Could we call it "The Finer Things Club" like on "The Office"? But it's much worse than that, it involves secret meetings on how to spend your millions when you cash out of Facebook, or throwing decadent parties based on the court of Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette -- and did someone just use the phrase, "It's a 'Let Them Eat Cake' party"?
Perhaps we liked Silicon Valley millionaires and billionaires when they weren't so hopelessly nouveau riche. But it seems they even like the term. The New York Times reports that Facebook's first 250 employees are part of a secret club called TNR250, short for the Nouveau Riche 250.
The secret society discuss the finer things such as what they will buy when they cash out -- namely boats, planes, private islands and the like.
The piece, by Nick Bilton, is chock full of opinion not really based on fact, such as "Entrepreneurs and venture capitalists eat ramen noodles for dinner . . . If they do make money, that’s just a tiny cherry on top of their altruistic Tofutti soy whip sundae.That’s what people here would like the world to think."
Geez, jealous much, Nick?
However, he does mention the "Let Them Eat Cake Party" thrown by Yammer founder David Sacks after the company sold to Microsoft for $1.2 billion. He allegedly spent $1.4 million on a 40th birthday party based on the court of Louis XVI in June (Bilton calls him the "Sun King" but that was his ancestor Louis XIV, not the one beheaded in the French Revolution, but hey, we can't get it all right.) Party-goers were specifically told not to tweet or share photos of the event, but of course, performer Snoop Dogg (now Snoop Lion,) did.
Bilton suggested the reason for hiding such lavishness is lessons learned from the dot-com bust in 2000. Perhaps, but we think it's because it also makes you look like kind of a douche to have a "Let Them Eat Cake" party or have a secret society to discuss how you will frivolously spend your millions when a large segment of the population must eat Top Ramen and file for unemployment to survive.
