Reid Hoffman
Reid Hoffman
Reid Garrett Hoffmanis an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author. Hoffman is the co-founder and executive chairman of LinkedIn, a business-oriented social network used primarily for professional networking. Hoffman, with a net worth of US$4.7 billion, is ranked as #341 on the list of the world's richest people...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionEntrepreneur
Date of Birth5 August 1967
CityStanford, CA
CountryUnited States of America
When I'm raising money, this fundraising, I'm thinking about the next fundraising. I'm thinking how I'm set up for it.
So usually you have to have product distribution as more fundamental than what the actual product is.
The metaphor that I frequently use for entrepreneurship is jumping off a cliff and assembling an airplane plane on the way down.
It's very conventional to say that you're a contrarian these days.
When you think about being contrarian, you have to think about - how is it that smart people will disagree with me, disagree with me ...from a position of intelligence, and there is something that I know that they don't know, that will actually in fact play out to be true.
You gotta be both flexible and persistent.
You should have an investment thesis that essentially says why you think this is potentially a good idea.
Part of what being a great founder is, is being both able to hold the belief, to think about what it is you want to be doing and where... you want to be going, but also be smart enough that you're essentially listening to criticism, negative feedback, competitive entries.
Data only exists within the framework of a vision you're building to, a hypothesis of where you're moving to.
One of the phrases I frequently look for is infinite learning curve.Because each entrepreneurial pattern is to some degree unique and new.
This is classic when you begin thinking about what is a great founder is, you navigate what is apparent paradoxes.
One of the challenges in networking is everybody thinks it's making cold calls to strangers. Actually, it's the people who already have strong trust relationships with you, who know you're dedicated, smart, a team player, who can help you.
All humans are entrepreneurs not because they should start companies but because the will to create is encoded in human DNA.
I actually think every individual is now an entrepreneur, whether they recognize it or not.