Social Networks in Silicon Valley

In “The Silicon Valley Edge – A habitat for innovation and entrepreneurship” (Stanford University Press) there’s a great chapter – Social Networks in the Valley – by Castilla, Hwang, Granovetter and Granovetter. The regional economy of the peninsula between San Francisco and San Jose has proven to be a rich source of SNA investigation due in part to its spectacular growth and the dense interconnectedness of its business structures, but also because various writers and trade organizations have already attempted to track the genealogy of company founders and their boards. Of particular practical interest in these efforts is the role played by venture capitalists - widely viewed as the financial engine of the area.

One juicy quotation from the book – “Born in New York, nurtured in Boston, and almost smothered in Washington, venture capital did not really come of age until it moved to California and joined forces with the brash young technologists who were using bits of silicon to create an information revolution as profound as the industrial revolution a century earlier” (Wilson, 1985) Indeed, by most estimates half the venture capital firms in the United States are located here.

One might imagine therefore that an up-to-date Social Network Map of venture firms would be of particular value both in terms of understanding trends at a high level and to simply get plugged-in! With these ideas in mind I was astonished to find what must be one of the best kept secrets in this area – LinkSV.

LinkSV tracks companies, their founders, and their VCs and displays the relationships between them as a series of navigable maps. While the maps are created through a strategic relationship with GroupScope LinkSV can also connect to people via another key relationship with LinkedIn.