While there certainly were women and men within the scene who both dated and worked together, these relationships were described in terms like “gold-digging” or “sleeping her way to the top” regardless of whether they were romantic or not. Culver’s founding of Pownce was attributed to her friendship with Kevin Rose or Twitter designer Daniel Burka. Owen Thomas wrote a lengthy blog post about Culver, which read, in part: “If she doesn’t want to be famous, Culver might want to take a look at her relentless techno-sexuality, which more than hints at the acquisition of influence rather than intimacy as its goal. Is it sexist to point this out? Perhaps, but not nearly as sexist as touting technical skills while sleeping your way to the top.”

Alice E. Marwick, Status Update, loc. 701