Web/Tech

The third largest IPO in history created a whole new network of billionaires.

Facebook's IPO valued the company at about $104 billion, slightly more than Amazon.com, and well above well-known corporations such as Disney, McDonald's and Kraft.

For now, the public value of Facebook puts it at number 23 on the list of biggest U.S. companies, ranked by market capitalization.

Here are some other stats about Facebook – from The Daily.

I visited my son in Washington DC this week.

   
He works for company called LivingSocial, which is a fast-growing and innovative tech startup. If it doesn't immediately ring a bell … they compete with Groupon in the daily deals space.

As an entrepreneur, it was interesting to get a sense of the scope (they do a lot more than daily deals), scale (5,000 employess in just three years), and pace of the company like this.

LivingSocial raised enough money (at a $6 billion valuation) that, even though they lost over $500 million on operations last year, they are on pace for their targets – including an initial public offering in the near future.

As I watched the swarms of people huddling, white-boarding, and doing what they do … It occured to me that what once seemed like chaos is re-organizing at a higher level of order. Teams are relying more on project management; key performance indicators are well known and well tracked; and they are moving to a matrix organization management to get things done.

All-in-all, it was impressive.  Moreover, they are keeping the "prize" in plain sight.  Here's a picture of Ben and me in front of a LivingSocial motivational mural titled "Intergalactic Winning".

It's next to a world map that shows the markets in which they've gone live, and it's a reminder that cool things happen when you focus relentlessly on big goals and an even bigger future.

I visited my son in Washington DC this week.

   
He works for company called LivingSocial, which is a fast-growing and innovative tech startup. If it doesn't immediately ring a bell … they compete with Groupon in the daily deals space.

As an entrepreneur, it was interesting to get a sense of the scope (they do a lot more than daily deals), scale (5,000 employess in just three years), and pace of the company like this.

LivingSocial raised enough money (at a $6 billion valuation) that, even though they lost over $500 million on operations last year, they are on pace for their targets – including an initial public offering in the near future.

As I watched the swarms of people huddling, white-boarding, and doing what they do … It occured to me that what once seemed like chaos is re-organizing at a higher level of order. Teams are relying more on project management; key performance indicators are well known and well tracked; and they are moving to a matrix organization management to get things done.

All-in-all, it was impressive.  Moreover, they are keeping the "prize" in plain sight.  Here's a picture of Ben and me in front of a LivingSocial motivational mural titled "Intergalactic Winning".

It's next to a world map that shows the markets in which they've gone live, and it's a reminder that cool things happen when you focus relentlessly on big goals and an even bigger future.