capitalBLOG

Haas Business School Alumni Networks

The recently updated features of new LinkSViewer 1.3 allows new ways to explore university ties. Allow me to provide some examples of Haas Business School at UC Berkeley on (1) Haas multiple management team ties; (2) Haas CEOs; (3) Roost CEO and Haas-Alum. Alex Chang ties; (4) Accenture, Tube Mogul, Delivery Agent, & Clorox Haas Clusters ; (5) Two Large Haas Clusters; and (6) Berkeley, Stanford, & Cornell Haas Clusters.

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Apple + Google: Board Interlocks

Apple+Google: Now That’s Hot (GigaOm)

Om Malik references a Wired.com post (Fred Vogelstein) on next week’s expected alliance between Google & Apple (cloud computing partnership).  This post reminds us of the extent of the board ties between Apple and Google:

Apple + Google People Relational Map. Notes: (1) Direct Board Ties of Eric Schmidt (Google CEO), Arthur Levinson (Genentech CEO), & Al Gore (Advisor on Google); (2) Indirect Board Ties between John Doerr (KPCB, Apple Board) & Bill Campbell (Intuit Past CEO, Google Board); and (3) Sequoia Capital invested in both companies (albeit Apple went public in 1980). (Source: LinkSV.com).

Thus it should not be a surprise that Apple and Google are teaming up on anything.  While they may have a mutual enemy in Microsoft (although Jobs recent appearance with Gates tempers this a bit), they actually have similar board leadership.  Behind the scenes, there may be more collaboration than we know.  For example, take the Google Maps integration on the upcoming iPhone.  For previous CapitalBLOG commentary on the Google/Apple connection check out Apple and Google - Network Clusters and Interlocks (9/16/06).

Infinera IPO Soars: Why Relational Capital Matters

Infinera shares soar in debut (CNN Money)

Infinera had a 14M share offering with a price range of $10-12, it priced at $13 and opened yesterday at $16.04.  It closed at $19.71 after reaching a high of $21.24 in mid-day trading (low = $16.00).  As a result, Infinera (INFN) was up 52% if you got in at the IPO and up 23% if you got in at the opening bell.  This is particularly noteworthy because the NASDAQ was down 1.77% yesterday.  From the CNN article, independent IPO analyst Tom Taulli states, “In hindsight [Infinera] looks like it was underpriced.”  This hails the sentiment I offered in my March 2 blog post, Infinera IPO Filing: The Juniper Net Works?  Here I was bullish on Infinera because of its relational capital via co-investor ties to 24 public companies and multiple board ties to Juniper Networks.  I repeat two of these maps below:

Infinera Investment Relational Map. Notes: (1) Juniper Networks as both an investor (orange oval) and related company (green box) via Kleiner Perkins & JAFCO; (2) Kleiner multiple public co-investment ties to Venrock (Photon Dynamics, Pharmacyclics, Geron, Echelon, & NeoMagic) & Sprout (Synaptics, Verifone, & eHealth); and (3) 17 investors on the map reflecting 7 rounds of capital ($315M total raised). (Source: LinkSV.com)

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Scribd Relations: Geoffrey Yang Tie

Scribd tries to live up to YouTube comparison (VC Ratings)

Scribd + Geoffrey Yang Relational Map: Notes (1) Redpoint/Yang connection to BigBand Networks (recent IPO); (2) Yang’s board presence on Tivo and Ask.com (purchased by IAC in 2005 for $1.9B).  In general, Yang’s presence on the Scribd board provides an additional source of relational capital for the company.

eBay Acquires StumbleUpon: Capital Relations

Ebay acquires StumbleUpon for $75M (Venture Beat)

While there was some speculation as to the reasons why eBay made this deal, the capital network shows some indirect ties between StumbleUpon and eBay.  This is noted in the below relational map of eBay (as investor and company) and StumbleUpon: 

Relational Map for eBay/StumbleUpon.  Notes: There are two capital paths between eBay and StumbleUpon: (1) eBay as an investor (orange oval): eBay as investor in Feedster –> Josh Kopelman (Board Advisor to Feedster) –> StumbleUpon (Kopelman as Board Member); (2) eBay as a company (green box): Benchmark Capital (eBay investor) ties to Ram Shriram (via Friendster), Mitch Kapor (via Linden Lab), & Ron Conway (via OpenTable & oDesk) as angel investors in StumbleUpon; and Bob Kagle (Benchmark) board interlock tie to Ram Shriram (via Friendster) as angel investor in StumbleUpon. (Source: LinkSV.com) 

The Top 5 SV VCs Under 40 - Direct + Indirect Ties & Clusters

The top five VCs under 40 — what do you think? (Venture Beat)

Venture Beat posted a poll on the top 5 Silicon Valley VCs under 40, in reference to a San Jose Mercury article.  I figured it would be interesting to answer this question using their SV capital relations with one another.  For this post, I mapped together their relational networks with each other - this illustrates the common SV company ties of Roelof Botha, Kevin Efrusy, Peter Fenton, Danny Rimer, and Peter Thiel (LinkSViewer registered users can see each individual VC’s capital networks by clicking on each user in the map and then displaying their relational map from the information window).   First, I mapped their current and former company direct ties (as board/management team members & investors) by filtering out all other people and investors: 

Top 5 VCs Under 40 Relational Map (Investors & People Excluded).  Notes: (1) Peter Thiel is the only VC that is also listed as an individual investor (yellow oval); (2) Direct Ties: (a) Peter Thiel & Roelof Botha (PayPal former management team; Xoom current/former board interlock); (b) Peter Fenton & Kevin Efrusy (Hyperic & Terracotta board interlocks); (3) Of the 28 SV companies affiliated with the VCs, 10 were acquired and 18 are currently private; (4) 4 of Danny Rimer’s SV boards were acquired (MyCFO.com, Ofoto, Neoteris, & TellMe Networks). (Source: LinkSV.com)

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NeurogesX IPO - Walden & Alta Ties

NeurogesX, a San Carlos pharmaceutical company, recently had its IPO.  Here I explore NeurogesX’ relational capital network.  Below is the Relational Map for Active companies: 

NeurogesX Relational Map (Active companies only).  Notes: (1) Alta-Walden co-investments: Plexxikon, Terawave Comm., Metabolix, & Corcept Thera.; (2) Alta-Global Life Science Ventures co-investment: Coapt Systems; (3) Alta-Arch Ventures co-investments: R2 Tech.; (4) Alta-Walden public company tie: Corcept; and (5) Alix Marduel (Alta Ventures) board interlock: Metabolix & Corcept ties.  Below is the Relational Map for Active & Inactive companies.

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Quark Files IPO: Larry Ellison & SuperGen Former Connections

Quark Biotech hopes to raise up to $86.25M in IPO (Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal)

Quark Biotech filed for its IPO on March 30.  The Quark Biotech Relational Map provides some insight into the relations between its current and former management team and board members.  Along the way, I would like to point out some key transition points that will help LinkSViewer users to navigate from simple to complex maps (the opposite of the previous post which demonstrated navigating from complex to simple maps).  First I started with a relatively simple relational map - I searched for Quark Biotech and then filtered in former people.

Quark Biotech Relational Map (Former People Included).  Notes: (1) Board Interlock Ties: Joseph Rubinfeld & Daniel Zurr (Former SuperGen Board Members); (2) Key People Ties: Larry Ellison (Oracle CEO, previous Quark board member).

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Data Domain files IPO: Greylock, NEA, & Sutter Hill Ties

Data Domain, storage appliance co., files for $100M IPO (VentureBeat NewsWire)

Data Domain filed for its IPO on April 4.  The Data Domain Relational Map provides some insight into the co-investment relations between its three investors: Greylock Partners, Sutter Hill Ventures, and NEA.  Along the way, I would like to point out some key transition points that will help LinkSViewer users to navigate from complex to simple maps.  First I started with a relatively complex relational map - I searched for Data Domain and then filtered in current and former people and dropped pendants.

Data Domain Relational Map (Pendants dropped).  Notes (1) Co-Investment Ties: Sutter Hill-Greylock (Trusted Data); NEA-Sutter Hill (QuickLogic, Kovair); and NEA-Greylock (PortAuthority, SiTime, PolyServe, Tabula); (2) People Ties: Geoff Barrall (Trusted Data CEO); Reed Hundt (Former FCC Chair); Aneel Bhusri (Greylock); Scott Sandell (NEA); Ron Codd (PeopleSoft Former CFO); and Michael O’ Donnell (Network Appliance Former Director of Federal Sales); (3) Strong Company Ties: Trusted Data (Geoff Barrall, Greylock, & Sutter Hill); Kovair (Scott Sandell of NEA & Sutter Hill). 

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Auren Hoffman: Network of a Networker

Auren Hoffman is Zelig (ValleyWag)

ValleyWag reports on the connectedness of RapLeaf Co-Founder/President Auren Hoffman, comparing him to the title character in the Woody Allen movie, Zelig.  I thought it would be useful to look at his relational network:

Auren Hoffman + RapLeaf Relational Map.  Notes: Three clusters emerge: Auren Hoffman as Investor; Advisory Board Member; and RapLeaf President; (1) Hoffman’s SV Investment investment network includes Meebo, edgeio, Socializr, and BrightRoll; (2) BrightRoll connects to his SV Advisory Board network which includes Merchant Circle, Zoom Systems, Spoke Software, and RapLeaf; and (3) RapLeaf connects to his Management Team network which includes Kaboodle, Maya’s Mom, BuzzLogic, Mint Software, and Powerset. (Source: LinkSV.com)

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