Returning to the topic of sharing plans, it’s not only a matter of having interesting plans to share but being compelled to actually share them. And unfortunately, people don’t submit information to social networks because they love data set integrity or altruistically believe in giving as much as possible. They do it because the act of contribution selfishly results in something for them in return.
Most social networks feed primarily on vanity, in that they allow people to share and tailor online content that makes them look good. They can help people communicate to others that they’ve attended impressive schools, built amazing careers, attended cool parties, dated attractive people, thought deep thoughts, or reared cute kids. The top-level goal for most people is to convince others they are the individuals they want to be, whether that includes being happy, attractive, smart, fun or anything else.

LinkedIn makes money by combining 3 business models:

1. Hiring / job placement services
2. Advertising
3. SaaS (freemium style)

Here are some rough metrics deduced from SEC filing and published prices:

1. Avg. hiring services rev. / customer = $87MM (est. 2010 rev) / 3,900 customers (declared) ~= $22,500
2. Advertising rev. / user = $70MM (est. 2010 rev. from “marketing services”) / 90 mil users ~= $0.77 / user [there were 33,000 advertising customers (declared in filing)]
3. % users subscribers to premium services = $60MM (est. 2010 rev. from “premium”) / $45 (est. avg. monthly subscription revenue / 90 mil user * 100 ~= 1.5%

To learn more details about LinkedIn’s product portfolio, revenue, and cost structure I extracted 14 pages of content from the 140 page SEC filing which are more relevant to understanding the business model.

Here’s also a good infographic originally published here.

Enjoy!

Aside from the fame factor (the most expensive building in the US) I believe this is a strategic move for Google to capture the emerging New York tech innovation and to dominate relationships with the ad, book, and fashion industries (all of which operate largely out of NYC and are subject to disruptions by tech).

I say this considering the following observations:

1) Better talent retention. Silicon Valley is a fickle talent market: there’s a slow, but constant defection/poaching trend from Google to Facebook in the last year with folks like Lars Rasmussen (who started Maps and Wave and “coincidentally” moved to Facebook as they announced their new email service) and others.  This talent transfer is facilitated by the physical proximity of all innovation foci in the Bay Area which seems a blessing in the nascent phase and a curse in the maturing phase of company.  It makes it hard if not impossible to hold on to talent over decades (which you need if you are to build a “[Good To] Great” company).

Microsoft on the other hand has enjoyed three undisturbed decades of talent retention due in part to Seattle’s physical separation from other innovation foci (opinion expressed in more detail in this debate Why has Microsoft seemingly stopped innovating with which I largely agree).  As proof, the Google office in Kirkland, WA is having some pull effect on Microsoft talent, and while the scale is insignificant you can see the principle at work.

Of course Mountain View will always be the HQ, but NYC is now perfectly positioned to become a major contributor to their future leadership.  I believe NYC will be Google’s “Seattle” (i.e. “isolated” innovation center) and it’s a deliberate plan.

2) Capture fruits of innovation democratization. NYC isn’t known traditionally as a tech innovation hub but that’s changing as tech innovation now includes business model innovation not just engineering in a strict sense. To be fair, the tech entrepreneurial culture will never the size of the Bay Area, maybe not even Seattle or Boston, but that doesn’t mean it should be ignored.

The talents of folks who naturally cluster in the North East are becoming relevant for tech innovation.   Notable recent NYC start-ups: Etsy, Gawker, Foursquare (more here). NY is among the top 5 entrepreneurial states (after CA, MA, WA, CO).  Google will be the natural next step for this talent as the start-ups mature.  If you establish a life in New York it’s unlikely you’ll want to move, much like if you establish a life in Seattle with Microsoft it’s unlikely you’ll want to move.

3) Physical real estate constraints. Due to the unique nature of real estate in Manhattan, it is physically impossible to replicate the “cool” West Coast style tech campus with large play/open spaces, higher number of sqft/employee, etc.  For instance, offices of financial institutions in NYC are fragmented across many buildings and supporting staff (corp operations) work mostly out of NJ rather than Manhattan (being a cost center, IT dept offices are anything but cool, mostly depressing).

The sole exception is this particular building which is located in Meatpacking District (home of former warehouses, etc) and it’s unusually massive.  It allows Google to build a West coast style campus for 10,000 employees within Manhattan, further adding to the appeal of the location.

That won’t happen overnight since the building currently houses mostly data center and telecom switching equipment (most of Manhattan’s communications go through that node), but I expect that over the next 10 years those facilities will move out to NJ and Google will slowly build the coolest workplace in Manhattan.

1. New York City: 667,200 (persons)
2. Los Angeles: 235,800
3. Chicago: 198,100
4. Washington, DC: 152,400
5. San Francisco: 138,300

A “high-net-worth” dude or dudette is one with $1 million or more in investment assets (i.e. money other than primary residence, collectibles, or durable goods like cars, appliances, electronics, etc.).   The data is from a research report by Capgemini that made its way in the NY Times.

Now, Manhattan has an official Census population of ~1,6 million people.  Granted, not all the millionaires live on the island, but most do, so approximately speaking, 40% of inhabitants have lots and lots of disposable cash.  No wonder my lame landlord charges me $2500/mo for a “large” studio with shitty 1970s windows that I’ve only seen in the Communist era in Eastern Europe.  Hey, PanAm! (my lame landlord)  Romanian peasants in the poor country-side now have double-glazed windows!  Be enlightened for once in your life!

Another interesting thought: no matter how enchanted we are with high-tech, the world is still ruled by old money.

Peace!

It’s ironic that after so much effort to digitally sign firmware updates, one can jailbreak iOS 4.0.1 by exploiting a security vulnerability.  The vulnerability is so dangerous though that it’s hard to argue against patching when the fix is eventually released.

I’m so torn… should I patch or should I jailbreak?

The big kudos here goes to Lenovo however.  My Thinkpad has an embedded EV-DO modem that connects to Verizon and on which I depend heavily for work while on the road.  It’s made by Sierra Wireless and it’s among the first models that OEMs started embedding in their laptops.  I was concerned I wouldn’t find a driver for it, but Lenovo published an update not just to the driver, but also to their connection manager app so the broadband experience is even better than XP or Vista.

This is more than I can say for HP which on multiple occasions did not publish updated drivers for hardware I own when a new OS was released (the Laserjet 3055 All-in-one comes to mind which hasn’t had drivers for Vista let alone Win 7).   Bad, bad, HP!

Thanks Lenovo!

What the Gecko lacks in stature he certainly makes up for in ability. In fact, under the ownership of Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc., he’s helped GEICO rise to become the nation’s third-largest car insurance company. [...]

Has the Gecko really been Buffet all along?   Also, The GEICO logo now features in small-type: “a subsidiary of Berkshire Hathaway Inc.”

The whole thing caught my eye since I’m reading at present Buffet: The Making of An American Capitalist which goes into detail about the GEICO investment in the late 70s.  The 2009 recession has definitely positioned Warren Buffet as an investment genius even more so than before.  The fact that GEICO uses his persona image to promote itself and associate with those values is similar to how Branson uses his feats and persona perception to aid the promotion of his Virgin businesses.

She cooked roasted pears with Gorgonzola, roast duck breast w/ pomegranate seeds & arugula

…butternut squash                                                        …and bowtie pasta with vodka emulsion.

Lots of red wine and chocolate Maracaibo mousse cake from Citarella.

Yum, yum! Thank you sweetie! Muah!