Michael Nunez

That's what Kevin Ryan, founder and CEO of Gilt Groupe, intended to do after leading DoubleClick, the online advertising platform, to a $1.1 billion sale as CEO of the company. And in the three years following that sale, from 2005-2007, he did exactly as he'd intended. But despite Ryan's previous entrepreneurial success, he never imagined that one of the five companies he'd start would change e-commerce forever. That groundbreaking company was Gilt Groupe, a members-only website orig...

After taking a brief moment to explain why he was late--he'd been visiting with firefighters just arrived at the hospital after being burned in a tragic Brooklyn blaze--Major Bloomberg kicked off the announcement of New York's new high-tech campus by saying, Today will be remembered as a defining moment.

The chief executive officer of the New York Times Janet Robinson will be retiring at year's end, an announcement made earlier today, conveniently two weeks before her departure. The New York Times has reported that the company could be looking to the technology sector for its new CEO.

The internet is under attack. And it's from our own damn countrymen. In the past week, both the National Defense Authorization Act 2012 (NDAA 2012) and the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) have taken aim at restricting the thus far unobstructed use of the internet. Not only are these policies an infringement on the civil rights of all internet-using Americans, not only do these laws stifle innovation and business, but they also prevent the country from freely exchanging information.

Your life is filled with trash. Plastic wrappers, pizza boxes, Styrofoam take-out containers, soda cans, batteries and a box full of old cellphones you don't use anymore. They aren't only cluttering your measly studio apartment, they're affecting the rest of us on the pale blue dot we know as Earth.

Fifty-five-million and counting. That's the number of people looking for love, and they're doing so through Are You Interested?, the second-most popular Facebook app, made by the development team at Snap Interactive. Are You Interested? has been one of the most popular apps on Facebook Platform since 2007, when Facebook first released their application platform to developers, and the dating service is showing no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

This December, Santa may well deliver more than just candy or coal to the entrepreneurs of Silicon Alley startups. If 2011 has been any indication, more money than ever before is being dumped into the coffers of New York-based high tech firms. For example, consider the following deals that have just happened:

Self-expression is the crux of individuality, and in this city, in this day and age, when everyone's looking for a way to set themselves apart, individuality is often the root of success. Perched on the 4th floor of an East Village office building, sitting in a glass-cased conference room, looking out onto Cooper Square, I begin to understand what Justin Stefano, 32, and Philippe von Borries, 33, best friends and co-founders of Refinery 29, had discerned long before anyone else: It was early ...

The only rule at Loosecubes' office in DUMBO is you have to play nice with others. Words to that effect have been etched in Old English on a wooden placard that hangs near the doorway. Pass that lone condition and you're free to use the company's massive studio, a cavernous room with a makeshift meeting area made from a large canvas tent standing on artificial turf, pinned smack dab in the middle of all the desks.

Data is the lifeblood of all online marketing. Few people understand that better than Signpost CEO Stuart Wall, a man once knee-deep in the data-driven world of finance. Wall, who'd spent two years crunching numbers at Bain & Co., ditched his unglamorous gig as an analyst to start his own business. He now sits at the helm of the city's hottest advertising startup, Signpost.

Rockstar entrepreneurs. That's what Internet startups are made of, and I'm sitting across from one of New York's first, Ben Lerer. Seven years ago, Lerer and his college friend Adam Rich started a men's lifestyle brand, Thrillist, born from an idea and $7 domain name. Fast-forward to today: Thrillist is reaching more than four million subscribers daily. It's an astounding number, especially for a city guide email, and Lerer, current CEO of Thrillist, looks back on the company's...

Three contenders have been knocked out of the race to earn a subsidized high-tech university campus in the city.

One of the key witnesses in the trial of City Councilman Larry B. Seabrook testified that she'd met with a doctor to discuss her diminishing memory and the onset of dementia, then gave contradictory accounts of several significant moments in the case.

Three City Council members have introduced a resolution formalizing support for Occupy Wall Street and its message condemning economic inequality.

Startup cloud-computing company posts online ad for $10 groupies to promote brand at upcoming convention.

The Department of Transportation has launched its new Curbside Haiku safety program, which combines traditional Japanese poetry and modern art to increase traffic safety.

Justin Bieber will not perform live at Rockefeller Center on Wednesday.

The last two students from North Shore High School involved in the Long Island SAT Cheating scandal have surrendered.

Two brave Bronx firefighters came to the rescue of a teenage girl on Saturday after a mugger robbed the girl of a gold chain.

President Barack Obama and Justin Bieber are expected to stop traffic when the visit Rockefeller Center on Wednesday for the annual tree-lighting ceremony.

A Long Island man is suing a fertility clinic that impregnated his ex-girlfriend through in-vitro fertilization with sperm he alleges was stolen from him.

There's not much to be thankful for if you were working on Wall Street this week. Stocks tumbled for the seventh session in a row, helping push the Standard & Poor's 500 down 4.7 percent.

A Staten Island family has been awarded $1 million after learning that their deceased son's brain was on display at the Staten Island Mortuary.

A deranged 76-year-old man shot and killed his ex-wife on a Brooklyn street, than rode away on an undersized girl's bike. Video surveillance shows the suspect struggling to gain control of the bicycle just before the cold-blooded murder.

Forty individuals have been implicated in an SAT cheating scandal plaguing Long Island suburbs.

Uma Thurman's stalker is a free man, so long as he adheres to the prescribed therapy sessions five days a week.

Tunneling will be halted beneath 72nd street after dozens of residents complained about dust and smoke at a Tuesday community board meeting.

Vietnamese refugee Hao Truong was reunited with his son at Rochester International Airport in Rochester, N.Y., after 34 years of being separated following a pirate attack off the coast of Vietnam.

Twenty current and former students in Long Island have been implicated for cheating on college entrance examinations.