RH
Reid Hoffman
LinkedIn · Greylock · Inflection AI · Manas AI
Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2003 and helped build a professional network around identity, trusted connections and useful information. Before LinkedIn, he was a founding board member and executive vice president at PayPal, responsible for external relationships. He joined Greylock in 2009, with a focus on businesses where a growing network makes the product more useful. At LinkedIn, he also examined when a founder should hand daily leadership to a professional CEO. His six authored books cover careers, employment, company growth and AI. He hosts Masters of Scale and Possible, co-founded Inflection AI and launched Manas AI with Siddhartha Mukherjee in 2025 to apply AI to drug discovery. His work links business building to the question of how technology can increase what people can do.
Which books are linked to Reid Hoffman?
These are examples from the documented shelf. Each label describes the connection; a book on the shelf is not always a recommendation.
- Conscious Business: How to Build Value Through Values by Fred Kofman — Given as a gift. Source
- The Inner Lives of Markets: How People Shape Them—And They Shape Us by Ray Fisman and Tim Sullivan — Recommended — reported by McKinsey. Source
- Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick — Recommended. Source
Contents
Career highlights
- 2003Co-founded LinkedIn, a professional network.
- 2004Pitched LinkedIn’s Series B to Greylock; later published the deck with detailed notes.
- 2005LinkedIn launched job listings, subscriptions and advertising as revenue products.
- 2009Joined Greylock and handed LinkedIn’s executive leadership to Jeff Weiner.
- 2012Published The Start-up of You with Ben Casnocha.
- 2014Published The Alliance with Ben Casnocha and Chris Yeh.
- 2016Microsoft completed its LinkedIn acquisition in December, following a $26.2 billion agreement.
- 2017Joined Microsoft’s board in March.
- 2018Published Blitzscaling with Chris Yeh.
- 2021Published Masters of Scale with June Cohen and Deron Triff.
- 2023Published Impromptu, developed with GPT-4.
- 2025Launched Manas AI with Siddhartha Mukherjee and published Superagency with Greg Beato.
Lessons for founders
- Start with the hardest investor question. LinkedIn’s 2004 pitch had to explain how a company without revenue could become a business. Hoffman advises naming the investor’s main concern early, then building a clear case with evidence.
- Show how each new user adds value. The LinkedIn investment case connected growth to better professional information and stronger connections. Explain what improves as the network grows, rather than use the number of users as the whole argument.
- Change your role as the company grows. Hoffman’s account of hiring professional CEOs asks founders to examine their skills and interests honestly. The ability to start a company does not by itself settle who should manage a much larger organization.
- Give the new CEO real authority. After Jeff Weiner took over, Hoffman redirected employee questions to him and arranged time away. A leadership transfer needs changes in daily behavior so people know who makes the decisions.
- Make the promise to an employee clear. The Alliance proposes a defined mission with benefits for both the company and the employee. Make the work, expected results and career growth clear, then revisit the agreement as needs change.
- Keep useful ties after people leave. The Alliance treats former employees as a continuing network. Corporate alumni ties can help both the company and people who have completed their work there learn, find opportunities and stay connected.
- Use rapid scale for a clear reason. Blitzscaling puts speed ahead of efficiency under uncertainty. Before taking on its costs, identify why speed could create an advantage and how hiring, culture and the founder’s job must change.
- Use AI to extend expert work. The Manas founders describe AI as part of a scientific drug-discovery process. Begin with the expert’s problem and the work to be improved. An ambitious goal is a starting point for tests, not proof of a result.
- Protect the effort that matters. In his startup interview, Hoffman connects persistence to finding a better way through a problem. Preserve energy for the goal and change the approach when repeated effort alone is not enough.
On the The Tim Ferriss Show podcast
2×Read about them
1
The publisher names Hoffman among the early PayPal figures covered in Soni’s reported history. This is a subject connection, not a claim that Hoffman recommended the book. source ↗
In their own words
4
- 2013LinkedIn’s Series B Pitch to GreylockAn annotated funding deck on investor concerns, proof and network effects.
- 2013If, Why, and How Founders Should Hire a Professional CEOA first-person account of founder roles, executive hiring and transfer of authority.
- 2017The Mission Continues: Joining the Microsoft BoardHow Hoffman connected LinkedIn’s mission to Microsoft after the acquisition.
- 2024Books by Possible guests: Technology editionA curated list covering AI, medicine, robotics, energy and education.
- 2025Introducing Manas: Disrupting Drug DiscoveryCo-written with Siddhartha Mukherjee about the new company and its research aims.
- 20266 books for your summer list—straight from my networkHis six-book selection includes titles that were then forthcoming.
Books on their shelf
15
Given as a giftNamed as a book he gives to others in his interview with Michael McCullough. source ↗
Recommended — reported by McKinseyListed among his 2016 summer selections; the article supplies no individual review. source ↗
Publisher endorsementHoffman endorses High Growth Handbook on Stripe Press’s site. This is an endorsement, not a claim that he completed a particular edition. source ↗
Read and praisedHoffman calls Dell’s memoir entertaining and instructive, then shares five lessons he took from it in his own LinkedIn article. source ↗
Recommended; wrote the forewordHoffman wrote the foreword and explicitly recommends the book in his LinkedIn article introducing it. source ↗
PraisedHoffman praises the book’s practical account of persuading others to invest in a person and their ideas in his own LinkedIn article. source ↗
EndorsedStripe Press publishes Hoffman’s favorable endorsement of the book’s management frameworks and processes. The endorsement does not establish that he finished it. source ↗
Book endorsementHoffman endorses Tribal Leadership on the authors' book site as a guide to managing organizations, careers and professional networks. The endorsement is undated. source ↗
Recommended; wrote the forewordIn his May 2018 article about Fred Kofman's book, Hoffman asks readers to read it and links its leadership ideas to mission, trust and integrity in growing technology companies. He also wrote the foreword. source ↗
Similar taste
Founders who share the most book recommendations with Reid:
Sources
19
- Reid Hoffman — Greylock biography — Greylock
- Books — Reid Hoffman
- LinkedIn’s Series B Pitch to Greylock — Reid Hoffman
- If, Why, and How Founders Should Hire a Professional CEO — Reid Hoffman
- The Mission Continues: Joining the Microsoft Board — Reid Hoffman
- Microsoft to acquire LinkedIn — Microsoft
- Introducing Manas: Disrupting Drug Discovery — Manas AI
- The Tim Ferriss Show #101 — Reid Hoffman and Michael McCullough transcript — Tim Ferriss
- The Tim Ferriss Show transcripts: Reid Hoffman — 10 Commandments of Startup Success — Tim Ferriss
- What CEOs are reading — McKinsey
- Books by Possible guests: Technology edition — Reid Hoffman
- 6 books for your summer list—straight from my network — Reid Hoffman
- The Alliance — authors’ official book site — The Alliance
- Blitzscaling — official book site — Blitzscaling
- The Startup of You — US publisher listing — Penguin Random House
- Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies — Publisher
- Masters of Scale: Surprising Truths from the World’s Most Successful Entrepreneurs — Publisher
- Impromptu: Amplifying Our Humanity Through AI — Publisher
- Superagency: What Could Possibly Go Right with Our AI Future — Publisher