| Website | linkedin.com |
| Blog | blog.linkedin.com |
| Category | Network/Hosting |
| Phone | 650-687-3560 |
| Employees | 350 |
| Founded | 5/03 |
| Description | Professional social networking |
| Total | $103M |
| Series A, 11/03 Sequoia Capital | $4.7M |
| Series B, 10/04 Greylock Partners | $10M |
| Series C, 1/07 Bessemer Venture Partners European Founders Fund | $12.8M |
| Series D, 6/08 Bain Capital Ventures Sequoia Capital Greylock Partners Bessemer Venture Partners | $53M |
| Series E, 10/08 Bessemer Venture Partners SAP Ventures Goldman Sachs McGraw Hill | $22.7M |
With more than 45 million users representing 150 industries around the world, LinkedIn is a fast-growing professional networking site that allows members to create business contacts, search for jobs, and find potential clients. Individuals have the ability to create their own professional profile that can be viewed by others in their network, and also view the profiles of their own contacts.
Competitors to LinkedIn include sites such as www.xing.com, Doostang and Ecademy. Of note, LinkedIn won two Webby awards in 2007 for services and social networking.
| Website | linkedin.com |
| Blog | blog.linkedin.com |
| Stage | Live |
| Launch Date | May, 2003 |
| Tags | social-networking |
LinkedIn is a free business social networking site that allows users who register to create a professional profile visible to others. Through the site, individuals can then maintain a list of known business contacts, known as Connections. LinkedIn users can also invite anyone to join their list of connections. LinkedIn offers an effective way by which people can develop an extensive list of contacts, as your network consists of your own connections, your connections’ connections (2nd degree connections), as well as your 2nd degree’s connections (called your 3rd degree connections). From this network, individuals can learn of and search for jobs, business opportunities, and people. LinkedIn also serves as an effective medium by which both employers and job seekers can review listed professional information about one another. LinkedIn follows strict privacy guidelines wherein all connections made are mutually confirmed and individuals only appear in the LinkedIn network with their explicit consent. Other LinkedIn features include paid accounts that offer more tools to find people, and “LinkedIn Answers” developed in January 2007. A free feature, “LinkedIn Answers” allows registered users to post business-related questions that anyone else can answer.
