The company was founded in December 2002 by Reid Hoffman and founding team members from PayPal and Socialnet.com (Allen Blue, Eric Ly, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Lee Hower, Konstantin Guericke, Stephen Beitzel, David Eves, Ian McNish, Yan Pujante, Chris Saccheri).In late 2003, Sequoia Capital led the Series A investment in the company.In August 2004, LinkedIn reached 1 million users.In March 2006, LinkedIn achieved its first month of profitability.In April 2007, LinkedIn reached 10 million users.In February 2008, LinkedIn launched a mobile version of the site.
A member's list of connections can then be used in a number of ways:
Users can obtain introductions to the connections of connections (termed second-degree connections) and connections of second-degree connections (termed third-degree connections)
Users can search for second-degree connections who work at a specific company they are interested in, and then ask a specific first-degree connection in common for an introduction
Users can find jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in one's contact network.
Employers can list jobs and search for potential candidates.
Job seekers can review the profile of hiring managers and discover which of their existing contacts can introduce them.
Users can post their own photos and view photos of others to aid in identification.
Users can follow different companies.
Users can save (i.e. bookmark) jobs that they would like to apply for.
Users can "like" and "congratulate" each other's updates and new employments.
Users can wish each other a happy birthday.
Users can see who has visited their profile page
