????我認(rèn)為提供當(dāng)時從我們的角度得出的一些觀點也會非常有趣。所以我翻出了在雷德的演示之前，我給合伙人傳閱的投資備忘錄，以完善和總結(jié)我撰寫的審查評估。以下便是支持格雷洛克和我對LinkedIn投資觀點的論據(jù)節(jié)選。

????? 使命?！癓inkedIn的使命是構(gòu)建領(lǐng)先的、主打職業(yè)社交的網(wǎng)站，讓用戶‘通過他們已經(jīng)信任的聯(lián)系人，找到和聯(lián)系他們未來需要的人脈?！?/p>

????? 業(yè)務(wù)。“這實際上是一項有著強(qiáng)大傳播性和網(wǎng)絡(luò)效應(yīng)的業(yè)務(wù)……整個網(wǎng)站服務(wù)于職業(yè)社交的目的，因此收費服務(wù)很自然地成為網(wǎng)站的一部分，這不會讓用戶分流——任何時候都有大量用戶在找工作，在尋找雇員、服務(wù)、承包商，或者在建立用于銷售和業(yè)務(wù)發(fā)展的關(guān)系網(wǎng)絡(luò)?！?/p>

????? 發(fā)展途徑?！鞍l(fā)展分為三個階段：（1）發(fā)展用戶基礎(chǔ)，擴(kuò)大網(wǎng)絡(luò)影響力，擴(kuò)大用戶規(guī)模和數(shù)據(jù)庫容量；（2）通過（a）不斷改善用戶界面和易用性，（b）依托于數(shù)據(jù)庫開發(fā)增值應(yīng)用和實用程序，以發(fā)掘用戶使用網(wǎng)絡(luò)的價值，著重增加網(wǎng)站的使用價值和再次使用率，培養(yǎng)用戶的使用習(xí)慣；（3）通過（a）‘機(jī)遇’服務(wù)：……（b）‘InLeads’服務(wù)：……（c）‘Network Plus’服務(wù)：……，將用戶群和網(wǎng)絡(luò)資產(chǎn)轉(zhuǎn)化為利潤?！?/p>

????? 盈利?！叭绻@個網(wǎng)站保持強(qiáng)勁勢頭，創(chuàng)造了價值，同時培養(yǎng)了用戶的使用習(xí)慣，它將成功瓜分目前以招聘網(wǎng)站Monster.com為主的求職市場，形成巨大的盈利潛力，而這只是該網(wǎng)站眾多盈利點中的一個。”

????? 挑戰(zhàn)?！拔业挠^點（也是他們的觀點）認(rèn)為他們還需要花大功夫精簡用戶界面，在他們的數(shù)據(jù)庫中增加相關(guān)的應(yīng)用和軟件，從而能夠在用戶瀏覽網(wǎng)頁，試圖從系統(tǒng)中獲取所需時，展現(xiàn)出具有相當(dāng)價值的精簡結(jié)果。我重點要確保他們在向用戶大面積收費之前先把這項事情做好。如果在搖錢樹還是樹苗的時候就把它砍掉，要冒很大的風(fēng)險?！?/p>

????? 規(guī)模?！斑@種業(yè)務(wù)最難、也是最具風(fēng)險的一點是，以合理的代價建立大規(guī)模、高質(zhì)量的用戶群體，從而進(jìn)行擴(kuò)張——這一點他們幾乎已經(jīng)完全具備了。”

????? 人?！拔蚁嘈潘麄兒臀覀兪峭活惾?。頭腦靈活、天資聰穎、積極進(jìn)取、不畏競爭、善于分析、精益求精、努力勤勉、坦率誠懇，并且勇于冒險?！?/p>

????? 競爭。在當(dāng)時，LinkedIn是一大批職業(yè)社交初創(chuàng)公司中的一員，同類公司包括Plaxo、Spoke、Ryze、Zero Degrees等。這些公司規(guī)模相對而言都很小，盡管它們許多都比LinkedIn大。

????? 總結(jié)?！拔覍@個機(jī)會充滿興趣。我相信他們走處在正軌上，有機(jī)會在人際網(wǎng)絡(luò)領(lǐng)域謀得自己的一席之地，他們也有潛力依托用戶群創(chuàng)造更具吸引力的用戶體驗，以用戶相對可以接受的方式收費。他們有很大的收入和利潤潛力。此外，我還認(rèn)為雷德在這類業(yè)務(wù)中會是世界頂尖的領(lǐng)袖，與他共事讓我感到激動。”?

????I thought it would also be interesting to provide some perspective from our vantage at the time, so I dug out the investment memorandum that I circulated to the partnership prior to Reid's presentation to complement and summarize my compiled due diligence. What follows are excerpts of the arguments I gave to support Greylock's and my investment thesis in LinkedIn.

????? Mission. "LinkedIn's mission is to create the leading, business-focused network site for people where they can "find and contact the people they need, through the people they already trust."

????? Business. "This is inherently a business with strong viral distribution and network effects… And because the whole context of the site is business networking, monetization areas are natural additions to the site, not diversions for users — many of whom at any given time are either looking for jobs, considering looking for jobs, looking to hire people/services/contractors, looking to do sales/BD oriented networking."

????? Path Forward. "Development in three phases: (1) grow the userbase and establish breakaway network effects and scale of user-base/database … ; (2) focus on improving user value, repeat usage, and habit building through (a) better improvements in UI and ease of use, and (b) by building value-added applications and wizards on the database to improve user-mining of value from the network; (3) monetization of the user/network asset through (a) "Opportunities": …, (b) "InLeads": …, and (c) "Network Plus": …

????? Monetization. "If the network remains robust, and they succeed in building value and habit, their monetization potential could be a significant portion of the existing Monster.com market as just a first monetization opportunity."

????? Challenge. "My belief (and theirs) is that they have much work to do cleaning up the UI, and packaging relevant applications and wizards on top of their database to surface high-value, simple results matched to the networking processes that people are trying to mine out of the system. I am focused on making sure they get this right before driving too much into mining the user base for money. There is a significant risk in 'killing the golden goose' before it's fully hatched."

????? Scale. "One of the hardest/riskiest parts of this type of business is getting scale on building a large, high-quality user base at reasonable cost — and this is almost fully behind them already."

????? People. "I believe these are our kind of people. Bright, talented, aggressive/competitive, analytical, committed to excellence, hard-working, intellectually honest, and risk-taking."

????? Competition. In those days, Linkedin was one of a bunch of early business-networking startups such as Plaxo, Spoke, Ryze, Zero Degrees, etc. All of these companies were relatively small, though a number were larger than Linkedin.

????? Summary. "I am very enthusiastic about this opportunity. I think they are well on the way to being impossible to catch in their space from network development, and they have the potential to build a much more addictive experience on top of that userbase, and to monetize it in ways that are relatively non-jarring to their users, and with large revenues and margin potential. I also think Reid is world-class in this type of business and am excited to work with him."?