Scott Sassa, and the "Kleiner Shuffle"

The latest board changes at Silicon Valley game publishing company, Digital Chocolate, provides insight into the central role venture capital firms play here.

Last year, well-known venture firm Kleiner Perkins helped recruit media executive Scott Sassa from southern California, to become chief executive of Friendster, a then-hot social networking company. Kleiner is an investor in Friendster. But Friendster didn't exactly sizzle while

...Sassa was there, and within a year he was replaced.

But Sassa kept a job as a so-called "CEO-in-Residence" at Kleiner, according to VentureWire (sub required). That is someone who is ready to be appointed to run a Kleiner Perkins portfolio company, when needed, or to simply help out on the side.

And so now he has been appointed a new board member at another Kleiner company, Digital Chocolate. As this story suggests (the picture is of Trip Hawkins, the chief executive), Sassa may be a good fit because Friendster gave him some insights into social networking, and that could mesh well with Digital Chocolate's emphasis on social networking for mobile games.