Reid Hoffman – Co-Founder of LinkedIn

Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn. He is also a Partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital company. With a net worth of over US$3 billion, Hoffman is ranked by Forbes as one of the top 1,000 billionaires in the world

NET worth

$
Billion USD

TOP Billionaires

1000 rd
In the World

* Stats taken from Forbes.com. 

TOP Billionaires

500 th
In United States

About Reid Hoffman

Reid Hoffman is an American Internet entrepreneur and investor, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn. He is also a Partner at Greylock Partners, a venture capital company. With a net worth of over US$3 billion, Hoffman is ranked by Forbes as one of the top 1,000 billionaires in the world.

Early Years

Reid Hoffman was born in Palo Alto, California, United States and was raised in Berkeley, California. He attended the Putney School. As a child, he enjoyed playing tabletop roleplaying games. Aged only 12, Hoffman started his first paying job – he was appointed as an editor at Chaosium, a local gaming company. Two years later, Hoffman’s name featured beside top game designers on the box of the newly released ‘Borderlands’ a role-playing game. In 1990 Hoffman graduated from Stanford University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Cognitive Science and Symbolic Systems. He also won a Dinkelspiel award and achieved a Marshall scholarship after which he then enrolled with Wolfson College at Oxford University and attained a degree in Philosophy. 

Business Ventures

Reid Hoffman initially saw his academic pursuits as an opportunity to have a large-scale impact on the world, before realising that books written by academics would only reach a limited group of people. He wanted to reach a larger audience and concluded that he would achieve a larger platform through entrepreneurial ventures. After completing an internship at a wine farm, Hoffman entered into the technology sector with Apple Computer, where he started working on an early effort to create a social media platform called eWorld. In 1997 the entrepreneur launched his first company – SocialNet.com, an online matchmaking and dating site that also catered to people looking for activity partners. During this time Hoffman was also one of the board members of PayPal as it was being launched. In 2000 he was appointed as COO of PayPal where he was responsible for the company’s payments infrastructure, government, legal regulations, business development and external relationships. In 2002 when PayPal was acquired by eBay for US$1.5 billion, Reid Hoffman was the Executive Vice President of the company. In the same year, the entrepreneur co-founded LinkedIn.

LinkedIn

Officially launched in 2003, LinkedIn is one of the world’s first business-focused social platforms. By 2014 the platform had over 330 million members in over 200 countries. For the first four years of its existence, Hoffman held the role of founding CEO of the company before being appointed as Chairman and President of Products, a role he held from 2007 until 2009 when he became Executive Chairman. With a significant stake in LinkedIn worth around US2.34 billion, Hoffman was named Partner in 2009. 

Where is Reid Hoffman Today?

After PayPal was sold to eBay, Hoffman became known as one of the most successful and prolific angel investors in Silicon Valley. In 2010 he joined Greylock Partners where he continues to run their US$20 million Discovery Fund. He is focused on enterprise software, consumer Internet, social gaming, online marketplaces, payments, mobile and social network platforms. Hoffman’s current investments include Edmodo, Coupons.com, Change.org, Swipely, Airbnb, Wikia, Care.com, Technetto and VigLink. 

More Investors from the Americas

MattMurphy

Matt Murphy

Matt Murphy is a partner and managing director at Menlo Ventures, a San Francisco-based venture capital firm with an emphasis on the SaaS, cloud services ...
Investor's Profile →
Matthew Eitner Laidlaw CEO

Matthew Eitner

Matthew Eitner is the chief executive officer of Laidlaw and Company UK, which has more than 150 employees across the US and London.
Investor's Profile →
Jimmy Ahern Laidlaw's Managing Partner

James Ahern

James "Jim" Ahern is the managing partner of Laidlaw & Company UK and the founder of Laidlaw Venture Partners (LVP).
Investor's Profile →
With an ever-growing collection of investments geared for ecological change, Leonardo DiCaprio has made a strong statement that he is committed to a greener world

Leonardo DiCaprio

Leonardo DiCaprio has made a strong statement that he is committed to a greener world with an ever-growing collection of investments geared for ecological change
Investor's Profile →
Max Levchin

Max Levchin

Max Levchin, co-founder of PayPal, is a Ukrainian-American software engineer and businessman known for making early investments in emerging technology companies.
Investor's Profile →
Charlie Songhurst

Charlie Songhurst

Charlie Songhurst is a US-based but British-born individual angel and advisor who has personally invested in around 500 companies throughout his career, predominantly in Europe.
Investor's Profile →
Pietro Dova

Pietro Dova

Pietro Dova is a former Google executive and the cofounder of XG Ventures (X-Google Ventures), a leading VC firm in the mobile, IT, analytics and ...
Investor's Profile →
Julio Vasconcellos

Julio Vasconcellos

Julio Vasconcellos is a Brazilian/American angel investor and entrepreneur focused on investments in eCommerce, SaaS and mobile industries.
Investor's Profile →
Barbara Corcoran

Barbara Corcoran

Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, is a billionaire entrepreneur, and a well-known television and media personality, with an ever-growing portfolio in small businesses.
Investor's Profile →