(Updated)
If there is a clearcut example of how consumer-oriented social platforms penetrate the Enterprise market, then ConnectBeam it is: what started it’s life as CourseCafe, the “Other FaceBook” is now reborn as a Social Bookmarking Service for corporations.

I originally met Puneet Gupta, Founder and CEO at an SVASE Breakfast session and was impressed by his vision – so was the VC Partner, too, but back then Puneet was just testing the water, not ready to bring in serious VC investment. A few blog posts and a review by TechCrunch attracted a lot of interest, and Puneet started to receive serious feedback that there is a need for such a service in the corporate world, too. While I seriously believed in the future of the original student-community-type model, too, I have to agree with Puneet: a startup needs to be focused, and can not possibly build too separate businesses at the same time. That’s how ConnectBeam was born.

TechCrunch usually does a much better job in reviewing products than I do, so please read it over there.

Related posts:

• ConnectBeam and PeopleAggregator
• Enterprise tagging – off to the races…
• Corporate social networking arrives, almost
• Teaching an old dog 2.0 tricks

Update (11/27): Robert Scoble interviewed Puneet.  Watch the interview here (Quicktime) and a product demo here.

Technorati : Collaboration, Connectbeam, CourseCafe, FaceBook, JustStudents, Social Bookmarking, Social tagging