Analyzing Success of Startup Entrepreneurs by Measuring their Social Network Distance to a Business Networking Hub

In this project we compare the success of startup entrepreneurs and innovators with their social networking behavior. In particular, we analyze the LinkedIn, Facebook, and e-Mail network of swissnex, Switzerland’s science and technology outpost in Boston connecting Swiss and American entrepreneurs and academics for collaborative work. We invited 500 members of the swissnex community to share their networking data, leading to 72 LinkedIn and 31 Facebook ego networks. We also included one month of all e-mail traffic of swissnex. We find that centrality in the network predicts entrepreneurial and academic success: the more central actors are in the different types of networks, the more successful they are. We also include the metric of “proximity” to key people, including the swissnex director as well as a longtime Boston entrepreneur and academic. We again find that proximity in the LinkedIn network to these two people correlates with business and academic success of the members of the swissnex community.