Reid Hoffman
Updated: 11/16/2019 by Computer Hope
Name: Reid Hoffman
Born: August 5, 1967, in Stanford, California, USA
Computer-related contributions
- American entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author who is known as the co-founder of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.
- Joined Apple in 1994, where he worked on eWorld, an early attempt at creating a social network. Later, eWorld was acquired by AOL in 1996.
- His first company, SocialNet, was founded in 1997. It focused "on online dating, and connecting people with similar interests, like golfers who were looking for partners in their neighborhood." Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal, said SocialNet.com was "literally an idea before its time. It was a social network 7 or 8 years before that became a trend."
- According to David Kirkpatrick's book "The Facebook Effect," Hoffman arranged the first meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, which led to a $500,000 angel investment in the company. Hoffman invested alongside Thiel in Facebook's very first financing round.
Significant publications
- The Start-Up of You (2012).
Honors and awards
- Ranked third on the Forbes Midas List of the top tech investors (2012).
- Ranked #3 of the 100 most significant people in the digital world by Newsweek (2012).
- Ernst and Young U.S. Entrepreneur of the Year Award (2011).
Quotes
"One thing I learned in '97, when I thought the right time to found a company was during a swing-up, is that it's much better to start during an economic downturn. Partnerships are easier; hiring is easier; and the competition starts later."
"People will be discovering that the Internet helps their career. One of my theses is that every individual is now a small business; how you manage your own personal career is the exact way you manage a small business. Your brand matters. That is how LinkedIn operates."