David Hornik and Rebecca Lynn check out Geeklist
Reuben Katz presents his achievement-based network for developers
Read more...This week, we take a look at Jigsaw, a leading provider of business card and company data services that leverages user-generated content contributed by its community of some one million members. Our guest host was Aydin Senkut, an early-Google employee-turned angel investor, is becoming known as one of the more prolific seed-to-early-stage investors in Silicon Valley, having invested in 40 companies since 2006.
Here are some observations made by myself, Adyin and Ezra Roizen (Vator Box regular and digital media investment banker):
- Jigsaw CEO and founder Jim Fowler gave a solid pitch.
- It's clear they're addressing a key pain point. The big challenges for marketers and business professionals are data mining and getting clean data. Jigsaw is helping to provide reliable data.
- Jigsaw's information exchange idea is a great one and they nailed the trade-for-trade information model.
- There may be some concerns over privacy as Jigsaw's model allows users to trade in contact information about people who may not want that information publicly available. But privacy concerns are overblown. Wiki sites across the Web, such as Wikipedia, rely on third parties to give up information about people who may not want information available. You don't see many people fighting Wiki sites.
- Why is it that LinkedIn has 40 more million registered users and Facebook has 300 hundred million whereas Jigsaw has under 20 million? It seems that the company's list should be much larger since it started in 2004. Given the relative difference, the question is: Has the company reached its peak? Or is this a company that can significantly ramp up its profiles?
- Jigsaw is providing a disruptive service that is definitely encroaching on the services that Thompson Reuters, Dow Jones, and Dun & Bradstreet's Hoovers are offering.
- The potential for Jigsaw isn't the aggregation of information, but the layer of services on top of the information, such as a preferred way of being contacted.
Founder and CEO of Vator, a media and research firm for entrepreneurs and investors; Managing Director of Vator Health Fund; Co-Founder of Invent Health; Author and award-winning journalist.
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Jigsaw is the industry leader in Data-as-a-Service (DaaS) and business contact information, uniquely leveraging content from its global B2B community. Jigsaw provides salespeople, marketers, and recruiters access to millions of business contacts and company profiles. Every contact is complete with a phone number (70%+ direct dial), position, email, and mailing address. Founded in 2004, Jigsaw is located in San Mateo, Calif. and funded by Austin Ventures, El Dorado Ventures, and Norwest Venture Partners. Update: Jigsaw was acquired by Salesforce in 2010 for $175 million.
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Founder/CEO of InfoArmy. Formerly Founder/CEO of Jigsaw (purchased by Salesforce for $175M).