GENERAL ASSEMBLY

GENERAL ASSEMBLY UNVEILS NEW YORK CAMPUS FOR TECHNOLOGY AND DESIGN
Courses Begin; Inaugural Class Moves In
NEW YORK Jan. XX, 2011 General Assembly (http://generalassemb.ly), a new concept in community and education around technology and design, today opened its New York campus to the public. In addition to offering a unique curriculum around technology, design and entrepreneurship, General Assembly will be home to entrepreneurs building New York-based companies, creating a vibrant community that encourages collaboration and innovation. General Assemblys 20,000 square foot space was designed as a campus to encourage collaborative practices and emergent learning opportunities. Located at the intersection of Broadway and 20th in Manhattan, the campus has educational, work, and communal space andincludes an event space that holds 200, a classroom that holds 35, a library that holds 25, several 15-person seminar rooms, state-of-the-art media facility, two work spaces on the north and south wings of the campus, a full kitchen, bar, lockers, mailroom and bike storage area. Education programs in technology, design and entrepreneurship begin Feb. 1. The courses represent some of the best programming in technology and design available in New York, taught by leaders in their fields. For example, General Assembly is partnering with IDEO (a global design and innovation firm known for its work across business, government, education, and social sectors), to offer courses on Design Thinking. IDEO partners with top tier academic institutions, including Stanford, where they helped found the d. school. General Assembly is also partnering with LUXr to bring the regularly sold out course in Agile User Experience, which has been, to date, offered exclusively in San Francisco to New York. The program is a residency for early stage companies. Participating teams come together one day a week for 10 weeks to collaborate with design experts and each other. The course is taught by Janice Fraser, co-founder and CEO of Adaptive Path (a leading user-experience strategy and design firm that has sold products to Google and coined the term Ajax). Janice Fraser is a guest lecturer at Stanford and Haas School of Management. General Assembly will also offer an introductory course on building a web application in Python, to teach the practical basics of web development for beginners. Jeff Crouse, a Senior Fellow at Eyebeam Atelier and lecturer at Parsons, New School for Design, will teach a course which requires intermediate technical knowledge, on Augmented Reality and Computer Vision. Practical applications include touch-displays and gesture interfaces. General Assembly has three tiers of engagement to allow access to the educational offerings and the community. The majority of people will be part of the first tier, which is open to the public and allows individuals to attend workshops and classes around design, technology, and entrepreneurship, as well as events and lectures hosted at General Assembly. The second tier, Communal members, have 24/7 access to the campus, and include serial entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their next ventures, top-tier investors, designers and

developers. The third tier are those people who, by invitation, work full time out of General Assembly. They represent some of the most promising startups in New York, and they participate in the community by teaching classes and attending events. General Assembly has already attracted exciting names in the New York technology world as part of its inaugural class, including: Amanda Hesser (New York Times food columnist, launched T magazine); Casey Pugh (Emmy winner, early employee at Vimeo); Chris Maguire (Co-founder of Etsy); Julian Gutman/Joe West; and Zach Klein (Co-founder, Vimeo, Svpply, Busted Tees, and College Humor). Charter members include: Chris Hughes (Co-founder of Facebook); Mike Yavonditte (current CEO of Hashable); and David Tisch (Director of TechStars NYC). Partners include New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC), IDEO, Rackspace, Silicon Valley Bank, Skype, and Wilson Sonsini. Its an exciting time in New York for not just the tech sector, but also fashion, art, media, and finance. General Assembly is an example of the EDCs commitment to supporting entrepreneurship and educating New Yorkers in all fields about technology and design, said Mayor Bloomberg. PLACEHOLDER QUOTE We realized that a college-like setting and campus design offers some of the best opportunities for thinking, exploring and learning; where people have the space to collaborate and the benefit of serendipitous encounters. We drew on that concept for inspiration, said Adam Pritzker, co-founder, General Assembly. In one day at General Assembly, someone can attend an introductory class on how to build a web application in python or HTML5, and participate in workshops on computer vision and human-centered design. IDEO does a great deal of work with educational institutions and in the realm of design for learning. We really think General Assemblys notion of an urban campus focused on technology, design and entrepreneurship is compelling and unique. Our designers are excited to be working and part of that community. - Ryan Jacoby, IDEO NY Participating startups invited to work full-time on campus include: A  RTArtsy is the Pandora for the fine art world. Powered by the Art Genome Project, Art.sy is building a global high-end art marketplace, integrated with a personal recommendation engine using their proprietary artificial intelligence technology. F  ASHIONFashism is a crowdsourced stylist that uses social recommendations to help you navigate your wardrobe based on your personal style. F  INANCEProfitably is building a next-gen business analytics and financial optimization software-as-a-service, with onboard tools to drive growth, optimize business operations, and manage profitability. Profitably brings together a respected tech, design and sales team, with a product that has received recent critical acclaim. M  EDIAVHX lets users watch videos anywhere, anytime, on- or offline. Users can save videos for later to watch on their computer, smart phone, or TV. F  OODfood52 is a virtual crowdsourced cookbook and recipe sharing community, bringing together food lovers and home cooks to learn from each other and share ideas, recipes and culture. Founders include former New York Times food columnist and author Amanda Hesser. EDUCATIONEasel is a real-time tutoring for the touch generation, combining hands-on learning applications on mobile devices with on-demand instruction from real tutors and making your textbooks come to life by partnering with content publishers.

PUBLISHINGNewscred is a global content distribution platform, helping content producers generate new outlets of revenue by allowing them to syndicate content via the NewsCred API and providing publishers with an alternative source of premium, multiplatform content to reduce costs. E  NTERTAINMENTSeatGeek is a ticket search engine that enables users to quickly access millions of sports and concert listings, with price forecasting.

About General Assembly General Assembly is an urban campus for entrepreneurs seeking to transform industry and culture through technology and design. It provides programming, space, and support services to foster collaborative practices and learning opportunities. General Assembly was founded by Adam Pritzker, Brad Hargreaves, Matthew Brimer, and Jake Schwartz . General Assembly is supported by top private companies and government agencies such as IDEO, Skype, Silicon Valley Bank, Rackspace, Wilson Sonsini, and the New York City Economic Development Corporation, that recognize its model is unique and meets a need in New Yorks growing technology sector. For more information, please visit http://generalassemb.ly. ###

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
FACT SHEET
CONCEPT
General Assembly is an urban campus for entrepreneurs seeking to transform industry and culture through technology and design. We provide programming, space, and support services to foster collaborative practices and learning opportunities. The campus, located at the intersection of Broadway and 20th in Manhattan, has educational, work, and communal space. The campus includes an event space that holds 200, a classroom that holds 35, a library that holds 25, several 15-person seminar rooms, state-of-theart media facility, two work spaces on the north and south wings of the campus, a kitchen, bar, lockers, mailroom and bike storage area. General Assembly is at the intersection of Broadway and 20th in Manhattan. Educational programs in technology, design, and entrepreneurship. Subject areas are as varied as our members, friends, and partners. In one day at General Assembly, an individual can attend a class on emerging APIs, HTML5, a storytelling workshop, and a social gathering of gaming industry leaders. Many classes are standalone, while others will be integrated into structured curricula exploring core topic areas over a series of classes. The courses represent some of the best programming in technology and design available in New York, taught by leaders in their fields. For example, General Assembly is partnering with IDEO (a global design and innovation firm known for its work across business, government, education, and social sectors), to offer courses on Design Thinking. IDEO partners with top tier academic institutions, including Stanford, where they helped found the d. school. General Assembly is also partnering with LUXr to bring the regularly sold out course in Agile User Experience, which has been, to date, offered exclusively in San Francisco to New York. The program is a residency for early stage companies. Participating teams come together one day a week for 10 weeks to collaborate with design experts and each other. The course is taught by Janice Fraser, co-founder and CEO of Adaptive Path (a leading user-experience strategy and design

CAMPUS

LOCATION

COURSES

firm that has sold products to Google and coined the term Ajax). Janice Fraser is a guest lecturer at Stanford and Haas School of Management. General Assembly will offer an introductory course on building a web application in Python, to teach the practical basics of web development for beginners. Jeff Crouse, a Senior Fellow at Eyebeam Atelier and lecturer at Parsons, New School for Design, will teach a course which requires intermediate technical knowledge, on Augmented Reality and Computer Vision. Practical applications include touch-displays and gesture interfaces.

EVENTS

General Assembly will regularly host events for the technology and design community. The first event, on Feb. 12, 2011, is Music Hack Day with General Assembly is co-producing with NYHacker. Engineers will come together to explore and attempt to build the next generation of music applications. Its a full weekend of hacking in which participants will conceptualize, create and present their projects. Chris Hughes Mike Yavonditte Amanda Hesser David Tisch Rex Sorgatz Brooke Moreland Art.sy Fashism food52 JIBE NewsCred Aaron Cohen Zach Klein Casey Pugh Charlie ODonnell Vin Vacanti Jim Moran Nodejitsu VHX Profitably SeatGeek Yipit Julian Gutman Joe West John Britton Eric Skiff Dave Lifson

NOTABLE MEMBERS

STARTUPS INCLUDE

Easel Movable Ink Dubset

HOW TO JOIN

General Assembly has three tiers of engagement: TIER1:PROGRAMMINGThe vast majority of the community engages with General Assembly by participating in our educational programming. These individuals participate in workshops and classes around design, technology, and entrepreneurship and attend events and lectures hosted within the space. TIER2:COMMUNALCommunal members are at the core of General Assemblys community. Communal members have 24/7 access to the campus and include serial entrepreneurs at the earliest stages of their next ventures, top-tier investors, designers, and developers. TIER3:DEDICATEDSelected companies are invited to work full-time out of General Assembly. These represent some of the most promising startups in New York and they participate in the community by teaching classes and attending events.

OPENING PARTNERS INCLUDE

General Assembly opened its campus in January 2011. New York City Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) IDEO Rackspace Silicon Valley Bank Skype Wilson Sonsini

EXECUTIVE TEAM

Adam Pritzker (founding partner) Matthew O. Brimer (founding partner) Brad Hargreaves (founding partner) Jake Schwartz (founding partner) Mimi O Chun (design director) Charlie Robbins (technology director) ###

GENERAL ASSEMBLY
PHOTOS(FORREFERENCEONLY)