Words by Ann Crane, Pictures by Brian Solis
During Prohibition, a theatre at 430 Mason Street (now “Slide”) hid a
secret speakeasy deep in its lower levels. For those who could keep a
secret, the underground lair was accessed via a hidden wall that opened
to the top of a playground slide. From there, it was a fast, slippery
ride down into illicit gambling, bootleg spirits and generally
frowned-upon fun.
Although alcohol is long legal, the one-story, corkscrew slide is still in place and a tangible lingering of the era of secret codes and handshakes. At a party to celebrate the opening of their new San Francisco office (ahem, or so they said), Limelight Networks made a terrific first impression introducing them to the local scene with a packed kick-off party, but impression was that there is some soon-to-be-announced news that was on everyone’s mind, although nowhere to be found in conversation.
In reality, the party was a pre-IPO celebration. Shares surged from $15 to $23 on opening day. Have no fear though…Limelight is more closer related to the Web 1.0 era
The freshly hired David Hatfield, Senior VP of Worldwide Sales,
Marketing and Services was on-site, but tight-lipped about what it was
that recently enticed him away from Akamai Technologies, ranked #1 on
Business 2.0’s “100 Fastest-Growing Tech Companies 2007″, and come on
board at the newly local Limelight.
Both companies are Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) and both have some
major media companies taking advantage of their platforms for the
distribution of video, music, games, downloads, and social media
content. But Akamai is based in Boston and Limelight has just become a
hometown favorite and we are very happy to have them here.
With an open bar, constantly rotating waiters with appetizers and a
fantastic DJ, attendees seemed more than happy that this much
anticipated move of Limelight into SF has finally taken place. But stay
tuned for more info from now resident CDN.
Notable attendees included:
Alex Payne of Twitter
Justin Kan of Justin.tv
Larry Chiang of Duck 9
Vinnie Lauria of Meetro and the Silicon Valley Newtech Meetup
Peter Berg of Joby
Adriana Gascoigne video blogger for bub.blicio.us
For more pictures, please visit Brian Solis’ flickr stream.
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