> IRC channel #startups currently serves this purpose.

For those unfamiliar with IRC:

http://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=%23startups

or pick up an actual IRC client:

http://irssi.org/

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/chatzilla/

http://codeux.com/textual/

The server is "irc.freenode.net".