and the blogging

ndouglas — Tue, 14 Feb 2006 07:13:35 PST

Can you digg it? Yes I can. Digg genius Kevin Rose and Six Apart baron Ben Trott may not have sold for millions (yet), but who needs money when you've got a cute boy?