Reid Hoffman
| Reid Hoffman | |
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 Hoffman in 2007 |
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| Born | August 5, 1967 (age 44) Stanford, California, USA |
| Alma mater | Stanford University Oxford University |
| Occupation | Entrepreneur and investor |
| Known for | Executive VP of PayPal Founder of LinkedIn |
| Net worth |  $1.8 billion[1] |
| Spouse | Michelle Yee[2] |
| Children | None as of 2008[2] |
Reid G. Hoffman[3] (born August 5, 1967) is an American entrepreneur and venture capitalist. Hoffman is best known as the co-founder[4] of LinkedIn, a social network used primarily for business connections and job searching.
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[edit] Early education and career
Hoffman was born in Stanford, California, and grew up in Berkeley, California. He attended high school at The Putney School.[5] He graduated from Stanford University in 1990 (where he won both a Marshall Scholarship and a Dinkelspiel Award) with a B.S. in Symbolic Systems and Cognitive Science.[6] He went on to earn an M.A. in philosophy from Oxford University in 1993.
Hoffman says he saw academia as an opportunity to make an "impact", but later realized that an entrepreneurial career would provide him with a bigger platform. "When I graduated from Stanford my plan was to become a professor and public intellectual. That is not about quoting Kant. It's about holding up a lens to society and asking 'who are we?' and 'who should we be, as individuals and a society?' But I realised academics write books that 50 or 60 people read and I wanted more impact."[7]
So Hoffman pursued a career in business and entrepreneurship. After working at Apple Computer and Fujitsu in product management, Hoffman co-founded his first company, SocialNet.com, an online dating service.
[edit] PayPal
While at SocialNet, Hoffman was a member of the board of directors at the founding of PayPal, an electronic money transmission service, and later joined the firm as a full-time employee. At the time of PayPal's acquisition by eBay in 2002, he was Executive Vice President of PayPal. He was responsible for all external relationships for PayPal, including Payments Infrastructure (VISA, MasterCard, ACH, WellsFargo), Business Development (eBay, Intuit, others), Government (Regulatory, Judicial), and Legal.
[edit] LinkedIn
Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in December 2002. It was one of the first business-oriented online social networks. He was LinkedIn’s founding CEO for the first four years before becoming Chairman and President, Products in February 2007. Currently he is Executive Chairman. LinkedIn currently has over 135 million members in over 200 countries.[8] In July 2010, Tiger Global Management bought 1% of the company, valuing it at $2 billion.[9] With the IPO of LinkedIn on May 19, 2011, Hoffman owns a stake worth an estimated $2.34 billion dollars, not including any potential benefits from Greylock Partners, where he was named a Partner in 2009.[10]
[edit] Investing
After the PayPal sale to eBay, Hoffman became one of Silicon Valley's most prolific and successful angel investors. According to venture capitalist David Sze, Hoffman "is arguably the most successful angel investor in the past decade."[11] He made 80 angel investments in technology companies. In 2010 Hoffman joined Greylock Partners and runs their $20 million Discovery Fund.[12]
[edit] Facebook
According to David Kirkpatrick's book The Facebook Effect, Hoffman arranged the first meeting between Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel, which led to Thiel's initial $500,000 angel investment in the company. Hoffman invested alongside Thiel in Facebook's very first financing round.[13][14]
[edit] Zynga
Hoffman personally invested and joined the board of directors in Zynga's first round of funding. Hoffman and Zynga CEO Mark Pincus co-own the Six Degrees Patent.[15] According to SecondShares.com, Zynga is now a publicly traded company.
[edit] Other investments
His other investments include Wikia, Permuto, SixApart, thesixtyone, Tagged, IronPort, Flickr, Digg, Ping.fm, Nanosolar, Care.com, Knewton, Kongregate, Last.fm, Technetto, OneKingsLane, Wrapp, Edmodo and shopkick.[16]
[edit] Philanthropy
He serves on the boards of Do Something (organization for young people taking action), Kiva.org (a micro-finance organization), Mozilla (creator of Firefox), and Endeavor Global an international non-profit development organization that finds and supports high-impact entrepreneurs in emerging markets.
[edit] References
- ^ Perlroth, Nicole (May 19, 2011). "LinkedIn IPO Doubles, Reid Hoffman Now A Billionaire". Forbes. http://blogs.forbes.com/nicoleperlroth/2011/05/19/linkedin-ipo-doubles-reid-hoffman-now-a-billionaire/.
- ^ a b Ashton, James (November 30, 2008). "Networker Reid Hoffman seizes the day". The Times (London). http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/movers_and_shakers/article5257410.ece. Retrieved May 26, 2011.
- ^ "PayPal: executive officers and directors". EDGAR. March 1, 2002. http://sec.edgar-online.com/paypal-inc/10-k405-annual-report-regulation-s-k-item-405/2002/03/13/Section19.aspx.
- ^ http://press.linkedin.com/history
- ^ Lacter, Mark (May 2009). "Reid Hoffman LinkedIn". Inc. 31 (4): 83.
- ^ Reid G. Hoffman: Chairman and Co-Founder, LinkedIn Corporation. Bloomsberg Business.
- ^ Cree, Richard (July 2009). "Well connected". Director magazine.
- ^ http://press.linkedin.com/about
- ^ "Billionaires In The Making". Forbes. http://www.forbes.com/2010/09/21/forbes-400-ones-to-watch-seinfeld-tiger-jay-z-rich-list-10-watch_slide_16.html.
- ^ Levy, Ari (May 19, 2011). "LinkedIn's Biggest Backers Will Own $2.5 Billion Stake After Initial Sale". Bloomberg. http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-05-19/linkedin-s-founder-biggest-backers-will-own-2-5-billion-stake-after-ipo.html.
- ^ http://techcrunch.tv/disrupt/watch?id=tpMm5xMToTc7kZDVc10Z1bGBjym3sUAc
- ^ http://techcrunch.com/2010/09/27/greylock-gives-super-angel-turned-vc-reid-hoffman-a-20-million-seed-fund/
- ^ http://www.amazon.com/Facebook-Effect-Inside-Company-Connecting/dp/1439102112
- ^ http://www.businessinsider.com/meet-facebooks-soon-to-be-billionaire-shareholders-2010-5#mark-pincus-and-reid-hoffman-facebook-angel-investors-and-owners-of-an-important-social-networking-patent-own-a-chunk-of-facebook-stock-14
- ^ http://www.allfacebook.com/the-zynga-influence-2009-09
- ^ LinkedIn http://www.linkedin.com/in/reidhoffman
[edit] External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Reid Hoffman |
- LinkedIn management page including a brief biography of Hoffman
- Hoffman's resume on LinkedIn
- Podcast and videos of Reid Hoffman, speaking at Stanford University
- WSJ: Venture Capitalist's New Frontier: Where Cellphones Meet Retailing
- Profile of Reid Hoffman on Endeavor's Board of Directors
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