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High hopes: VCs betting LinkedIn worth $1 billion (Blogtronix should be worth a lot ;)

by Vassil Mladjov on 17 June 2008, 22:14   0 comments , 648 views
Tags: blogtronix, enterprise 2.0, platform, ibm, bea, linkedin, vc
http://news.yahoo.com via AP

This is very interesting and the time is perfect for Blogtronix as we are talking to a bunch of big VC's to raise some money right now and compete with IBM, BEA (Oracle), Jive, and few others want to be’s out there for a slide of the big Enterprise Social Software pie, which according to Forrester is now worth about $4.6 billion (by 2013.)

 The interesting thing here is that I am talking to couple of very large firms that want to use the Blogtronix platform and compete with LinkedIn.  Blogtronix does so much more that the simple social networking that LinkedIn is offering.  Blogtronix combines the content of blogs, wikis, documents with the social networking and workgroups that even LinkedIn, MySpace or Facebook still don't have today.  On top, Blogtronix is doing this with the IT in mind and the enterprise use in mind so we cover such things as corporate compliance, security, content workflows, detail reporting, LDAP integration and so much more out of the box.

During the recent Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston I had the opportunity to check out what the competition has to offer. At first I was a bit  stressed to see many companies out there that want to play in the Enterprise 2.0 space, but after the smoke and mirrors were out of the way, it was clear to me that Blogtronix still is a clear leader in the Enterprise Social Software space and in many cased we are years a way from the  "big competition".  Many "leaders" still do not even have real social networking that allows users to connect with each other. IBM for example does not even have statistics in Lotus Connections. They did not have them last year either, what are they waiting for? Maybe for companies like Blogtronix to put it on their web sites and their Indian lab developers to come and copy it again? Come of IBM, you can do better than this. The system has a very stupid UI that make sis very hard to navigate by the users and to find information in general.  In fact I did asked IBM's Heidi Votaw to go one-on-one with Blogtronix at the conference in front of the bloggers, analysts and the reporters, but she ran a way. I know that IBM showed a better demo than MSFT's MOSS at the event, but why is the 800 pound gorilla (IBM) afraid to go against the little company Blogtronix? What do they have to hide here and why are they afraid from us?! Maybe because they know that Blogtronix has a better platform than they do? Yes, we do have a better platform than IBM, LinkedIn, Facebook and all the others out there when it come to Enterprise use and deployment and I am willing to go one-on-one with any vendor out there that is willing to do it now.  I want to see if IBM or BEA can install their software in less than 5 min on a server. Maybe not, maybe they will want to take a bit longer ( a few months) and charge you at $500 per hr for consulting. Or you can download Blogtronix in couple of min and start collaborating ;)
Just you guys wait for our next version that we have plan for the end of the summer, wow! There is so many cool and useful things that I just can't wait to show the world what our great dev team is working on.

How ironic is it that when I first pitched my idea to VC's more than 3 –4 years ago, many of them were laughing at the idea of using social networking in the enterprise or even making money from it. Who is laughing now guys.
Vassil

High hopes: VCs betting LinkedIn worth $1 billion

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE, AP Business Writer1 hour, 20 minutes ago

Four venture capital firms are betting Internet startup LinkedIn Corp. is worth $1 billion, highlighting the lofty hopes riding on online services that connect people with their friends, family and business associates.

The 10-figure valuation is implied by a $53 million investment being announced Wednesday from Bain Capital Ventures, Sequoia Capital, Greylock Partners and Bessemer Venture Partners.

The investors received a combined 5 percent stake in Mountain View-based LinkedIn, whose 5-year-old Web site helps people use the Web to advance their professional careers.

It's one of the richest appraisals for a Silicon Valley startup since Microsoft Corp. paid $240 million for 1.6 percent of Facebook Inc. late last year. That deal valued Palo Alto-based Facebook and its online hangout at $15 billion.

The Facebook financing in turn helped several other startups that promote online socializing to promote themselves.

Ning Inc. and Slide Inc. wrangled implied valuations ranging between $500 million and $560 million when investors poured more money into them earlier this year, while RockYou was valued between $200 million and $300 million in a deal completed last week.

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