punctuative! by Matt Winn

VCDB: One Week and Many, Many Searches Later

Well, it’s been a week since VCDB went live and the response has been overwhelming… and instructional. First and foremost, I’ve been surprised by the impact that Twitter has had on traffic. As a group instant messaging app (oversimplification, I know), it’s a powerful one. A few “tweets” from well-”followed” twitterers set off a chain reaction of visits, not only from Twitter but also from Facebook where thousands of folks have installed the Twitter app to auto-update their Facebook status with their latest tweet. (If your head is spinning from the jargon, head here for a primer.) The below screenshot from Twitter’s search tool shows a slew of folks “retweeting” an initial chirp from Guy Kawasaki. In this case one can even see folks targeting the recommendation. Note that FussyPants (below) has friends who think she’d be interested in a venture database. Wild. “Word of mouth” is increasingly transparent.

I also have a few folks to thank for spreading the word more formally. Guy Kawasaki, in his typically entertaining fashion, cracked me up by covering the launch with a post titled, “Newsflash: Young VC Adds Value.” The jury’s still out, I think, but thanks, Guy. Dan Primack at PE Hub (article behind subscriber firewall), Alain Sherter at TheDeal.com (article here), and Tim Berry at Entrepreneur.com (article here) - professional journalists - each posted about the tool as well, as did a number of others. Thanks, folks.

And the numbers? Some 11,000 searches and 1500+ visits to venture firms’ websites (84% of firms in the database have received traffic from the tool) constitute, to me, fairly robust usage over a single week. App improvements are warranted and on the way.