What are the three hottest companies companies in Silicon Valley currently?
A friend of mine asked me this question recently, and I have my own answer. Then I realized that, like many professional topics, I might get a set of additional valuable answers by posting this question of Linkedin and of my network -- so here it is. Here are a few refinements on this question.
1) in Linkedin answers, a natural answer is Linkedin, so I'm not looking for Linkedin as an answer.
2) By hottest, I mean the most likely either to have (a) a very strong financial exit or (b) a reasonable financial exit with a large impact on the world, i.e. improving the lives of millions.
3) In addition to saying the company, I'm interested in a few sentences why.
Location specific: San Francisco Bay Area
Good Answers (14)
Jared K
Idea Guy. Contrarian. Entrepreneur.
Best Answers in: Venture Capital and Private Equity (1), Starting Up (1)
In Consumer segment only, mainly Web:
Established: Google, Apple
Why they're hot: Taking a point of view, a long time perspective and a plan for releasing things that people actually want to use
Mid-stage: Facebook, Slide (disclosure:advisor), LinkedIn
Why they're hot: Focus on a need, solve hard problems, make it simple for people to use
Early, promising: Boxbe, AllMyData, MediaFire
Why they're hot: Focus on a need, solve hard problems, make it simple for people to use
Clarification added April 5, 2007:
Netflix. (How could I forget Netflix?!)
1. Pandora - Revolutionizing the delivery music based on tastes
2. Weatherbill - Innovative weather insurance for businesses
3. Geni - New age connected genealogy
Damon B
Director, Customer Evangelism
Best Answers in: Personnel Policies (1), E-Commerce (1), Using LinkedIn (1)
I can only think of two right now...
Facebook: Massive pageviews & audience.
Twitter: Even though I don't personally use it, it does have a fair amount of buzz in the tech world. I would also expect the service to take off with teens, tweens & college students.
The "PayPal Mafia" guys also seem to be doing quite well (Yelp, Slide, Geni, etc.).
I am sure there are some interesting mobile startups in the Valley...I just don't know enough about any of them to recommend one.
1. AdBrite -- has good traction, continues to innovate
2. Linkedin -- the only social network that has value after you're married
3. AdMob -- amazing growth, riding the right trends
4. NearbyNow (disclaimer: my company)
As the former Research Director of the San Jose Business Journal, I'd have to encourage you to check the Silicon Valley's 100 Fastest Growing Public and Private Companies lists that come out every year. You can get the current one from amcity.com for about 40 cities or look for the Book of Lists at a local library with a subscription.
My personal favorites:
If you don't want linkedin.com as an answer, another fun company with more features for a younger crowd is tribe.net. Part, Utah Networks, was just bought by Cisco. Mark Pincus is a great guy too.
Powerset.com, Barney Pell, has been getting press and will be hot in Natural Language Search. http://www.powerset.com/news.html
Lee H
Venture Capitalist, Entrepreneur
Best Answers in: Venture Capital and Private Equity (4), Starting Up (2), Product Design (1), Small Business (1), Biotech (1), E-Commerce (1), Software Development (1)
I think Facebook clearly has the best near term potential for >$1B exit, but besides them my top three would be:
1) Admob --> good potential for (a)
2) Second Life --> good potential for (b) in terms of impacting lots of people, though unclear what sort of exit they'll eventually have
3) Jingle Networks (Free 411) --> good potential for (a), also upending a multibillion dollar mkt w/ simple but disruptive model
I am honestly more excited about physical products than yet another irritating and spurious Web 2.0 concept.
The things that excite me the most in the coming years are RFID, WiMAX, virtual worlds (not Second Life- it lacks scalability and population density), e-books/magazines/newspapers, and any company that can finally bring the Dynabook to life.
Personally, I think iStockphoto is the best Web 2.0 concept of them all.
Facebook - A pretty clear success in the making, both in terms of impact and financial outcome.
Photobucket - They're growing by leaps and bounds (and have been for awhile)
Dash Navigation - They are the first company in awhile who has tried to solve a hard (and interesting) CE problem.
1. facebook (no doubt);
2. yelp.com (check out the US Alexa rank);
3. jajah (better than Skype exit);
My criteria: How motivated I would be to invest my own $$ at the companies' last valuation.
Facebook, the number of pageviews per day is staggering, the financials are nice, and having 80% of college kids shaped by this experience is going to produce a different kind of executive in 10 years.
MerchantCircle, bringing 3MM small local merchants online will change the way local advertising and the local web works (Yes I am biased)
Rockyou, the growth is great and that much content will allow us all to waste more time being entertained by user generated content.
Facebook - next generation yahoo; broad sweeping (not vertically focused); talent of team/engineering; product prowess; metrics growth
Most under rated - Bebo
Reid? Quid Pro Quo....what are yours?
Facebook -- Because its got a lot of momentum (I'm getting more requests from people to befriend me on Facebook than from any other source.) They're the only ones who have really locked up a market (college). And they've got more under the hood.
There are a dozen other companies vying for 2nd and 3rd, and its too difficult to call. I'd like to see a solar company, like Nanosolar, doing something really, really valuable, break out.
Aggregate Knowledge - Paul and Chris rock and their technology and model rocks - as well. No risk, all upside scemarios always win - if they work.
TiVO seems to be coming of age. Only until they launch their on-demand en masse will their brand reach its potential, but they're on their way.
Auomattic - again I'm more into people, and Matt is a god. Toni is a great complement, they have the hottest blog tool and they're nice people.
Ramon K
Senior Product Manager at Nuance Communications - Ramon.LinkedIn@gmail.com.
Kiva.Org. Definitely Kiva.org...
More Answers (10)
Robert H. H
Investment banking- financial consulting; FL, Caribbean, Central America; http://sophisticatedfinance.typepad.com
Best Answers in: Accounting (4), Venture Capital and Private Equity (4), Starting Up (4), Mergers and Acquisitions (3), Auditing (1), Internationalization and Localization (1), Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Organizational Development (1), Planning (1), Personal Investing (1), Personal Real Estate (1), Small Business (1), Enterprise Software (1), Wireless (1)
This link is very current. http://venturebeat.com/2007/04/04/whats-the-hottest-company-in-silicon-valley/
Would you like to narrow down the selection for the three hottest companies by industry too? How about also setting criteria for selection -- based it on company's financials/potential profit, technology/product/service (what they do or their mission/purpose for existence), people & management, etc.?
*Rohit C
Social Networks pioneer: abt a billion users using his inventions on the WWW
Although biased, I am putting my consumer-internet company down for posterity's sake. We are currently in stealth mode but our claim is that we have the potential to do what YouTube did - simple idea, massive viral adoption, real need, horizontal play! No signup, no download.
Viral as in email from person A to person B, where the focus of the email is our product; not viral like every other social networking Web 2.0 (which we are not!).
Robert D
Executive VP at California Association of Nurseries and Garden Centers
Best Answers in: Writing and Editing (2), Change Management (2), Planning (2), Manufacturing (2), Starting Up (2), Using LinkedIn (2), Purchasing (1), Mentoring (1), Accounting (1), Compensation and Benefits (1), Internationalization and Localization (1), Advertising (1), Direct Marketing (1), Corporate Governance (1), Supply Chain Management (1), Market Research and Definition (1), Ethics (1), Professional Networking (1), E-Commerce (1), Computers and Software (1), Software Development (1), Web Development (1)
The three hottest companies currently in Silicon Valley are certain to be off-the-radar, pre-revenue stealth launches now being formed by stable of seasoned serial entrepreneurs who will have no difficulties raising adequate capital to move on a straight, narrow, and short-duration path from inception to liquidity event, maximizing the return for their investors.
I wouldn't forget the world of biotech either...
How about 23andme.com?
Links:
I believe Tesla Motors has an opportunity to improve the lives of millions by changing the automotive industry; the company is producing high-performance, zero-emissions, electic cars. Reid- please PayPal me your $50K deposit along with your color preference and I will order your Tesla Roadster for you. :-)
Tim Wenzel
VP, Human Resources
Tesla Motors, Inc.
www.teslamotors.com
Ish S
Investor/Entrepreneur; Wharton MBA
Best Answers in: Foreign Investment (3), Venture Capital and Private Equity (2)
All of the ones I know of are in Stealth mode -- expect for perhaps Joost. I think Kiva should be included because of overall impact (of course, you already knew that).
Dimitar V
marketing consultant at WordFrame
Best Answers in: Offshoring and Outsourcing (1), Writing and Editing (1), Hedge Funds (1), Blogging (1)
I think Blogtronix will be the leading Enterprise 2.0 company. Why? Some features to begin with:
blogs + social networking + wiki + RSS reader + statistics = Blogtronix
Links:
SuTree.com - social bookmarking of free video lessons & tutorials.
