Monday, June 29, 2009

Social Capital And The Venture Capital Game


This article in TechCrunch reinforces with sound data what you could have guessed on your own or rather, what is wisdom in the tech circles, that social capital matters. What you know is important, sure. We would like to believe there is a meritocracy. But who you know is als

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o important, very important. It is not true that social capital is less important in a meritocracy. Not everyone has to have 10,000 friends, or even a thousand. How many people you know and stay in touch with depends on your personality type, career domain, success, how busy you keep, and a few other things. Can you smile? Can you say hello?

Maybe you know a lot, but would it not be swell if you could team up with people who also know a lot? Teaming up with people with similar goals and interests can take you a long way. Teaming up with people who compliment your knowledge and skill set is the only way to go. And then there's social

Image representing Accel Partners as depicted ...Image via CrunchBase

capital for social reasons. Who do you want to hang out with? Partying is also important.

And then there is the social capital social media cocktail. You can manage your bank account online. You can also grow, nurture and manage your social capital online. We live in such a day and age.
The Top 100 Networked Venture Capitalists TechCrunch Do venture investors

Image representing Benchmark Capital as depict...Image via CrunchBase

with the biggest and best networks end up producing the best returns? ....... “better-networked VC firms experience significantly better fund performance,” as measured by how many of the companies in their portfolios exited via an IPO or acquisition. ...... all the other venture firms who co-invested with it in funding rounds ...... The more co-investors a venture firm has, the better its network. The better its network, the better its overall returns. ....... better access to deal flow, talent, advisers, potential customers, and potential exits. ..... “to get a high score, you need to co-invest often with others that also co-invest often.”

Image representing First Round Capital as depi...Image via CrunchBase


1. Draper Fisher Jurvetson
2. Sequoia Capital
3. Accel Partners
4. Intel Capital
5. First Round Capital
6. Dag Ventures
7. New Enterprise Associates
8. Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers
9. Benchmark Capital
10. Ron Conway
Whom You Know Matters: Venture Capital Networks and Investment Performance


Whom You Know Matters: Venture Capital Networks and Investment Performance -

Fred Wilson
Facebook And Mashable: Social Media And Social Media Blog
Is Google Wave Social Enough To Challenge Facebook, Twitter?
Is Reading Socializing?
Define Social Media

From The Netizen BlogRoll

One afternoon in NYC Just as the brand started in the UK as the David to many Goliaths in aviation, mobile telephony, and financial services, the Virgin companies in the US are Davids offering a fresh value-for-money alternative to the bigger, bloated, legacy institutions... On Fallon.
A Pause From The Regular Programming For A Commercial
Securing An Independent: Identify Candidates
Sarychev Peak Volcano in Stereo
Bring the world to your event
First Round Capital Office Hours Comes to...Our Office

The King of Twitter He’s still dead. All that follows is discussion and wouldn’t we re

Image representing Twitter as depicted in Crun...Image via CrunchBase

ally rather discuss it with our friends than Al Sharpton? ...... If the Iraq War was the birth of CNN could Iran and Jackson mark the start of their decline in influence? ........ Neda. Piece by piece, the story came together before our eyes, in public. The journalists added considerable value. But this wasn’t product journalism: polishing a story once a day from inside the black box. This was process journalism and that ensured it was also collaborative journalism – social journalism ..... n Twitter, the trends were all but filled with Jackson – except for the Iran election, which was still there, in the middle. That renews my fai

Image representing FriendFeed as depicted in C...Image via CrunchBase

th in us.
Is Blogging Evolving Into Life Streams? Scoble spends more time promoting Friendfeed than his own blog ...... many of the top 100 blogs all look like mainstream media, with a team of writers, photographers, and editors. ..... the iPhone has resulted in 400% increase in uploads to YouTube ..... he’s slowed down on blogging and increased his activity in Twitter and Friendfeed ..... he’s losing his thought leadership, his voice is lost in the noise

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