Brokelyn

So we’ll be speaking at a panel at SXSWi next month called “The Broke Diaries: Using Blogs and Twitter to Live Cheaply” but have been seriously lollygagging on booking a room. As a result, all the hotels within walking distance of the conference were sold out, and way too expensive anyway. The plan: something between couch-surfing and a house rental, but the ask-everyone-on-Facebook route didn’t work. But yesterday, our pals over at LearnVest ran a post about a site called Airbnb (sorry but who thought of that impossible-to-remember name?) where you can book a room in someone’s house for less than a hotel. There was a cute room in an artist’s home for $33 a night available during the conference, but we wound up splurging on a $55-a-night room in the home of a wholesome-looking couple named Courtney and Joep. It has a private bathroom, plus a deck overlooking an organic garden, plus wifi, plus coffee, plus personal-training sessions with Courtney if we want them (that’ll be extra), plus a new travel tip for our SXSW panel. We have to drive to the conference, but… score! Not everything on this site is budget-oriented though. They have housboats in India, igloos in Switzerland, castles in England. Check it, Brokesters.

[via LearnVest]

Alexa Von Tobel, 26, left Harvard b-school early and raised over $1M to launch a web site.

Would you take financial advice from someone who dropped out of Harvard Business School in the middle of a recession to start a web site?

It might not be a bad idea. Alexa Von Tobel is a not-even-30 dynamo who managed to raise $1.1 million from major corporations to launch LearnVest.com, an online personal financial planner for women, a kind of Cosmo for checkbooks.

Alexa’s over the bridge in Manhattan, but we’re writing about her because our readers are creative types who love to dream up iPhone apps, start blogs, open online stores and the like—and while you can do all of those things by the seat of your pants, Alexa’s experience in developing a business plan and raising funds is indispensable to anyone hatching a new venture. Read the rest of this entry »