28:38Reid Hoffman at Startup School SV 2014
From Y Combinator · Published Jul 23, 2015 · Watch on YouTube
TL;DR
Reid Hoffman recounts founding LinkedIn after the PayPal sale, using the “upload your address book” feature as the key growth hack that changed the company's trajectory. He debunks several Silicon Valley myths: open capital markets are often harmful (more companies competing for talent/attention), over‑raising capital (e.g.
Key insights
- LinkedIn was conceived during a PayPal offsite in September 2000, when PayPal was burning $12M/month; the idea was pitched as one of several “best ideas” to do together after PayPal’s potential failur
- Getting the first million users is the critical challenge; Hoffman’s strategy was to let users upload their address books to see who else was already on LinkedIn, which changed the growth curve and wi
- Self‑delusion (“I’m sure I can make it work”) is a positive entrepreneurial attribute, but must be balanced by asking weekly whether confidence is going up or down and tackling the problem that causes
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