Editor’s note: Matt Kaufman is the president of CrunchBase. Follow him on Twitter @kaufman_matt.
When CrunchBase 2.0 was released in April, we not only launched an entirely new design and technology stack, we also declared our ambition to build the business world’s answer to Mark Zuckerberg’s “social graph” — The Business Graph. From architecting around a graph database to embracing a card-based user interface, we designed CrunchBase 2.0 to expose the web of connections between businesses and the employees and executives who manage them.
When we launched, the new CrunchBase displayed only glimmers of what the Business Graph could deliver. For the past three months we’ve been steadily improving the site and preparing new features, even as hundreds of thousands of users added their contributions. Today we are rolling out Graph Insights, the first in a series of features that deliver on the promise of the Business Graph. Graph Insights appear in the right rail of organization profile pages and leverage the Business Graph to reveal important information about the startup ecosystem.
Shared investors. If you’ve ever wondered whether investors in a given company think alike and whether they tend to invest in the same companies, Graph Insights makes that easy to determine. Funded companies now include a list of other companies sharing the same investors. For example, what companies were Square investors most likely to invest in? SimpleGeo, Twitter and Uber, as it turns out. And who actually invested in both Square and Twitter? Ron Conway, Kleiner Perkins and four others.
Co-Investors. Conversely, think about how often investors collaborate. Instead of which companies share investors, let’s ask which investors tend to invest alongside each other. Graph Insights also makes that possible. Each CrunchBase investor profile now has Graph Insights in the right rail that reveals the investors they most often invest alongside. Wondering who co-invests with Andreessen Horowitz? SV Angel has been a co-investor in 62 companies.
Employment: Past and Present. Investors are one thing, but Graph Insights also tracks the work history of employees at a startup and unearths past connections. For instance, at Square six members of the team are from Google, four from Facebook, and the list goes on. Where do Square employees go after Square? Graph Insights can answer that too.
We see Graph Insights as a framework for uncovering relationships and we’ll be expanding it. We have a lot more features in store, all powered by the content you contribute to CrunchBase. If you have not already done so, add your profile to CrunchBase. As people explore the new business graph, don’t be left out.