Amanda Hesser uses a computer, therefore qualified to run Web startup

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Jackson West

04/08/08 12:40PM

Filed to: wantrepreneurs

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Former New York Times editor Amanda Hesser is starting a new company called Seawinkle, which may or may not be named after an obscure character from the My Little Pony universe. It will aggregate content you produce online into one happy page, she promised in a tetchy response to New York Magazine's insinuation that she was politely kicked out of the new Times building. Hesser also detailed her qualifications as a wantrepreneur:

This may come as a surprise to you but I studied economics and finance before I began my studies of cooking. That's the business part. I have written and edited four (the 3rd will be out this fall, the 4th is in process) books that, while focused on food, are also about history and memory. That's the life part. I, like you, use a computer every day. That's the digital part.

With that kind of firm grasp on technology — she's also pictured here riding a Segway in Paris — I'm sure this venture will be a fantastic success.

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raincoaster Jackson West 04/08/08 09:41PM

Segway=HuffPo-level cred.

Dweezil Jackson West 04/08/08 01:15PM

@sample032: "I studied economics and finance" could mean she took an introduction to economics course in her first semester at college and read A Random Walk at one point or another. No one would double in econ and finance anyway, unless the finance department was well-defined and in an undergraduate business school and not an A&S college, because the distribution requirements to graduate would be impossible to deal in that many of the courses would overlap and you'd have to scrape the bottom of the barrel in terms of courses.

Honestly the one sentence description ("It will aggregate content you produce online into one happy page") doesn't sound bad if the 250 want to have a little thing on their homepage showing where they've commented (blogs, social networks, whatever). I have no idea how you'd make money off of that, though.

CurtisAgasthenes Jackson West 11/21/08 08:51PM

I love Amanda Hesser — as a writer. I can't imagine she will ever do anything else as well, but best of luck to her. (Although she deserves failure for the crime of riding a seqway in Paris.) As for her digital qualifications, or lack thereof, you are all being overly critical and perhaps a bit rancorous. Jealous that her minor-celebrity status gives her a leg-up in starting a business that you don't have? Too bad. That's life, baby, and it ain't her fault. I am sure, too, she knows enough people in New York who do know digital media — and has enough money from her four pretty successful books — to get any help she needs.

sample032 Jackson West 04/08/08 01:01PM

"...I studied economics and finance before I began my studies of cooking."

People switch concentrations for two reasons: they either suck at their first choice, or they found it boring.

It's almost like she's baking up her own recipe for (forgive me, Ted) FAIL.