Ever wonder who the first user of LinkedIn was?
Jean-Luc Vaillant, LinkedIn’s founding CTO, was apparently the first actual real user. Vaillant’s user ID is 1210.
So who are the first 1,209 users? Test data, as best I can tell. I’m 1st-degree connected to one LinkedIn founder, which makes me 2nd-degree from all the rest of them. So any real person that was actually using their profile should be in my 3rd degree, but all the IDs below Vaillant give me the message: “You and this LinkedIn user don’t know anyone in common.” Hence my conclusion that they’re test data. Plus, it makes sense that the founding CTO would be member #1. 
As an interesting aside, this means that you can figure out your actual LinkedIn number by subtracting 1,209 from your ID. For example, my profile ID is 2369, making me user #1,160. My coauthor, David Teten, was user #366!
The other first few users after Vaillant, in order, are:
If you’ve found this useful/interesting, please me know by leaving a comment below or giving me +K in LinkedIn on Klout.
Scott Allen is a true social media pioneer, helping turn virtual relationships into real business since 2002. He is coauthor of The Virtual Handshake, the first book on using social media for business, and contributor to over a dozen books on social media, marketing & entrepreneurship. He is currently Director of Client Solutions for Momentum Factor, a social media and online marketing management firm specializing in the direct selling industry.
Thanks for sharing the tip, Scott. But what benefits we can use to know the number?
No benefit…just curiosity. Maybe a little bit of bragging rights for those who got in early.
I did not even know that there is a number for my user placement – where would I find such a number?
Explained in the post — get your user ID from the URL of your profile (not any custom one — the one that you get if you click to view or edit your own profile). Then subtract 1,209 from that.
Interesting.. so the first user was #1210. I wonder why they started with that number.