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

April 25, 2007 on 8:43 pm | In Investor Analysis, In the news, Network Training, Board Member Analysis, IPO |

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). 

Network Commentary: The active company ties include 4 public companies (QuickLogic, Network Appliance, Adept, & Openwave), 3 active acquired companies (Kovair, PortAuthority, & PolyServe), and 4 private companies (Trusted Data, SiTime, Tabula, & SymphoniQ).  Of particular interest are the 4 public company ties.  There are also three main clusters centered around each VC with seven companies connecting these clusters. These clusters are amplified by Excluding the Target Node in the below map.

Data Domain Relational Map (Exclude Target Node, Pendants dropped).  Notes (1) Here we clearly see the links between investors (PolyServe, SiTime, Tabula, PortAuthority, Kovair, QuickLogic, & Trusted Data); and (2) We can also see the strong relationship between former FCC chairman Reed Hundt with Greylock Partners.

Network Commentary: By removing the target node we are in effect demonstrating how the companies, people, and investors were related to one another before considering Data Domain - are there preexisting ties that bind?  This map illustrates investor clusters on the map by removing the influence of Data Domain on its capital relations.  Moreover, we can now focus in on only the strong-tie companies.  This is performed by increasing the MinLink to 3 from the first map.  The below map only includes those companies with at least 3 ties:

Data Domain Relational Map (Pendants dropped, MinLink=3).  Notes (1) Here we see the strong links between investors: (1) Greylock & NEA are linked by PolyServe via Reed Hundt & Aneel Bhusri; (2) Sutter Hill & NEA are linked by Kovair via Scott Sandell; and (3) Greylock & Sutter Hill are linked by Trusted data via Geoff Barrall.

Network Commentary: By increasing the MinLink to 3 we are in effect illustrating multiple ties between investors and companies on the map - what are the strongest ties that bind?  This map shows only the strongest relationships from the previous maps.  Here we demonstrate the process of taking a complex map and simplifying it to detect only the strongest of relationships (as denoted by the most common ties). 

Data Domain Relational Map (Exclude Target Node, Pendants dropped, MinLink=3).  Here we see a strong-tie circle investors (i.e., each investor has a strong-tie connection to one another).  The fact that each investor has a pre-existing strong tie relation may bode well for Data Domain - relational ties could pave the way for a smooth IPO.