Capital Relations and Fortune Telling
April 25, 2006 on 12:43 am | In General, Network Theory | 3 CommentsRelational capital is a continued topic of interest in the VC community. Kleiner, Perkins, Caufield, and Byers alert us to the importance of investor relations on their main Web Page: “These relationships are the foundations for strategic alliances, partnership opportunities, and the sharing of insights to help build new ventures faster, broader, and with less risk. Think of it as ‘relationship and venture capital.’”
As a child, I recall my grandmother reading Turkish coffee cup patterns flipped over on its saucer - blots indicated patterns that were read similar to tea leaves. These patterns had no contextual roots and seemed akin to fortune telling, but she was pretty darn accurate. How can we learn from patterned relationships using LinkSViewer Maps? There are two main points here: (1) Knowing how to select the right maps; (2) Knowing how to interpret these maps. Together this formula is a form of “capital fortune telling.”
LinkSViewer is designed to translate relational capital into $ in the investing world using network maps. Who are the best companies? Who are the best investors? What mergers and acquisitions are viable? This can be visualized using network analysis. Let’s look at a typical example: Continue reading Capital Relations and Fortune Telling…
Google Relational Capital Analysis
April 14, 2006 on 12:03 pm | In Company Analysis, Network Theory | 3 CommentsThis post is an example of a Company Analysis. The results indicate that Google is a high relational capital company based upon evidence of high company clustering and high investor clustering. The format of this post references applicable LinkSviewer maps for Google as well as other related companies and investors. Google Network maps are shown below and can be clicked on to enlarge and interact in a separate window:
Google has a dense relational network map. From this map, there are is high connectivity between investors (especially Sequoia & Kleiner Perkins). There are also key pathways between investors (all investors are connected beyond Google). More information can be gleaned from Company and Investor Maps. Continue reading Google Relational Capital Analysis…
What is Relational Capital?
April 12, 2006 on 2:52 pm | In General, Network Theory | 13 CommentsAs I examine countless Relational Maps on LinkSViewer, I notice patterns in various companies and investors. This calls to mind a basic premise of Relational Capital as the value-added function of network ties. But what precisely is Relational Capital and how can one go about finding it?
From a social network perspective, the similar concept of Social Capital is defined by Nan Lin (2001) as “Investment in social relations with expected returns in the marketplace.” Social capital is said to form the basis of democratic society, whereby humans offer their ties to others as a means of goodwill and reciprocated exchange. There are certainly a myriad of definitions of social capital and as of late the term has been watered down to include virtually anything related to social networks that has a value-added component. For example, social capital has been popularized by Robert Putnam’s “Bowling Alone” (2000) hypothesis which purports that social capital in the form of civic engagement is on the decline in the US. More recently, social networking on the Internet has reinvigorated the spirit of social capital, albeit in a different form: Relationship Capital Management.
Maps for Silicon Valley’s Big 150
April 12, 2006 on 3:48 am | In General, In the news | 1 CommentThe Big 150 was just released - a list of the biggest 150 companies in Silicon Valley. I went through our database to see how many of them we had maps for and attached the links below. Some maps aren’t extremely interesting because the company has very few investors and/or investments, but others display some interesting investment networks. Click on the links to see the live maps in LinkSViewer 1.2 (Registration Required - Free), and leave some comments if you find anything that interests you. We can start other posts about specific networks of interest from this list if requested. Thanks to Silicon Beat for the post.
Big 150 LinkSViewer Maps
8. Calpine
18. CNF
21. Robert Half Int’l
25. Granite Construction
60. West Marine
72. Integrated Device Technology
86. California Water
112. Integrated Silicon Solution
121. SJW
123. Glenborough Realty
124. Coast Distribution
129. Applied Signal Technology
148. Mission West
Xilinx acquires AccelChip (2006)
April 12, 2006 on 1:45 am | In Mergers & Acquisitions | No CommentsIn 2006 Xilinx acquired AccelChip. Xilinx is a leader in complete programmable logic solutions. AccelChip was the industry’s only provider of MATLAB-based algorithmic synthesis solutions, including its DSP library of algorithmic IP. Here is the network map for these two companies’ networks.
Welcome to capitalBLOG! Have a map.
April 11, 2006 on 8:05 pm | In General | 7 CommentsWelcome to capitalBLOG. Here is your first view; LinkSViewer’s Relational Map for Google’s network of active companies. Some say a picture is worth a thousand words, but we think they underestimated. Stay tuned for frequent future posts about interesting Silicon Valley VC network relationships.
Click on the map to see a live full-size version:
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