CLIP: The Power Brokers Behind Social Networks

Social Networkers Need a Social Network of Their Own

Clockwise from top left: Reid Hoffman, Dan Nye, David Sze, Peter Thiel, Marc Andreessen and Jeff Weiner

Yesterday, LinkedIn announced that founder Reid Hoffman was going to resume his duties as the Mountain View, Calif.-based social network’s chief executive officer. He replaces Dan Nye, who had taken over the CEO role from Hoffman in February 2007.

Hoffman will be assisted by interim president Jeff Weiner, formerly of Yahoo and an executive-in-residence at both Accel Partners and Greylock Ventures, positions he will maintain. The news made me think how close-knit the social networking companies are in Silicon Valley -– sort of like a private social network.

• Jeff Weiner was EIR at Accel and Greylock, both investors in Facebook.
• Greylock is also an investor in LinkedIn.
• David Sze of Greylock is on the board of LinkedIn and is an observer on Facebook’s board of directors.
• Hoffman is an investor in Facebook.
• Marc Andreessen, co-founder of social network Ning, is an angel investor in LinkedIn and sits on Facebook’s board.
• Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, is an investor in LinkedIn and Facebook, as well as a Facebook director.

If the list keeps expanding along these lines, perhaps at some point they’ll formalize it? I bet that social network wouldn’t have any trouble selling ads…