LinkedIn: some observations about information sharing
Recently, I’ve been in touch with former colleagues based in NYC and I’d like to share this curiosity with readers. These colleagues are listed on LinkedIn and yet unless you knew them personally or had worked with them, you’d simply never know the extent or context of their experiences and the types of companies and transactions they’ve been involved with.
They work in Private Equity and Venture Capital and at the most will list the fact they have MBAs from Harvard, Columbia, INSEAD or some other Top 10 business school on their LinkedIn profiles. This “under the radar” approach is not surprising for the simple reason that it’s a way to avoid getting tarnished by the public flak over the crisis. These guys did NOT create the toxic mortgage CDOs, they’re the ones applying their knowhow in the clean up. Thank goodness it’s this team because, personal bias aside, they’re the best in the business.
Now, recently in the UK, there’s been some discussion about trying to make the PE and VC sectors more transparent — particularly for pre-seed stage companies, to empower them to navigate the whole complex investment and financing landscape. I proposed that the leading VC firms engage in a public debate using some of the most advanced mapping tools to strand their arguments (for and against) measures that they could consider and implement to support grassroots startups.
One VC made the observation: “Yes, but you’ve worked in VC. You know we don’t debate publicly.”
Yes, I know. VCs also don’t complete their LinkedIn profiles the way the marketers do. VCs, by and large, aren’t sell-side unless it’s an exit and they don’t have much interest in appearing high on any SEO list unlike marketers.
Importantly, discretion matters and there are also a whole raft of SEC / FSA rules governing disclosure that the VC and PE community observes which contrasts with what happens in the marketing, press and startup sectors.
Anyway, I’m looking forward to catching up with my former team once I’m in NYC again. Also heading up to MIT to see where they are with the whole “timestamping versus clustering” work and across to Silicon Valley-San Fran to catch up with some contacts before I head for San D. where I’ve been invited to go horse trekking. I wonder what that’s going to be like after riding a camel in the Sahara — lol.
A new chapter opens and it’s………..a welcome change. A BRAVE NEW WORLD.
