Man Bites Dog?
by Steve Baldwin


There's a hot new startup in New York's Silicon Alley, and it's not planning an IPO. "We're not into the whole IPO thing and stuff like that," says Jaime Levy, late of Word and self-proclaimed Biggest Bitch of Silicon Alley. Her latest enterprise is Electronic Hollywood, a web design firm with an innovative business strategy: Levy proposes to run it as an "Internet production studio." While its bread and butter will be web site design, animation and interactive advertising for larger companies, Levy & Co. will also be developing original content. And she's hoping that that's where the big bucks will lie -- rather than in becoming just another overvalued, publicly held company.

     But didn't the expense of creating original content contribute to Word's demise? Citing the example of "South Park," which turned from an amateur animated short into a nationwide phenomenon, Levy says, "I'm talking about making a show, getting it picked up by TV studios, people like that, getting merchandised. Then we start getting paid." .