Featuring a conversation between Reid Hoffman and Walter Isaacson, president and CEO, The Aspen Institute.
An accomplished entrepreneur, executive, and investor, Reid Hoffman has played an integral role in building many of today’s leading consumer technology businesses. He possesses a unique understanding of consumer behavior and the dynamics of viral businesses, as well as deep experience in driving companies from the earliest stages through periods of explosive growth.
In 2009 Reid joined Greylock Partners, a leading Silicon Valley venture capital firm. His areas of focus include consumer internet, enterprise 2.0, mobile, social gaming, online marketplaces, payments, and social networks. His investments include Airbnb, Edmodo, Mozilla (Firefox), Shopkick, Swipely, Wrapp, Coupons.com, Groupon, and Viki. Prior to joining Greylock, he personally invested in dozens of internet companies including Facebook, Flickr, and Zynga.
In 2003 Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn, the world’s largest professional networking service. LinkedIn is thriving with more than 300 million members in 200 countries around the world and a diversified revenue model that includes subscriptions, advertising, and software licensing. Hoffman continues to serve as LinkedIn’s Executive Chairman.
Prior to LinkedIn, Reid served as executive vice president at PayPal, where he was a founding board member. At PayPal he was responsible for all external relationships, including payments infrastructure, business development, international, government, and legal. He was instrumental to PayPal’s acquisition by Ebay and responsible for partnerships with Intuit, Visa, MasterCard, and Wells Fargo.
Reid serves on the boards of Airbnb, Swipely, Mozilla Corporation, Shopkick, Wrapp, and Edmodo. In addition, he also serves on a number of not-for-profit boards, including Kiva, Endeavor, and DoSomething.
Reid is a co-author of two books: the New York Times bestsellers The Start-Up of You: Adapt to the Future, Invest in Yourself, and Transform Your Career, and The Alliance: Managing Talent in the Networked Age.
Reid earned a master’s degree in philosophy from Oxford University, where he was a Marshall Scholar, and a bachelor’s degree with distinction in symbolic systems from Stanford University. In 2010 he was the recipient of an SD Forum Visionary Award and named a Henry Crown Fellow by the Aspen Institute.
