Reid Hoffman is part of the 'PayPal Mafia' - the group of early PayPal employees and executives who went on to found or fund a wave of major technology companies. After PayPal's $1.5 billion sale to eBay, Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2003, growing it into the world's largest professional networking service before Microsoft acquired it for $26.2 billion in 2016. He joined Greylock Partners as a partner in 2009, focusing on businesses with strong network effects, and was an early investor in both Facebook and Airbnb. He is also the host of the podcast Masters of Scale and co-author of three best-selling books on entrepreneurship, including Blitzscaling.
Education
B.S. Symbolic Systems, Stanford University
M.St. Philosophy, Wolfson College, Oxford University (Marshall Scholar)
Previous Experience
Founder, SocialNet (1997) - an early social networking site
Executive Vice President & Founding Board Member, PayPal (2000–2002) - acquired by eBay for $1.5B
Co-Founder & Executive Chairman, LinkedIn (2003) - IPO 2011, acquired by Microsoft for $26.2B in 2016