风投公司打造硅谷终极商务社交网络？

    当蒂娜•瓦沙夫斯卡娅为她处于起步阶段的社交购物网站Wanelo聘请了6名员工后，她知道自己很快就会需要一间更大的办公室了。在旧金山这样一座拥挤的高消费城市里，这对一名年轻创业者来说并不是一件容易的事。所以，瓦沙夫斯卡娅向风险投资公司First Round Capital寻求帮助，后者建立的社交网络是她最重要的资源之一。

    她进入这家公司的CEO论坛，发帖说明了自己面临的问题。这个论坛的成员是150位首席执行官，他们的公司都获得了First Round Capital的资助。不到一个小时，另一家初创型公司的CEO就回帖说，自己的公司就在两个街区之外，正要搬走，可以把办公室留给Wanelo。瓦沙夫斯卡娅回忆说：“那个地方的完美程度达到了98%！”

    为了把资金投入最有前途的初创型企业，风投公司竞相争夺，为此它们提供了越来越多的额外优惠条件，比如让这些处于起步阶段的公司接触到自己的内部专业营销人员，提供创业者的电子邮件地址等。它们还举办年度CEO峰会，让自己所投资的公司聚在一起，听取知名CEO的发言，同时建立联系。总部设在费城的First Round Capital在这方面更进了一步。过去两年中，这家种子期风投公司为它所投资的企业建立了一个内部社交网络。这就像点评网站Yelp通过商务社交网络LinkedIn和社交问答网站Quora联姻的结晶。初创型公司员工时间宝贵，因此，这个内部社交网络已经成了他们的必备资源。在这里，他们可以提出任何问题，比如怎样举债融资，或者应该付给高级软件工程师多少工资。

    First Round Capital创始合伙人乔希•科佩尔曼解释说，他们的目标是让所投资公司一半的员工都加入他们为创始人、工程师、人事经理和营销人员建立的论坛中。他说：“我们投资了软件公司，所以我们知道软件在更高效地建立联系方面有什么样的力量。”

    First Round Capital投资的公司中，CEO掌握着本公司和这个社交网络的互动。论坛成员必须用Facebook账户名登陆。科佩尔曼指出，这是因为“人们可能愿意共用专门的用户名和密码，但和别人共享Facebook信息的可能性要小得多。”这些CEO可以决定是否邀请自己的员工加入论坛上的专门群体。这些论坛非常像Quora：有人发帖提问，其他用户都可以回答。此外，论坛还保留了成员们的点评，评价对象从办公室工程承包商到律师，范围越来越大。这些创业者还可以请一些在First Round Capital实习的沃顿商学院（Wharton）MBA学生为他们提供免费咨询。（比如说：“我们是一家初创型企业，业务是照片共享，我们需要参加美国所有和照片共享有关的会议——有谁知道它们举办的时间和地点吗？”）

    当然，任何人都可以建立社交网络，但First Round Capital的社交网络最为出众，因为它用户众多，使用频繁。我在8月份一个下午进行的演示中看到这个论坛的用户在4天里提出了27个问题。许多获得过First Round Capital资金的创业者表示，他们每周都会到论坛上看看，有时候每天都会浏览论坛。电子邮件管理程序制作商Xobni首席执行官杰夫•邦福特看了论坛上的所有问题，他的回帖经常有5段那么长。最近他说：“我一点儿时间也没有，但我就是想写篇东西来介绍一下怎样获得风投资金。”

    为扶持这个网络社区，科佩尔曼动用了8名内部员工，后者设计、建立了这个平台，还参与了线上和线下的维护。这个平台之所以运转得这么好，很大一部分原因是论坛成员能在First Round Capital每年举行的60次活动上见面。这些网络之外的联系有助于他们培养真实的感情，从而可以在论坛上提出尖锐的问题。

    By the time Deena Varshavskaya had hired six people for her social shopping startup Wanelo she knew she'd need a bigger office -- soon. That's not an easy task for a young entrepreneur in a city as crowded and expensive as San Francisco. So she turned to one of her most important resources: the First Round Capital network.

    She logged on and posted her question to the CEO forum, a network of 150 CEOs of companies funded by First Round. Within the hour, the CEO of a startup just two blocks down posted that his company was moving and his space was available. "It was 98% perfect!" she recalls.

    As venture capital firms compete to land investments in the most promising startups, they're offering an ever broader array of perquisites from access to in-house marketing professionals and founder email lists to annual CEO summits that gather portfolio companies together to hear from high-profile CEOs and network with each other. Philadelphia-based First Round Capital has taken this to the next level. Over the past two years, the early-stage venture firm has built a private social network for its portfolio companies -- think Yelp (YELP) meets Quora with a sprinkling of LinkedIn (LNKD) -- that has become the go-to resource for time-starved startup employees seeking advice on everything from navigating debt-funding to figuring out how much to pay a senior software engineer.

    First Round founding partner Josh Kopelman explains the firms aims for half the employees of his portfolio companies to participate in forums designed for founders, engineers, hiring managers, and marketers. "We invest in software companies so we understand the power of software to make more efficient connections."

    Each portfolio company CEO manages the company's interaction with the network. Members must use a Facebook (FB) ID to log on because, Kopelman points out, "people might be tempted to share a dedicated log-in and password, but they're much less likely to share their Facebook info." CEOs can choose whether to invite their employees to join dedicated groups within the network. The forums work very much like Quora: someone posts a question, and everyone has an opportunity to answer. In addition, the network has a growing list of user-generated reviews for everything from office contractors to lawyers. And entrepreneurs can also request free consulting from a group of Wharton MBA students that intern with First Round. (Example: "We're a photosharing startup and we need to go to every photo-sharing-related conference in the United States -- where and when are they?")

    Anyone can build at social network, of course, but First Round's network stands out because it is densely populated and frequently used. During a recent demo on an August afternoon, I counted 27 consulting requests made within four days. Many of First Round's entrepeneurs report visiting the network weekly, and at times, daily. As CEO of Xobni, Jeff Bonforte read all of the questions that were posed on the platform, and when he offered up an answer, his posts were often five paragraphs long. "I don't have any time at all, but I'd feel compelled to write a page on how to take on venture debt," he said recently.

    To tend this community, Kopelman relies on an inhouse staff of eight people who designed and built the platform and help to maintain it both online and off. Much of the reason it works so well is because its members have met at any of 60 events First Round hosts during the year. These offline relationships help foster a virtual intimacy that allows members to ask tough questions.