
Photo: U.S. Secretary of Defense / CC BY 2.0 (source: Wikimedia Commons)
My Take
Reid Hoffman is one of those Silicon Valley figures who actually earned the "PayPal Mafia" reputation — he was at PayPal before co-founding LinkedIn, which sounds like a fun little side project until you realize it became the dominant professional network on the planet and sold to Microsoft for $26 billion in 2016. What I find genuinely interesting about Hoffman is that he's not just a money guy: he's a Stanford-trained philosopher who never stopped thinking seriously about networks, society, and what technology does to people. His podcast "Masters of Scale" is better than it has any right to be, and his books on blitzscaling gave a real name and framework to how startups actually grow fast. A CBE from the British government is an odd honor for a California tech billionaire, but honestly, LinkedIn reaching a billion users kind of justifies it.
1. Profile
- Name (English)
- Reid Hoffman
- Name (Japanese)
- リード・ギャレット・ホフマン
- Reading
- りーど・ぎゃれっと・ほふまん
- Born
- August 5, 1967 (age 58)
- Zodiac / Chinese zodiac
- Leo / Goat
- Origin
- Stanford, California, United States
- Occupation
- entrepreneur / investor / writer / businessperson / podcaster
2. Background
- University
- Stanford University
Awards & achievements
- Marshall Scholarship
- Commander of the Order of the British Empire
4. Personality
Motto
Private
6. Links
Frequently asked questions
When was Reid Hoffman born?
Born August 5, 1967 (age 58).
Where is Reid Hoffman from?
Reid Hoffman is from Stanford, California, United States.
What does Reid Hoffman do?
Reid Hoffman works as entrepreneur, investor, writer, businessperson, podcaster.
Entrepreneur — see all → · Investor — see all → · More people from United States →
7. About this entry
Tags
- Last updated
- 2026-06-02
Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.