Reid Hoffman — Complete Biography, History, and Inventions
Key Points
- Reid Hoffman is an American businessman born in 1967.
- His two most famous ventures are PayPal and LinkedIn.
- Hoffman is also a successful venture capitalist. In 2009, he joined Greylock Partners, a venture capital fund that focused on investment in Silicon Valley firms.
You may not know Reid Hoffman’s name, but it’s highly likely that you use LinkedIn, the business-oriented online social network that he co-founded in 2002. After all, over 137 million U.S. members use the platform every day.
Prior to co-founding LinkedIn, Hoffman had a stellar academic career that included obtaining a master’s degree from Wolfson College in Oxford and receiving a Marshall Scholarship, an honor that’s only bestowed on the country’s best students.
Hoffman’s career began at Apple in the mid-1990s. In 1997, he founded SocialNet.com, a website that matched people of similar interests and also had an online dating element. Next, he co-founded LinkedIn. But this was just the beginning of his remarkable business achievements!
Find out what Reid Hoffman did next in his career, personal life, and more.
Who Is Reid Hoffman?
Reid Hoffman is a highly successful American businessman and entrepreneur. He has been involved with two of the most successful business ventures of the past twenty years: PayPal and LinkedIn. His experience in PayPal's early days would prove to be foundational for his business success, and Reid would eventually be able to call himself a member of the famed PayPal Mafia.
In his later years, Reid would strike it rich as a venture capitalist. He would form Greylock Partners and further grow his fortune. Reid would turn his success into a successful speaking career. Reid still actively writes, speaks, and hosts a podcast.
Early Life
Reid was born to Deanna Ruth and William Hoffman and grew up in California. During that time, Hoffman pursued typically academic and somewhat "nerdy" pursuits. This included heavy investment in role-playing and tabletop games. In later interviews, Hoffman would credit the lessons he learned during his time playing board games — which included pattern and strategy — for much of his business success.
Hoffman's education was nothing short of sterling. His high school education took place at the Putney School, a private school in Vermont. Hoffman would continue his education into college, earning a Bachelor of Science from Stanford in Symbolic Systems and Computer Science. He would then earn a Master's Degree in Philosophy from Wolfson College in Oxford. Hoffman was a Marshall Scholar during this time — Marshall Scholarships are only given out to the best of the best students in the country.
Career
Various Technology Pursuits
Hoffman graduated from Wolfson in 1993 and went to work in the technology sector. He worked at Apple in the mid-1990s and spent time there working on the eWorld project, a proto-social network that the company was working on during this time period. This experience unquestionably influenced his later years at LinkedIn.
Hoffman founded SocialNet.com in 1997, a website dedicated to matching people of similar interests. It also had an online dating component. While the website would not ultimately be successful, Reid would learn many lessons he termed critical to his eventual business success at both PayPal and LinkedIn.
During this time, Hoffman served on the board of many organizations and businesses — including PayPal.
PayPal
Reid left SocialNet in 2000 to join PayPal, where he served as the company's Chief Operating Officer, a position he served until co-founding LinkedIn in 2002. He eventually became the company's Executive Vice President, a position he held until eBay purchased PayPal on October 3, 2002.
In December 2002, Reed would cofound LinkedIn, the business professional social network. Taking the lessons, he learned from his time at eWorld and SocialNet.com. Reed would turn the company into one of the biggest successes in the social networking world, making himself a legendary entrepreneur in the process.
LinkedIn, like many other start-ups, owes its success to venture capital investments, and many of these investments came from Reed's former colleagues at PayPal, further cementing his presence as a member of the PayPal Mafia.
Reed owns billions in LinkedIn stock and has served as the Chairman, President, and Executive Chairman of the company at various points.
Investing and Crypto
Next, Hoffman became a successful venture capitalist. In 2009, he joined Greylock Partners, a venture capital fund that focused on investment in Silicon Valley firms. He has helped to turn Greylock Partners into a wildly successful fund and a must-have on a company's investment portfolio. Reid has made major investments during his time at Greylock and helped to reap the profits of many companies, including Airbnb, Helion Energy, and more. He also runs Greylock's $20 million discovery fund, which invests in brand-new firms.
Like many other members of the PayPal Mafia, Hoffman has also invested heavily in crypto. In 2014, he invested in Xapo, a business that engaged in Bitcoin vaults and wallets. He has repeatedly discussed his support of the currency in interviews.
What Is Reid Hoffman Best Known For?
.
PayPal Mafia
Hoffman's time at PayPal would lead to him becoming one of the most successful members of the so-called "PayPal Mafia," the group of men who were involved in the founding and initial IPO of PayPal. These men, headed by Peter Thiel, would become wildly successful, forming new businesses and making billions in Silicon Valley.
Hoffman's most well-known personal success has been as the founder of LinkedIn, which is now one of the world's most successful social networks and the most popular business social network in the world. It was Hoffman's vision and techniques that turned LinkedIn into the success that it is today.
LinkedIn also made Hoffman a very rich man. In addition to his stock ownership, Hoffman reaped profits when Microsoft purchased LinkedIn in 2016 for $26.2 billion.
Speaking, Writing and Podcasting
Reed has published four books and constantly gives speeches about his entrepreneurial success. He has also turned to Podcasting. Hoffman's Podcast, Masters of Scale, interviews CEOs and uses this platform to allow the CEOs to share the lessons they have learned from their time in the business sector.
Philanthropy
Like many multi-billionaires, Hoffman has turned to philanthropic giving. Hoffman has invested heavily in various programs that also encompass his tech interests, including Kiva (peer-to-peer lending) and the Crisis Text Line for suicide prevention.
Reid's philanthropic involvement has earned him numerous awards. His wife, Michelle, is also heavily involved in guiding his philanthropic investments.
Reid Hoffman: Marriage, Children, Personal Life
Net Worth
As of December 2021, Hoffman's net worth was estimated to be $2.4 billion dollars. Such a net worth places him among the fifty richest people in the United States.
Marriage
Hoffman married his wife, Michelle Yee, in 2004. Yee is a speech pathologist who stopped seeing patients in order to become more active in philanthropic endeavors.
Children
Hoffman and Yee have no children and have decided against having any.
Reid Hoffman: Awards
As a prominent American businessman, Hoffman has won many awards. Recent ones include:
- Honorary Commander of the Order of the British Empire (2017)
- Golden Plate (American Academy of Achievement, 2014) was awarded for "significant accomplishments in his field."
- Presidential Ambassador for Global Entrepreneurship, 2014, President Barack Obama. Given as part of Hoffman's efforts to create the next generation of global entrepreneurs.
Reid Hoffman: Books
Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs
Masters of Scale was Sack's first book. In this book, Reid discusses lessons learned from his time interviewing CEOs on his podcast, as well as the things he learned from his time in business.
Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies
In this book, Hoffman discusses his technique known as "blitzscaling," which involves setting up techniques that allow for a business to be scaled up at remarkable speed. In doing so, a company can destroy its competition by simply outworking them and getting off of the ground faster than it ever could.
The Alliance: Managing Talent in a Networked World
The Alliance: Managing Talent in a Networked World encourages business leaders and entrepreneurs to rethink their relationship with employees and fundamentally alter the power dynamic between them. Reed argues that business leaders need to think of employees as "allies," or people who can help create a new and better company.
The Start-up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform your Career
In The Start-up of You, Reed (and his co-author, Ben Casnocha) argues that you have to treat yourself as a start-up. This means constant investment, planning, networking, and risk-taking.
Reid Hoffman Quotes
“If you aren’t embarrassed by the first version of your product, you shipped too late.”
“The person passionate about what he or she is doing will outwork and outlast the guy motivated solely by making money.”
“Everything in life has some risk, and what you have to actually learn to do is how to navigate it.”
