Company History
LinkedIn started out in the living room of co-founder Reid Hoffman in the fall of 2002. The five original founders were Reid Hoffman, Allen Blue, Jean-Luc Vaillant, Eric Ly, and Konstantin Guericke.
2003 | 2004 | 2005 | 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009
2003
May
- LinkedIn was officially founded in 2003. The site launched on May 5th (affectionately referred to by employees as "Cinco de LinkedIn") when the five founders invited about 350 of their most important contacts to join. At the end of the first month in operation, LinkedIn had a total of 4,500 members in the network. LinkedIn's first "real" office was on Shoreline Road in Mountain View.
October
December
- LinkedIn ends 2003 with 81,000 members and 14 employees. As a pleasant surprise, approximately half of the members came from outside the US.
2004
April
October
December
- LinkedIn ends 2004 with 1.6 million members and 33 employees. International members represent about half of all members.
2005
March
- LinkedIn launches its first premium service - LinkedIn Jobs.The service helps members use their network to find employment opportunities.
May
- LinkedIn moves to Palo Alto. (To the same building in which PayPal went public.)
August
December
- LinkedIn ends 2005 with 4 million members.
2006
March
- LinkedIn reaches 5 million members
June
- LinkedIn members can be kept up to do date with their connections, through the newsfeed.
December
- LinkedIn ends the year with 8 million members.
2007
January
February
March
- LinkedIn Customer Service opens doors in Omaha.
April
- LinkedIn launches its corporate blog
- LinkedIn celebrates with 10 million members
May
- Office moved to Stierlin Court in Mountain View
September
- LinkedIn reaches 15 million members
- Profile Pictures
October
- LinkedIn UK membership surpasses 1 million members
- As pet project, LinkedIn employees launch swag store
December
2008
January
February
- LinkedIn for mobile launches (m.linkedin.com)
- Members share status on LinkedIn
- Sharing LinkedIn News
March
- LinkedIn celebrates 20 million members
- Company profiles [press release]
- Recruiter product makes waves in human resources everywhere
June
July
September
October
- 30 million members
- Applications launch on LinkedIn - initial partners include Amazon, Google, Wordpress, TripIt, Twitter, Slideshare, Box.net, Typepad
- LinkedIn raises $22.7 million from Goldman Sachs, Bessemer, The McGraw-Hill Companies, and SAP Ventures
- LinkedIn launches Survey Business
November
December
- LinkedIn ends 2008 with 33 million members
2009
January
- Targeted LinkedIn Polls
- LinkedIn and IBM Lotus Partner to Deliver Integrated Networking and Collaboration Capabilities to Enterprises
- LinkedIn speaks German
- LinkedIn launches the Grad Guide to help graduating students in today's economy.