Reid Hoffman

Current

Partner at Greylock
Executive Chairman and co-Founder at LinkedIn
Chair, Westcoast Advisory Board at Questbridge

Member, Board of Directors at Zynga
Member, Provost Council at College Eight, UCSC
Member, Board of Directors at Kiva.org
Member, Board of Directors at Tagged
Member, Board of Directors at Mozilla Corporation
Member, Board of Directors at Vendio
Member, Board of Directors at Six Apart

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Education

Oxford University
Stanford University
The Putney School

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Recommended

49 people have recommended Reid

Connections

500+ connections

Industry

Internet

Websites

Reid Hoffman’s Summary

All aspects of consumer internet and software. Focus is on product development, innovation, business strategy, and finance, but includes general management, operations, business operations, business development, talent management, and marketing. Strong experience in both seed-stage companies (paypal, linkedin, facebook, zynga, last.fm, flickr) and growth companies (mozilla, linkedin, zynga, paypal.)

Reid Hoffman’s Specialties:

General management, product development, business models, strategy, negotiation, financing, deal structure, international, marketing, brand development, brand management, business development, public relations, press strategy, payments infrastructure, financial services, mergers and acquisitions, start-ups, business development, software development, operations centers, board management.

Reid Hoffman’s Experience

Partner

Greylock

(Partnership; Venture Capital & Private Equity industry)

November 2009 — Present (4 months)

Greylock Partners partners with entrepreneurs to build market-transforming companies. Current Greylock portfolio includes companies like Linkedin, Facebook, Workday, Digg, Cloudera, Oodle, Kongregate, Pandora, and Zipcar. I also serve on the Zynga board.

One focus for me is early-stage companies in domains where my operational and investing experience can provide great partnership: consumer internet, enterprise 2.0, mobile, social gaming, online marketplaces, payments, SAAS, and social networks. The other focus is world-class entrepreneurs with new categories of ideas with the possibility of massive scale.

Getting a reference through someone I know is a great way to get priority attention from me as an investor.
Executive Chairman and co-Founder

LinkedIn

(Privately Held; Internet industry)

June 2009 — Present (9 months)

Working on key strategic issues day-to-day at Linkedin. My focus is broad strategy, innovation, and key initiatives. Linkedin connects the worlds professionals for information sharing, productivity, and success. Your professional network is how you stay competitive as a professional: sharing tips on work practices, benchmarks, and key tools. Your professional network is how you stay up to date on your industry: key trends, information, and transformations. Your professional network is how you get the best opportunities: a job, a client, a consulting contract, or other business connections. Linkedin helps you collaborate with your network on productivity, information, and success.
Chair, Westcoast Advisory Board

Questbridge

(Internet industry)

September 2008 — Present (1 year 6 months)

QuestBridge is a revenue generating non-profit which now places more talented low-income youth into 28 top colleges including Stanford, Princeton, Columbia, Amherst, MIT, Williams, and Yale. Approximately 1500 Quest students were accepted to our partner colleges in 2008 alone (146 at Stanford for instance, and 11% of the entering class of Amherst). .

QuestBridge envisions a world where America's leadership encompasses thoughtful and broad-minded decision makers drawn from every economic segment of society. QuestBridge revolutionizes the way leading colleges and universities recruit talented low-income students, and the way these students approach their once-in-a-lifetime educations and futures.

QuestBridge aims to create a singular place where exceptionally talented low-income students can navigate educational and life opportunities. QuestBridge recruits, develops, and supports motivated low-income students – beginning in high school through college to their first job – to be successful at America’s best colleges, graduate schools, and companies.
Member, Board of Directors

Zynga

(Privately Held; Computer Games industry)

March 2008 — Present (2 years )

Zynga has created the mass movement in internet social games: Farmville, Cafe World, Mafia Wars, Texas Hold 'em. Zynga is the world leader in internet social games.
Member, Provost Council

College Eight, UCSC

(Higher Education industry)

July 2006 — Present (3 years 8 months)

College Eight is a residential educational college part of UCSC. The focus is environmental citizenship, ranging from topics of civics and justice to entrepreneurship. The new educational goal is to achieve academic excellence through current research and teaching, and also through connections with business and government. The principal focus of the college is helping foster the next generation of green entrepreneurs.
Member, Board of Directors

Kiva.org

(Privately Held; Logistics and Supply Chain industry)

June 2006 — Present (3 years 9 months)

Kiva provides an entrepreneur's marketplace for social micro-lending. The entrepreneurs are pre-vetted by micro-finance organizations. They are then listed on Kiva's web marketplace, and interested and motivated lenders can lend money for the creation of businesses. It is a paradigm case of teaching to fish rather than giving fish.
Member, Board of Directors

Tagged

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

December 2005 — Present (4 years 3 months)

The teen social network for teens. It's a place on the web only for teens - hip, interesting, and cool. Within a short time, it has millions of teens; and the most interesting parts are still to arrive.
Member, Board of Directors

Mozilla Corporation

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

August 2005 — Present (4 years 7 months)

Evangelists and champions of the free and open web-platform, Firefox. Firefox allows consumers the experience they want, all software and internet companies to build extensions, and open-source developers to contribute freely and democratically. Firefox works to keep a free, open web -- both through its own platform and by inspiring other browsers to create open apis and platforms with great consumer experiences.
Member, Board of Directors

Vendio

(Privately Held; 11-50 employees; Internet industry)

June 2003 — Present (6 years 9 months)

Vendio provides best of breed, easy-to-use services for small businesses on eBay and on the Internet. Vendio also provides a great price-checking and comparing toolbar so that you never overpay on the internet again: www.dealio.com.
Member, Board of Directors

Six Apart

(Privately Held; 51-200 employees; Internet industry)

April 2003 — Present (6 years 11 months)

SixApart produces the best publishing platforms on the web for self-expression through words, pictures, and other media. For self-hosting and business, it produces the leading blogging software MoveableType. For hosted web publishing with great looks and effective tools, SixApart has the best blogging service TypePad. And for younger web communities, it has LiveJournal. Recently, SixApart has launched Vox which allows great sharing within your own private community -- your family, your friends, and your neighborhood as you want it.

Reid Hoffman’s Education

Oxford University

M.St. , Philosophy , September 1990 — June 1993

Activities and Societies:

Wolfson College, Matthew Arnold Prize
Stanford University

B.S. , Symbolic Systems , 1985 — 1990

Activities and Societies:

Marshall Scholar, Dinkelspiel Award, Golden Grant, Founder of the Symbolic Systems Forum
The Putney School

Diploma , Highschool , 1982 — 1985

Activities and Societies:

X-country skiing, soccer, rebuilding Nova Scotia house