LinkedIn Archive
Why Reid Hoffman May Be the Only Thing Under-Valued at LinkedIn
Well, I am back from most of my jetsetting. My trips to Berlin and New York were great, but towards the end the travel and pace got pretty brutal. Particularly, my flight back from JFK. I'd asked to be booked on an early flight, because all Hell seems to break loose after 12 pm at JFK. But AOL Travel booked me on a 7:15 pm flight.
Evening before Memorial Day weekend-- you can imagine how packed that place was. The security guy told me the flights leaving JFK were collectively at 95% capcacity. Mine was overbooked, and people were already being rolled over to Saturday. Then a storm West of us meant forty planes could not take off, leading to an epic backup of flights that meant we sat on the plane for more than four hours. (Per the FAA rules, we went back to the gate at three hours, but I didn't get off the plane. I was basically staging a sit-in until I got to San Francisco.)
In case you've never been pregnant, let me tell you-- 4+ hours with no water in an upright coach seat isn't a good idea. I landed at 4 am dehydrated and with about ten pounds of extra fluid in my legs, but thankfully no blood clot.
None of this has to do with Reid Hoffman. But the general insanity of the last week explains why I'm only now linking to this TechCrunch story I wrote on him on the eve of LinkedIn's rocket-ship IPO. If you haven't read it, you should. Not because I wrote it, but because the insanity of LinkedIn's stock has twisted the mass-media story into something about greed and capitalism and OMG! ANOTHER BUBBLE! Unfortunately, that obscures the core of who Hoffman is as an entrepreneur and what made LinkedIn so successful.
I have followed LinkedIn since I was an unknown reporter at the San Jose Business Journal-- nearly ten years ago. I've written magazine stories, blog posts, books and done video interviews about LinkedIn and Reid as my career has twisted and turned since then, and LinkedIn's future has slowly but steadily mapped up and to the right.
I won't pretend I'm totally impartial here: Hoffman is one of the more generous, good-hearted people I've met in my 15 year career interviewing entreprenuers aorund the world. It's almost impossible not to like him. But what's important about Hoffman is that he's also incredibly good at what he does. I argue in the TechCrunch piece that he should be the model for wide-eyed entrepreneurs looking to the Valley for role models, not Mark Zuckerberg.
I didn't mean this as a knock on Zuckerberg at all. He's one of the most impressive founders I've ever met. But Facebook is a once-a-decade phenomenon. You are likely not a Mark Zuckerberg. But with hard work, talent, dedication, and vision, you could be a Reid Hoffman.
And certainly no one should emulate the phony Mark Zuckerberg that Ben Mezrich and Aaron Sorkin invented to enrich themselves. Just after "The Social Network" came out, I had lunch with Valley entrepreneur and angel investor Shervin Pishevar and we were talking about the movie's potential impact. He said he was worried that a generation of kids would watch the movie and think that's Silicon Valley-- the same reason a generation of douche bags went into finance after watching Wall Street-- a movie that was supposed to be warning America about glorifying greed.
I was reminded of this conversation at Disrupt earlier this week. I don't want to get into the details (again) but a company named Lumier was set to demo. Instead, a guy who looked to be clearly mimicking the Sorkin version of Zuckerberg got up, bragged about his role in the Windows ecosystem (who knew people bragged about that?), demoed little more than an animation he was proud of, and essentially told the panel of esteemed judges, the audience that had paid thousands of dollars to be there, and a room of startup hopefuls who didn't get the opportunity to launch their companies on stage, that "that should be enough" for us.
The way he spoke sounded a lot like Zuckerberg from the movie, which I chalked up to a coincidence. But several people who've worked with him before have since emailed me to say he never talks like that normally, and it was as if he was affecting an accent.
I have no idea if that's true. I've never met him before, and have no desire to talk to him ever again. But I do know this: This kid gained nothing but contempt for his performance. No one thought he was badass. You know what made the real life Zuckerberg badass? BUILDING A HUGE $50-BILLION COMPANY.
I first met Zuckerberg when he was 19, and he was a bit of a punk. (Still nothing like the movie's depiction, by the way.) But tellingly, no one was feting him then. It was only when he rapidly grew out of that bratty mid-college phase, surrounding himself with people he could learn from, and conciously working to become a better person that Facebook became the phenomenon it is today and Zuckerberg became the person that would-be entrepreneurs aspire to be. The person who was worthy of a film. Too bad one wasn't actually made about him.
So to sum up: You probably aren't the next Mark Zuckerberg. But if you're going to try to be anyway, pick the right one to emulate. You know, the actual one.
Prediction: LinkedIn Engagement Metrics Will Soar in 2009
I did something this morning I haven't done in a long time: I spent an hour on LinkedIn.
Anyone who reads this blog, watches TechTicker, or has read my book knows I have long been very bullish on LinkedIn as a company, and occasionally the site has proven a God-send for tracking sources down. But in a world where Facebook and Twitter meet most of my connecting needs, the only uniquely powerful application for LinkedIn in my view is job hunting, and I haven't had to look for a job since I've been a member. So while I've played around with the Answers application and go to the site once a month or so to sort through invitations, I've never had much reason to spend a lot of time there.
So what changed today?
What LinkedIn Doubters Need to Know
As I said in my previous post, it has been a busy week for me. The highlight was an interview with Reid Hoffman for TechTicker upon closing his venture deal valuing LinkedIn at a (Outrageous? Conservative?) $1 billion valuation. Of course, if you read this blog regularly you know I think it’s easily worth that. And really, Reid just confirmed it for me. In this piece below, he discusses why all this talk of a Facebook-LinkedIn rivalry just misses the mark. One of his claims is that work and play will not collide, which is funny because in my BusinessWeek column this week I talked about the growing realization that our worlds are doing just that and posed the question of whether people would change their real-world behavior or abandon such heavy use of sites like Twitter, Facebook, et all.
But if you watch this video, you see a lot of clues to why I think LinkedIn is the sleeper big, standalone public company that emerges from Web 2.0. There are so many moments where Hoffman – and I should add Dan Nye the current CEO—have resisted cheap growth, from both users and revenues, in favor of building a sustainable business. The business side of LinkedIn has always made it a little different from the rest of the Web 2.0 crop, which is fitting since it started in 2003—a beyond bleak time for Web companies when VCs were demanding some sort of business model. Although Reid decisively rejected that—and stepped in to fund a good many early Web entrepreneurs who did too—you can still see that thinking in how quickly the company got to profitability and how quickly it began building it’s own salesforce, rather than, say, off-loaded ad sales to a third party.
I could go on, but just watch the clip. Two other pieces below it with Reid: One on the $1 billion valuation and the prospect of a LinkedIn IPO and the other on Reid’s thoughts about Web 2.0 and it’s twin growing pains of monetization and persistent outages. I was lucky enough to spend hours at a time talking business and the Valley with Reid while I was writing my book, but haven’t seen him in a while. I forgot how much I enjoy his willingness to answer nearly every question you put to him in a direct and honest way. I’m trying to think now of a single time he’s said “no comment” to me and coming up blank! Anyway, enjoy:
Me on My Book: Or Why Doing Interviews Is Actually Hard
Two days until my book comes out! It's very exciting and sort of scary. Portfolio ran an interview with me on their blog and spelled my name wrong. I was sort of relieved, because I wasn't honestly thrilled with how it came out. I blame myself, not the reporter, but I was laughing as I was saying some things and instead it came out sort of snarky in print. I kept reading it thinking, "Aw, that's not what I meant!" Probably reporter karma because I've heard that from sources over the years! Anyway, I'm linking to it because invariably people will accuse me of being too easy on all these Web moguls and I think I come off kinda jerky. . .
For contrast, here is a segment from Tech Ticker yesterday about Max Levchin, where my general excitement about those sections of the book probably come off as too complimentary. My co-host, Aaron Task, figured since everyone else in NYC was interviewing me about the book this week, he should to. He read it all weekend-- even writing notes in the margin!-- and asked some great questions. A few segments will post later today too.
Happy Hour
Me on Happy Hour on Fox Business News. Despite the name you actually *don't* drink on the show! Enjoy!
Your Chance to Mock Valley Millionaires
So when you write a book, people and companies keep asking-- even begging-- to throw you a book release party. Then, publication comes, and you hear crickets. Also, bookstores apparently almost never do signings anymore. So I'm throwing my own party on my release date May 15. Here's the link to the open Facebook invitation. It's open to everyone, but the place (TBA soon) maxes out at about 100 people so no promises there won't be a line for latecomers!
Everything at the party is mostly donated (including the time of my friend Johanna Lopez who is organizing!) A generous sponsor appears to be white-knighting in to take care of a few expenses in exchange for me signing my hand off for a pile of books. (Happy to do it, people!) Because I sort of sprung this on Penguin, I will be fronting the cost for the books so you guys better buy copies!!
Anyway, more on the details later today. For now, your help on the drink list. A few liquor vendors are donating spirits, and we'll be coming up with cocktails named after the moguls in the book. I have an idea for "The Kevin Rose" and "The Max Levchin" already, but figured in honor of Web 2.0 and user generated content I'd solicit some suggestions for the others.
Web 2.0 Expo
I'm not actually there. But that doesn't stop me from opining. (video on the jump- with tips for you PR folks on how NOT to pitch me!)
New Book
An unforgettable portrait of the emerging world's entrepreneurial dynamos Brilliant, Crazy, Cocky is the story about that top 1% of people who do more to change their worlds through greed and ambition than politicians, NGOs and nonprofits ever can. This new breed of self-starter is taking local turmoil and turning it into opportunities, making millions, creating thousands of jobs and changing the face of modern entrepreneurship at the same time. To tell this story, Lacy spent forty weeks traveling through Asia, South America and Africa hunting down the most impressive up-and-comers the developed world has never heard of....yet.
Buy it from these sellers
Sarah Lacy is an award-winning reporter who has covered high-growth entrepreneurship for more than fifteen years. She is the founder, CEO and Editor-in-Chief of PandoDaily.com, the site-of-record for the startup ecosystem. She lives in San Francisco.
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