Reid Hoffman - Co-Founder, LinkedIn, Manas AI & Inflection AI. Founding Team, PayPal. Author of Superagency. Podcaster of Possible and Masters of Scale. | LinkedIn (original) (raw)

Co-Founder, LinkedIn, Manas AI & Inflection AI. Founding Team, PayPal. Author of Superagency. Podcaster of Possible and Masters of Scale.

About

My current priority is investing in and building with AI to benefit humanity. Recently, I've co-founded Inflection.AI and ManasAI.co.

I am active in all facets of the consumer internet and software industries. My focus spans product development, innovation, business strategy, and finance. My expertise also extends to general management, operations, business development, talent management, and marketing. I have founding and investing experience with seed-stage to massive scale companies such as LinkedIn, OpenAI, PayPal, Airbnb, Facebook/Meta, Mozilla, and Zynga, as well as world-scale companies like Microsoft.

My specialties include general management, product development, strategy, negotiation, financing, deal structuring, international business, marketing, brand development and management, business development, public relations, press strategy, payments infrastructure, financial services, mergers and acquisitions, startups, software development, operations centers, board management, and investing.

Courses by Reid

Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh on Blitzscaling

By: Reid Hoffman

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Reid Hoffman and Chris Yeh on Creating an Alliance with Employees

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Articles by Reid

The $69m Sale Was Just The Beginning

Mike Winkelmann—better known as Beeple—has made a piece of art every day since May 1, 2007. He made one on his wedding…

Divine intervention in AI

Ten years ago, if you'd told me a Pope would become one of the most thoughtful voices in the global technological…

Can we Scale What Makes Us Human?

"Learn to code" was the refrain. For twenty-five years, that mandate was the consensus answer to the question of how to…

Can we actually build all these datacenters?

Compute matters enormously. The gap between leading-edge systems and everything else cascades into what's feasible to…

Silicon, security and sovereignty

Every few months, someone picks a single lever—chips, models, or data—and declares it the decisive factor in AI…

Should we give AI a bank account?

For a while now, the dominant way to talk about AI has been as a productivity tool, but there is a deeper shift…

Notes from the SaaS Funeral

Every few years, someone declares software dead. This time, it's AI doing the killing.

Should we care if humans prefer AI writing?

The New York Times recently published a blind quiz asking readers to tell the difference between human writing and AI…

AI can't navigate nuclear war

Researchers at Kings College put frontier models into 21 simulated nuclear crises—and in 95% of them, the models…

Rebuilding an $11B Company for the Age of AI

It took Notion years to get product-market fit. In 2015, Ivan and his co-founder left San Francisco for Kyoto, Japan.

Activity

3M followers

Experience

Co-Founder, Board Chair

Manas AI

Jan 2025 - Present1 year 5 months

Co-Founder, Board Member

Inflection AI

Mar 2022 - Present4 years 3 months
Palo Alto, California, United States

Partner

Greylock

Nov 2009 - Present16 years 7 months
Seattle, WA

Chairperson

Village Global

Aug 2017 - Present8 years 10 months
Seattle, Washington, United States

Board Member

Microsoft

Mar 2017 - Present9 years 3 months
Seattle, Washington, United States

Board Member

Aurora

Jan 2018 - Present8 years 5 months
Palo Alto, California, United States

Member, World Economy Advisory Board

SEMAFOR

Jan 2026 - Present5 months

Board Member

NAUTO

Aug 2017 - Present8 years 10 months
Palo Alto, CA

Board Member

Entrepreneur First

Sep 2017 - Present8 years 9 months
London Area, United Kingdom

Advisory Member

Reinvent Capital

Aug 2018 - Present7 years 10 months
Seattle, Washington, United States

Education

University of Oulu

Honorary Doctor Faculty of Information Technology and Electrical Engineering

2020 - 2020
The University of Oulu is an international science university which creates new knowledge, well-being and innovations for the future through research and education. The University of Oulu, founded in 1958, is one of the biggest and most multidisciplinary universities in Finland.

Babson College

Honorary Doctor of Laws Entrepreneurship/Entrepreneurial Studies

2012 - 2012

Oxford University

M.St. Philosophy

1990 - 1993
Activities and Societies: Wolfson College, Matthew Arnold Prize (Proxime Accessit)

Stanford University

B.S. Symbolic Systems

1985 - 1990
Activities and Societies: Marshall Scholar, Dinkelspiel Award, Golden Grant, Founder of the Symbolic Systems Forum

Diploma Highschool

1982 - 1985
Activities and Societies: X-country skiing, soccer, rebuilding Nova Scotia house

Volunteer Experience

Chair, Board of Directors

Opportunity@Work

Jun 2016 - Present10 years
Economic Empowerment
Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to re-wiring the U.S. labor market through innovative technology and education financing. Opportunity@Work has launched TechHire.Careers, a new kind of recruiting platform built to help employers fill entry-level tech positions with talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
By breaking down systemic barriers facing job seekers who come from nontraditional backgrounds, Opportunity@Work will enable millions of Americans to…
Opportunity@Work is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to re-wiring the U.S. labor market through innovative technology and education financing. Opportunity@Work has launched TechHire.Careers, a new kind of recruiting platform built to help employers fill entry-level tech positions with talented individuals from diverse backgrounds.
By breaking down systemic barriers facing job seekers who come from nontraditional backgrounds, Opportunity@Work will enable millions of Americans to find good jobs and generate more than $20 billion in additional annual earnings for the U.S. labor market.

Member Board Of Directors

Lever for Change

Jan 2019 - Present7 years 5 months
Building off the success of 100&Change, MacArthur’s breakthrough $100 million competition, Lever for Change helps philanthropists source vetted, high-impact philanthropic opportunities and connects those opportunities to significant amounts of philanthropic capital. Lever for Change does this through either managing customized competitions or by matching philanthropists with the top vetted proposals from such competitions in a searchable online database of solutions. Through a rigorous, open…
Building off the success of 100&Change, MacArthur’s breakthrough $100 million competition, Lever for Change helps philanthropists source vetted, high-impact philanthropic opportunities and connects those opportunities to significant amounts of philanthropic capital. Lever for Change does this through either managing customized competitions or by matching philanthropists with the top vetted proposals from such competitions in a searchable online database of solutions. Through a rigorous, open, and transparent approach, Lever for Change aims to inspire philanthropists to dramatically increase their giving by helping them source and identify the most promising ideas that will significantly impact the issues they care about most.

Board of Directors

Endeavor

Jan 2010 - Present16 years 5 months
Economic Empowerment
Endeavor supports high impact entrepreneurs around the world.

Member, Board of Directors

CZ Biohub

Nov 2016 - Dec 2025 9 years 2 months
Health
The Chan Zuckerberg Biohub is an independent, non-profit medical research organization. Its vision is to develop and apply technologies that will enable doctors to cure, prevent or manage all diseases during our children’s lifetime.

Board Member

Human Technology Foundation

Mar 2017 - Present9 years 3 months
Economic Empowerment
The Foundation's main missions are, first and foremost, to be a coordinator of international multidisciplinary research projects. The Human Technology Foundation is also an interface between academia, society and the economy. Finally, it is also a provider of expertise for decision-makers. Indeed, the Human Technology Foundation favours a transversal approach with three areas of expertise:
- Research in practical ethics
- Support for politicians and decision-makers
- Support for large…
The Foundation's main missions are, first and foremost, to be a coordinator of international multidisciplinary research projects. The Human Technology Foundation is also an interface between academia, society and the economy. Finally, it is also a provider of expertise for decision-makers. Indeed, the Human Technology Foundation favours a transversal approach with three areas of expertise:
- Research in practical ethics
- Support for politicians and decision-makers
- Support for large companies and entrepreneurs.

Member of the Board

Berggruen Institute

Apr 2017 - Present9 years 2 months
Science and Technology
The Berggruen Institute’s mission is to develop foundational ideas and, through them, shape political, economic and social institutions for the 21st century.

Board of Directors

New America

Nov 2019 - May 2025 5 years 7 months
New America is a public policy think tank dedicated to renewing America by continuing the quest to realize our nation's highest ideals, honestly confronting the challenges caused by rapid technological and social change, and seizing the opportunities those changes create.

Chair, West Coast Advisory Board

QuestBridge

Sep 2008 - Present17 years 9 months
Education
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…
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.

Board of Directors

Kiva.org

Jun 2006 - Mar 2025 18 years 10 months
Economic Empowerment
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.

Chair, Board of Directors

Research Bridge Partners

Mar 2017 - Dec 2023 6 years 10 months
The Research Bridge Partnership (RBP) is a nonprofit that seeks to address geographically unequal translational research opportunities on American university campuses. RBP uses proprietary data analysis tools to identify promising innovators at heartland universities, and supports the translation of their work into the real economy through partnerships with startups, corporations, investors, and philanthropy.

Visting Committee and Advisory Board

MIT Media Lab

Jul 2014 - Dec 2021 7 years 6 months
Science and Technology
The MIT Media Lab is an interdisciplinary research lab that encourages the unconventional mixing and matching of seemingly disparate research areas.

Member, Board of Directors

Mozilla

Aug 2005 - Dec 2016 11 years 5 months
Science and Technology
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.

Center for Citizen Media

Jan 2006 - Nov 2007 1 year 11 months
The Center for Citizen Media is a new initiative aimed at helping to enable and encourage grassroots media, especially citizen journalism, at every level. The nonprofit Center is jointly affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley’s Graduate School of Journalism and the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard University Law School. In the new information age of the internet, media becomes much stronger through massive grassroots participation in discovery and reporting.

Skills

Publications

Authors Equity January 28, 2025

Superagency offers a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI’s immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole.
Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people…
Superagency offers a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI’s immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole.
Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer’s and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people to navigate complex systems and achieve their goals. Hoffman and co-author, tech and culture writer Greg Beato envision a world where these possibilities, and many more, become a reality.
Superagency challenges conventional fears, inviting us to view the future through a lens of opportunity, rather than fear. It’s a call to action – to embrace AI with excitement and actively shape a world where human ingenuity and the power of AI combine to create something extraordinary.
Other authors

Amazon March 14, 2023

First book on AI that was co-written with AI, specifically GPT-4.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI, written by Reid Hoffman with GPT-4, takes readers on a travelog of the future – exploring how AI, and especially Large Language Models like GPT-4, can elevate humanity across key areas like education, business, and creativity.
But, it's not just a book, it's a conversation. In a first, Hoffman doesn’t just write about GPT-4; he…
First book on AI that was co-written with AI, specifically GPT-4.
THE WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER
Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI, written by Reid Hoffman with GPT-4, takes readers on a travelog of the future – exploring how AI, and especially Large Language Models like GPT-4, can elevate humanity across key areas like education, business, and creativity.
But, it's not just a book, it's a conversation. In a first, Hoffman doesn’t just write about GPT-4; he interacts and writes with GPT-4, letting readers see the technology’s capabilities — its strengths and limitations alike. Using GPT-4 as his “author’s co-pilot,” Hoffman paints an intriguing, challenging, and often entertaining picture of what’s possible: where trouble may arise, but also crucially, what could possibly go right. His conversation with AI takes us on a journey to the future, where AI is not a threat, but a partner. A partner that can help us unlock our full potential as human beings.
How might humanity use GPT-4 to continue our long-standing quest to make life more meaningful and prosperous? How can we use it to help solve some of the hardest challenges we face? To expand opportunities for self-determination and self-expression?
See publication

Currency September 7, 2021

The key to scaling a successful business isn't talent, network or strategy. It's an entrepreneurial mindset — and that mindset can be cultivated.
On the podcast Masters of Scale, Reid sits down with an all-star list of visionary founders and leaders, digging into the surprising strategies that power their growth. Now, in this book, he draws on their most riveting, revealing stories — as well his own experience as a founder and investor — to distill the counterintuitive mindsets behind…
The key to scaling a successful business isn't talent, network or strategy. It's an entrepreneurial mindset — and that mindset can be cultivated.
On the podcast Masters of Scale, Reid sits down with an all-star list of visionary founders and leaders, digging into the surprising strategies that power their growth. Now, in this book, he draws on their most riveting, revealing stories — as well his own experience as a founder and investor — to distill the counterintuitive mindsets behind the most extraordinary successes of our times.
The book contains never-before-told stories from leaders of the world's most iconic companies — including Apple, Nike, Netflix, Spotify, Starbucks, Google, Instagram, and Microsoft — as well as the bold, disruptive startups, from 23andMe to TaskRabbit, from the Black List to the Bevel razor, solving the problems of the twenty-first century. Through vivid storytelling and straightforward analysis, Masters of Scale distills their collective insights into a set of counterintuitive principles that anyone can use. How do you find a winning idea and turn it into a scalable venture? What can you learn from a "squirmy no"? When should you stop listening to your customers? Which fires should you put out right away, and which should you let burn?
Based on more than 100 interviews, and incorporating new material never aired on the podcast, Masters of Scale offers a unique insider's guide, filled with insights, wisdom, and strategies that will inspire you to reimagine how you do business today.
Other authors

Currency October 9, 2018

What entrepreneur or founder doesn’t aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the startups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants?
The secret is blitzscaling: a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water. The objective of blitzscaling is not to go from zero to one, but from one to one billion — as quickly as…
What entrepreneur or founder doesn’t aspire to build the next Amazon, Facebook, or Airbnb? Yet those who actually manage to do so are exceedingly rare. So what separates the startups that get disrupted and disappear from the ones who grow to become global giants?
The secret is blitzscaling: a set of techniques for scaling up at a dizzying pace that blows competitors out of the water. The objective of blitzscaling is not to go from zero to one, but from one to one billion — as quickly as possible.
When growing at a breakneck pace, getting to the next level requires very different strategies from those that got you to where you are today. Whether your business has ten employees or ten thousand, Blitzscaling is the essential playbook for winning in a world where speed is the only competitive advantage that matters.
Other authors

Harvard Business Review Press July 8, 2014

The employer-employee relationship is broken. Managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: You can’t afford to offer lifetime employment. But you can’t build a lasting, innovative business when everyone acts like a free agent.
The solution: Stop thinking of employees as family or free agents, and start thinking of them as allies on a tour of duty.
The Alliance teaches managers how to recruit, manage, and retain the entrepreneurial employees your business needs to succeed in the…
The employer-employee relationship is broken. Managers face a seemingly impossible dilemma: You can’t afford to offer lifetime employment. But you can’t build a lasting, innovative business when everyone acts like a free agent.
The solution: Stop thinking of employees as family or free agents, and start thinking of them as allies on a tour of duty.
The Alliance teaches managers how to recruit, manage, and retain the entrepreneurial employees your business needs to succeed in the networked age.
Other authors

Crown February 14, 2012

People should lead their lives as entrepreneurs — not necessarily starting companies, but investing in themselves, adapting to the fast changing future, and creating breakout opportunities. Adaptability is the new stability for modern careers.
Other authors

Honors & Awards

University of Bologna

Sep 2023
Sigillum Magnum is a silver-bronze medal realized in 1888. The medal is composed by some single medals of the Corporations which were forming the Bolognese Study. The University of Bologna is the oldest Western university in the world, founded in 1088.

Academy of Arts and Sciences

Apr 2018
Founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other prominent contributors to the establishment of the new nation, the Academy has a rich intellectual history spanning more than 230 years.
Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has provided a forum for scholars, members of the learned professions, and government and business leaders to work together on behalf of the democratic interests of the republic. As stated in the Academy’s Charter, the…
Founded during the American Revolution by John Adams, James Bowdoin, John Hancock, and other prominent contributors to the establishment of the new nation, the Academy has a rich intellectual history spanning more than 230 years.
Since its founding in 1780, the Academy has provided a forum for scholars, members of the learned professions, and government and business leaders to work together on behalf of the democratic interests of the republic. As stated in the Academy’s Charter, the “end and design of the institution is...to cultivate every art and science which may tend to advance the interest, honor, dignity, and happiness of a free, independent, and virtuous people.”

UK Marshall Commission

Jun 2017
Marshall Medals are awarded every ten years by the UK Marshall commission, "to people of outstanding achievement whose contribution to British-American understanding, distinguished role in public life, or creative energy, reflect the legacy of George C Marshall."

Her Majesty the Queen of the United Kingdom

Mar 2017
Reid Hoffman has been appointed by Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II an honorary Commander of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (CBE) in recognition of his services promoting UK business, social networking and the Marshall Scholarship scheme.

Churchill Club

Aug 2016
For irrepressible vision and positive impact on society
Spirit of the award: "Thanks for thinking big"

Commonwealth Club

Apr 2014
The Commonwealth Club presents its Distinguished Citizen Award to individuals, recognizing their noteworthy contributions to local and global society.
This year’s theme is “Transformative Leadership” – honoring the individuals who have made a significant impact on our region by creating business and economic opportunities, or through their philanthropy and fundraising dedication have improved our fabric of social and cultural organizations.

TechAmerica

Aug 2012
Recipients are selected for their contributions and advances within the high-tech industry, their community, and humankind. This award is the highest award bestowed by TechAmerica.

Martin Luther King Jr. Center

Jan 2012
The Martin Luther King Jr. Center's "Salute to Greatness"​ award which "recognizes individuals and corporations or organizations that exemplify excellence in leadership and a commitment to social responsibility in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr

Silicon Valley Forum

Jun 2010
The Silicon Valley Forum Visionary Awards honor industry leaders who have pioneered innovation and fostered the spirit of entrepreneurship, and whose unique vision continues to shape Silicon Valley. The Visionary Awards celebrate leadership in technology, education, venture capital, and entrepreneurship.

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