Through voting rights, Zuckerberg controls both the seat Andreessen fills and the remaining vacancy, so it's not surprising to see Zuckerberg picked an entrepreneur-friendly, don't-sell-if-you-don't-have-to mentor like Andreessen to join the board. Some Facebook shareholders are already offloading stock, perhaps growing impatient with Zuckerberg's slow progress toward an IPO. Other CEOs might be worried about retaining investors' goodwill. Zuckerberg, free to pack the board with another ally after Andreessen, doesn't have to. Jealous?

Zivity has been accused of using female sexuality as a ploy to get attention. A ploy, or a business model, one might ask. Mary Hodder, founder of online video startup Dabble, wrote, "It's not that we object to porn, just to the using (or appearance of using) girl geeks to get back their cred. Even if that's not what's happening from their perspective, the rest of us who would like to *not* be sexualized and objectified in our work lives really find the Zivity association disconcerting."

So maybe it is impossible to separate selling images of female sexuality from the sexist tech scene, but when it comes to the question of objectification, Banister objects. "I don't think the opinion that Zivity demeans anybody is one that's held by the majority," she told Valleywag. "I'm a tech vet, and I used to be very similar — you want to strip your sexuality and just live in your brain, and be a talented, smart individual so you can compete in a male-dominated space. You become sexless — but why can't I be both? Why can't I be beautiful and sexy and be smart?"

And a legitimate executive. Zivity isn't just another porn site aping MySpace, which is precisely why it's threatening. Zivity has a Silicon Valley pedigree, which means for the first time, a company that openly embraces female sexuality is rubbing shoulders with Valley oldtimers and chasing Valley money — $8 million in venture capital so far. When female entrepreneurs feel as if they have to fight for equal time as it is, sharing space with Zivity is tantamount to being asked to sleep with the enemy.

But for women, the enemy in this case isn't porn: It's turning against each other based on what's between our own legs. Is it any woman's fault that tech pundits don't give women a fair shake? "I think there's a lot of resentment for how much coverage we get," said Banister. "But we did place at TechCrunch40, and we're venture funded — and it's not just because I took my top off. The investors and the press aren't that naive."

Nor are we. Banister didn't mention it, but Banister's husband Scott was an early employee at PayPal, and some of the funding came from Peter Thiel, Scott's former boss. Part of Zivity's assumption-challenging reality: The Valley's most prominent gay venture capitalist is helping women make money undressing.

Banister told us that though she offered to bow out of the speaking opportunity, the Bay Area Girl Geeks asked her to stay. Dinner organizer Angie Chang told a San Jose Mercury News blogger:

We invited Cyan to give a 3-5 minute introduction as she was voted Sexiest Geek Alive in 2000 (just like Ellen Spertus of Google won the award in 2001 — Ellen was invited by Google to give the intro talk at the first Bay Area Girl Geek Dinner). Cyan is also the cofounder of a Series A funded technology startup, which I respect greatly as a female tech entrepreneur myself.

That is, if embracing women in tech is really about changing the rules, then all women have to have a seat at the dinner party. Even if you don't approve of what they do for a living.

(Photo via takeitez)

Francisco worked for as a reporter for MarketWatch when it was part-owned by CBS, and also worked as a business anchor for San Francisco's KPIX, which is wholly owned by parent network CBS. But that was before an article by CNET News.com reporter Greg Sandoval exposed her ownership stake in the online video startup focused on "innovators" and her financial relationship with Clarium Capital's Peter Thiel, a Vator.tv investor. Sandoval called into question her journalistic independence. Francisco resigned from MarketWatch, now owned by Dow Jones.

In the video clip, Francisco seems to ask a tough question about whether the $5 million acquisition of Wallstrip was "worth it." But when Marquez exclaims that MobLogic.tv — the project from the Wallstrip producers featuring former Wallstrip host Lindsay Campbell — is "doing extremely well," Francisco doesn't challenge it. While we've enjoyed Campbell's hardboiled reporting, we hear the show is struggling to attract viewers. And the show's YouTube channel hasn't cracked five figures in views.

But the most entertaining consequence if CBS were to buy Vator.tv would be the prospect of Francisco and Sandoval meeting at a company picnic. Awkward!

Previously:

• A is for Adelson, who cofounded Digg
• 
  
• B is for Botha, who sold YouTube big
• 
  
• F is for Fitzpatrick, and "hookers and blow"
• 
  
• L is for Levchin, who never goes slow
• 
  
• P is for Parker, the Valley's bad boy
• 
  
• R is for Rose, who made Digg his toy
• 
  

Because Zuckerberg doesn't have to. Microsoft owns 1.6 percent of Facebook; Li, even after doubling his take, only 0.8 percent. Neither stake is large enough to merit a board seat. Andreessen is, like Thiel, the former CEO of PayPal, an entrepreneur-friendly choice; he bypassed Sand Hill Road altogether to raise Ning's $100-million-plus in funding.

Just yesterday, we'd heard that Zuckerberg, who owns 27 percent of Facebook, had the right to appoint two board members. That leaves him one more seat at the table to fill. Anyone want to take odds on the moneymen getting left out once again?

We hear Clarium's holdings are up 30 percent in a year, from $3 billion to $5 billion. For hedge funds, the standard deal is that the managers keep 20 percent of profits, which means Thiel's take would come to $400 million. Has anyone on Wall Street been posting those kinds of numbers lately?

1) conservative political education and activism, 2) life extension research, 3) a specific strain of Christian philosophy, and 4) university life.

An old Ron Paul newsletter blamed the looting during the riots on the following:

Civil rights, quotas, mandated hiring preferences, set-asides for government contracts, gerrymandered voting districts, black bureaucracies, black mayors, black curricula in schools, black tv shows, black tv anchors, hate crime laws, and public humiliation for anyone who dares question the black agenda.

Clarium already has an office in New York, and Thiel an apartment there. So the move would have more of an effect on his employees than on Thiel. As brainy as the Valley is, financial expertise is still centered in New York, as are the deep pools of capital Thiel would tap. For Clarium's existing workers who might be asked to move, the prospect is unsettling.

There is one other aspect to Thiel's move that fascinates. I've been told Thiel has been dating Matt Danzeisen, a vice president at BlackRock, for some time and the handsome fellow pictured above to the right of Thiel. (No one has yet confirmed for me if they're still going steady.)

An acquaintance of Thiel scoffs at the idea that Thiel would do anything for romantic reasons. Thiel, he says, is an utterly rational thinker. But the heart is capable of its own rationalizations. The mere possibilty that Thiel might maximize happiness, rather than profit, is a comforting thought.

The venture is called the Zynga Game Network and it's the company behind social network apps such as "casual games" Poker, Attack, and Battleship. So far, Zynga makes all its money by promoting other applications, earning 50 cents each time a user installs one on their profile.

Pincus told the New York Times Zynga has already broken even and has not yet tapped into any of its venture capital. Users click on about 50,000 links to application install pages each day.

Let us know when Coca-Cola buys ad space. Until then, the Facebook application platform will remain a viable economic ecosystem like the Hapsburgs were a model of genetic diversity.

Facebook is some kind of extension of the American imperialist programme crossed with a massive information-gathering tool. The US defence department and the CIA love technology because it makes spying easier.

The real face behind Facebook is Silicon Valley venture capitalist and futurist philosopher Peter Thiel. Thiel is an avaricious capitalist. At Stanford, he founded a rightwing journal. The internet is immensely appealing to neocons such as Thiel because it promises a certain sort of freedom in human relations and in business, freedom from pesky national laws, national boundaries and suchlike. By his own admission, Thiel is trying to destroy the real world, which he also calls "nature", and install a virtual world in its place.

For my own part, I am going to retreat from the whole thing, remain as unplugged as possible, There are seeds to be sown in my own back yard. I don't want to retreat from nature, I want to reconnect with it. Damn air-conditioning!

It's not clear how interested Yahoo really is. And it's unlikely Powerset will command a high price, if it sells. The company's core technology, XLE, is licensed from Xerox PARC, and for the rest, it mostly uses open source. But for Yahoo, whose in-house efforts to improve its search haven't made a difference in the marketplace, Powerset may hold enough interesting technology to be worth a look. Or perhaps Yahoo, bleeding engineers, is eager to hire en masse through an acquisition. Alas for Powerset's employees: They'd just be trading a small soap opera for a larger one.

Technically, the sale makes sense. Plaxo's chief platform architect, Joseph Smarr, is an engineering rock star, with many fans among the Valley's brainiac collectors. And Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg is said to admire other members of Plaxo's engineering team. The process of synching multiple address books, Plaxo's specialty, is more complex than it sounds, and would save Facebook some trouble as it tries to become more of a hub for its users' online activities on and off the Facebook site.

Bringing the investors to terms, however, would prove troublesome. Michael Moritz, of Sequoia Capital, is said to be eager to get a stake in Facebook, however small, so it can claim to have had a hand in its success. It's a move he played skillfully in the first bubble when he merged a failing online bank, X.com, into Peter Thiel's PayPal.

Thiel, now a Facebook board member and venture capitalist in his own right, remembers that maneuver all too keenly, and believes Moritz got the better of him in the deal. Then, too, Moritz forced Sean Parker, now a partner in Thiel's Founders Fund, out of Plaxo; he next joined Facebook, and while he didn't stay long, he still owns a substantial stake in the company. Any deal that reunites Sequoia, Thiel, and Parker would produce a moment of boardroom drama the likes of which we haven't seen in a long while.

The talks aren't advanced, and haven't even reached the point of naming numbers. But Facebook's lofty $15 billion valuation gives it a currency for acquisitions. Will Plaxo take Facebook's paper? The decision, if it ever comes to that, will rest in part with Thiel. How delicious it would be to have Moritz at a disadvantage.

Founders have to work hard; venture capitalists do not. VC "have these very cushy jobs; they get paid a lot," Thiel told the Journal. He thinks VC needs to more accommodating by investing in smaller pieces and allowing founders to cash out some, much sooner.

Glad someone finally said what everyone had been whispering about in SF for eons. It is strange how the tech industry has become uptight and Roy Cohn like. I don't know Thiel, don't really care what his trip is, but one of the perks of being stinking rich is being able to do whatever the fuck you want, and not having to care what other people think. I am sure his investors only care about money. I've never met anyone in high finance who really cared about anything except money (anyone who thinks loyalty, friendship, etc will trump money with these people is a fool).

From what I have observed though, he does seem nouveau riche in a tacky way (I hope his "butler" is just a cover for some Haight St. trade he's shagging). I don't get why he was secretive about it. It was certainly not a big secret in the Castro.

There is definitely discrimination in SV. It's not overt, but it's there. SV is suburban, and so most of these people wall themselves off, and view The City as a playland to visit occasionally, maybe go out drinking, do some blow, etc. It's not like New York where you're forced to deal with people unlike yourself every day. I have friends who won't take a date to a company event because the culture is too uptight. I don't think people get fired for being gay anymore, but I definitely see where it is career limiting in many companies.

That's why I am an entrepreneur. Customers don't care what your deal is. I don't have to worry about ending up with a boss who has a problem, or in a department that is just square. I had a brief stint with a company that was full of religious freaks, and that was no fun at all.

Jason Calacanis
What he taught us: The trick to being a total mobster is to do it with charm, like Al Capone. Last time I saw Jason, he called me over to his VIP table and pumped my hand with a big smile that said, I'm your friend and I want everyone to see that, and also, if you ever jump an embargo on me again like that TechCrunch40 list you'll be wearing concrete Pradas, wiseguy.
What we still don't get: Ma-hay-lo or Ma-hah-lo?

Robert Scoble
What he taught us: Just be yourself! Post whatever comes to your head! If you do this consistently and never try to edit the message, people will ultimately respect you for it. Even if they think it's kind of autistic to follow 6,154 Twitter feeds.
What we still don't get: What Scoble actually gets paid to do.

Marissa Mayer
What she taught us: You can break the glass ceiling and still wear balloons on your head.
What we still don't get: Was she serious about "looking for random play" on Facebook? We sure hope so, because San Francisco these days is frankly disappointing — less Summer of Love and more Winter of Work.

Chris Anderson
What he taught us: In between meeting with world leaders and star writers, Mr. Time Management actually emails us to correct inane logic flaws in our posts. His meticulous admonitions have raised the bar on our from-the-hip humor. Now it's from somewhere around the sternum.
What we still don't get: He reads Valleywag?

Peter Thiel
What he taught us: Rent, don't own in San Francisco. I'm serious.
What we still don't get: If everyone knows that Thiel is gay and it's no big deal as scolds keep telling us, then why is the rest of Sand Hill Road still in the closet? I'd tell you about the drunk millionaire who wanted to get busy with me Saturday night, but I have a career to protect. Plus I'm holding out for dinner at the Four Seasons first.

(Photo credits: Peter Thiel, Dan Henry / Chattanooga Times Free Press; Chris Anderson, Aaron Tang / designverb; Robert Scoble, BusinessWeek; Robert Scoble with iPhone, Brian Solis)

Venture capital is a business about risk — but only the right kinds of risk. Unproven technology? Fine. Gay employees? Cool. A founder who quotes Ayn Rand? Oh, hey, wait a second. Not that there's anything wrong with The Fountainhead.

Here in northern California, where John Galt's 60-page speech in the middle of Atlas Shrugged is the only thing we can't tolerate, even alluding to someone's Objectivism is suspect. (Even if, like me, you kinda bought into it as an MIT freshman because it made more sense than either Catholicism or Sartre.) But on Sand Hill Road, Republicans fund Republicans. The clubby ranks of VCs are mostly straight, white, male and support the nation-state as sole arbiter on the use of force.

The effects are hard to document. But Objectivist entrepreneurs I've spoken to agree it's real. How many VCs do you know who can grasp Rand's basic math that A=A? It explains the valuations for Web 2.0.

I think it explains a lot about Thiel: "The only man capable of experiencing a profound romantic love is the man driven by passion for his work." Like the Jews who founded Hollywood a century ago, an Objectivist investor has no hope of getting elected to anything. That frees him or her to build a rational system for identifying and rewarding talented individuals. Starting with himself.

That's why I think it's important to say this: Peter Thiel, the smartest VC in the world, is an Objectivist. Dude, come listen to Rush with us anytime.

Venture capital is a business about risk — but only the right kinds of risk. Unproven technology? Fine. A host of rivals? No problem. A gay founder? Oh, hey, wait a second. Not that there's anything wrong with that. But someone else, somewhere else, might take issue with it. That's VC thinking.

"Of course he's gay. Why would you mention that?" Here in northern California, where intolerance is the only thing we can't tolerate, even alluding to someone's sexual orientation is suspect. (Even if, like me, you're gay yourself.) Yet as one venture capitalist put it, "The VC industry is headquartered in Menlo Park, not northern California." On Sand Hill Road, like funds like. The clubby ranks of VCs are mostly straight, white and male. They instinctively prefer entrepreneurs who remind them of themselves. At best, it's a wrongheaded sense of caution. At worst, it's prejudice with a handy alibi.

The effects are hard to document. VCs fund so few of the companies they talk to that it's hard to prove a case of discrimination; there are a hundred reasons why they might pass on any given startup. But gay and lesbian entrepreneurs I've spoken to agree it's real. PlanetOut, the gay and lesbian portal, had to buy out Sequoia Capital, which had come to regret its investment in the company, before it found braver VCs and eventually went public. And really: How many out gay VCs do you know?

I think it explains a lot about Thiel: His disdain for convention, his quest to overturn established rules. Like the immigrant Jews who created Hollywood a century ago, a gay investor has no way to fit into the old establishment. That frees him or her to build a different, hopefully better system for identifying and rewarding talented individuals, and unleashing their work on the world.

That's why I think it's important to say this: Peter Thiel, the smartest VC in the world, is gay. More power to him.

But Zuckerberg's most important backer, Peter Thiel, does not work on Sand Hill Road. From his offices in San Francisco's Presidio, he's set about changing the rules of how startups get funding and how founders make their fortunes. Through his Founders Fund, he has begun issuing "Series FF" shares to the entrepreneurs he backs, giving them the right to sell shares alongside their companies to new investors. Thiel, who felt unjustly treated as the cofounder of PayPal, wants to let his protégés build companies without worrying about how to make rent.

Old lions like angel investor Ron Conway will probably view this development with outrage. They feel entrepreneurs, with no capital at risk, should not become rich until well after their already wealthy backers get paid, Today's startup generation begs to differ. The IPO market is still a shadow of its former self, and sales to large companies are an unreliable route to wealth — and a sure way to lose control of one's company. Meanwhile, vast pools of private money are waiting to be tapped.

Zuckerberg still owns nearly a third of Facebook . If the rumors are true, even if Facebook flops, the 23 year old would be set for life.

Update: An unimpeachable source says the sale didn't happen. Was I played? Perhaps so. Read my followup on why I think this rumor spread — and what its purveyors may have hoped to accomplish.

Personal Assistant, The Founders Fund

Two of the GPs are seeking a full-time personal assistant to help them manage their personal lives so they can focus on building The Founders Fund.

In addition to a strong professional track record, the best candidates for this position will be attentive to detail, respectful of confidentiality, very reliable, responsible, and organized, and OK with a highly variable schedule. Experience with basic computer software and access to a car are required.

Primary job functions will include:

* Manage personal travel.
* Manage personal calendar.
* Manage GP residence.
* Personal shopping/running errands.
* Miscellaneous research.
* Event planning.
* Paying bills.
* Misc. and other projects.

Compensation is competitive and negotiable based on experience.

Health insurance is provided.

Please email your resume for any of these positions to me or Ofa Taufalele at ofa@foundersfund.com.

Nope. There was no acrimony, just a scheduling conflict, Musk told me at the unveiling of TheFunded.com founder Adeo Ressi. (Who, by the way, happened to be Musk's housemate in college.) Musk was scheduled to receive a magazine's innovator of the year award in Chicago and had a hard stop at 12:30 p.m. on the day of the Fortune shoot. The person who coordinated everyone's schedule's flubbed that tidbit, and scheduled the group for the afternoon. Musk had to make do with an individual shot before rushing to catch his plane. Oops.

(Photo by Robyn Twomey/Fortune)

He could simply be showing off, of course. But membership in a network gives you privileges on Facebook not extended to ordinary users; you can view the profiles of people in those networks, even if they don't list you as a friend. What Parker is doing, in other words, isn't just boastful; it's a little bit creepy. (Parker is currently dating Kate Jurkiewicz, a member of Facebook's UCLA network. One wonders how she and Parker met. And if Parker enjoys reading up on her college friends' antics.)

By all rights, Parker should have his Facebook account terminated. The site's terms of service are clear on this point: No user may

... impersonate any person or entity, or falsely state or otherwise misrepresent yourself, your age or your affiliation with any person or entity