from VC Ratings by
Joshua Jaffe 
LinkedIn founder and chairman Reid Hoffman is using his company's question and answer service to boost deal flow. The busy angel investor posted a question on LinkedIn's Answers service last week wondering "What are the three hottest companies in Silicon Valley currently?" Something must be in the air because Matt Marshall of VentureBeat asked his readers the same question a few days before.
The responses show that after Facebook, there really is no consensus answer. NetSuite, Linden Research, LinkedIn, AdMob, Digg, NanoSolar and Tesla received multiple nominations. Bebo, AdBrite and Aggregate Knowledge, companies I think are building fast growing, profitable businesses, each received a mention. One I didn't see in the response section yet that I think holds tremendous potential is TechMeme.