If 'A Small World' played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

February 12, 2013 12:16 AM

Neal Goldman and his company Relationship Science (NYT link) wants to bring the the 1% and those aspiring to be 1% closer together. Do the rich need something like this or will it go the way of other rich connectors such as A Small World or James List?
posted by JiffyQ (13 comments total)

“I am here to show you off to a priest. He thinks you might have a soul.”
posted by sebastienbailard at 12:33 AM on February 12 [3 favorites]

$60 million for a startup web scraper?
posted by Burhanistan at 12:42 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

Don't rich people have people to do this for them?
posted by justsomebodythatyouusedtoknow at 12:44 AM on February 12

If 'A Small World' played Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon

Just for the record, ASW does have this feature. You can search for another member and then click 'View Shortest Path' which will show you all the intermediate connections.
posted by vacapinta at 1:44 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

I'll get my Butler to read it to me as he after he has prepared my breakfast.
posted by marienbad at 1:47 AM on February 12

EatBreed the Rich
posted by Thorzdad at 4:41 AM on February 12

My initial thoughts are: (1) the people who this service targets have people who can do this for them already and (2) the company will be successful only if it can convince a sufficient number of its target demographic to use the service. But, really, the notion that Billionaire X needs a social network to contact Billionaire Y is...quaint.

Consider a scenario in which Bill Gates wants to meet Warren Buffet. (These two know each other already, but let's pretend they don't.)

Gates will say to someone on his staff, presumably a lawyer or accountant, "I want to meet Warren Buffet. Tell me when I can fly to Omaha to meet him."

The lawyer or accountant, who got this position by dint of being both discrete and knowing how to use back channels to communicate on behalf of his client(s), starts calling contacts: "My client is looking to do business with Warren Buffet. Who do we know who can put us in touch with him?" Etc.

I would be surprised that, for those high profile people for whom there is not a publicly available social network exposure, there would be much interest in this kind of venture, when the aforementioned attorneys/accountants/etc. can do much the same thing, albeit somewhat less efficiently.
posted by dfriedman at 4:49 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

First thing that came to mind with this was the phrase nouveau riche. Six°-of-Daddy-Warbucks will be a tool for the arriviste whose money is less than a generation old, or who (shockingly) did something as grubby as make his own fortune.

The old-school American ruling class don't need something as vulgar as a networking website. Their kids have grown up knowing each other since childhood the same way they grew up knowing each other. They serve on the same boards and go to the same private clubs.

The idea of making it easy for new-money to make social connections goes against everything being ruling-class stands for. I don't see this idea as a thing with legs.
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey at 7:19 AM on February 12

> The idea of making it easy for new-money to make social connections goes against everything being ruling-class stands for. I don't see this idea as a thing with legs.

I'm also wondering how they expect to generate buzz for new subscriptions. It's not like the people who used it to finagle an introduction are going to go around touting how they discovered the connection. So, figure close to zero word-of-mouth advertising.
posted by Burhanistan at 7:21 AM on February 12

This is basically meant as a service tool for relationship M&A bankers and ultra high net worth private bankers. Nothing more. You are all reading way way too much into this.
posted by JPD at 7:50 AM on February 12

John Galt has friended you.
posted by srboisvert at 7:59 AM on February 12 [1 favorite]

ok, I checked the box indicating I would like to bang Warren Buffett. When do I hear back?
posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 9:37 AM on February 12

Also for what its worth...the founders of A Small World left to start another, even more exclusive site: Best of All Worlds

Disclaimer: I'm not super-rich. The founder of these sites happens to be a friend of a friend.
posted by vacapinta at 3:53 AM on February 13