Reid Hoffman
Reid Garrett Hoffman is an American entrepreneur, investor, and writer, born on August 5, 1967, in Stanford, whose professional life has encompassed company founding, venture capital, and public commentary across multiple decades.
Hoffman was educated at The Putney School before continuing his studies at Stanford University. He later received a Marshall Scholarship to attend Wolfson College, and he subsequently received the title Commander of the Order of the British Empire, a distinction conferred by the British Crown.
His most prominent role in the technology industry has been as co-founder and former executive chairman of LinkedIn. Beyond that position, Hoffman serves as chairman of the venture capital firm Village Global. He has also co-founded both Inflection AI and Manas AI, extending his entrepreneurial activity into artificial intelligence. His engagement with institutions is further reflected in his role as a board member at Arc Institute.
Alongside his work as an entrepreneur, financier, and consultant, Hoffman has pursued writing and podcasting as distinct professional activities. He works in English, and these pursuits sit alongside his roles as an investor and company founder. The combination of founding technology ventures, investing, and writing marks the consistent shape of a career that continues to span multiple modes of engagement with the technology sector.
Quotes by Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman's insights on:
Success.. is no longer a simple ascension of steps. You need to climb sideways and sometimes down, and sometimes you need to swing from the jungle gym and establish your own turf somewhere else on the playground.
Silicon Valley tends to believe in the individual who creates a small group and does something big.
Silicon Valley's success comes from the way its companies build alliances with their employees.
We want to be inclusive. We want to have our shareholders, our employees, our customers, whether they are Democrat, Republican, Green or Libertarian, to feel comfortable with how we're doing business. And so that tends to be apolitical. People say, 'No, no, I just simply shouldn't get involved in politics.'
So benevolent, enlightened, wise dictators are the most efficient form of government. The problem is what comes afterwards, right?
Democracy tends to be a collaborative process, a committee, a consensus. Silicon Valley tends to believe in the individual who creates a small group and does something big.
There's a lot of people in the world that would love to trade places with American citizens, and we are very fortunate to be here.
If performance management were a movie, it will become less 'Gladiator' and more 'Moneyball.'