
Reid Hoffman at Startup School [video] - craigcannon
http://themacro.com/articles/2016/10/reid-hoffman-at-startup-school/
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wslh
Am I the only one who can't listen to Reid Hoffman? I was one of the first
LinkedIn users and a few years later I felt that LinkedIn was a scam. I even
paid a lot of money for LinkedIn Premium and ads to only realize that LinkedIn
was only for recruiters. Their B2B proposition was a black hole. Nothing came
from there. Their mobile phone app is until now just a embedded browser that
you cannot use offline. No serious business has such execution, it seems like
nobody really cared.

I know that Reid is appreciated in the startup world but LinkedIn only shows
how smart and patient they were to exit the business.

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AndrewKemendo
_Anyone that’s inventing the kinds of products that we typically do should be
able to articulate a relatively robust theory around “What is human nature?
What is humanity like now? Where is it going? And how does your product or
service fit into that?”_

I have talked with basically every Venture Fund in the valley (Including
Greylock by the way) and a Partner has never asked me anything remotely close
to this kind of a question. When in the hour intro pitch, or the two hour
partner pitch would my personal philosophy come up? Well, the answer in my
experience is: it won't come up.

This further reinforces that the people funding at the idea or early
deployment stage of their companies are getting it through relationships built
over long periods of time with these people. This isn't new to anyone who has
been there before, but if it's not clear to you that fundraising is 99%
network then you should realize that this is the case.

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georgewsinger
Are you saying this is the kind of question that an investor would only have
the luxory of asking several weeks into an actual relationship?

To be fair, Reid said he spends a long time with people before pulling the
trigger (40 hrs+ for founders) and you basically must come in through a
refferal.

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AndrewKemendo
_Are you saying this is the kind of question that an investor would only have
the luxory of asking several weeks into an actual relationship?_

Forget several weeks, probably over a much longer time period where they are
socializing in a friendly way spanning multiple events/dinners etc...

I think there is this notion that there are no "politics" in the startup world
which is poison to anyone entering it with the naive idea that "Idea, Talent,
Traction, Timing" are everything.

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katpas
It's interesting hearing Reid Hoffmann talking about the importance of your
network, the way he references people and gets referrals etc.

He doesn't mention using Linkedin as a tool to do this. All email and phone. I
wouldn't use Linkedin as a tool to do those things either but given that
Linkedin position themselves as a network for exactly that and he's the
founder I'm surprised at the lack of mention.

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heshamg
Here's a link to the deck Reid talked about [http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-
pitch-to-greylock/](http://reidhoffman.org/linkedin-pitch-to-greylock/)

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jotto
Altman keeps the dialogue focused and Hoffman actually gave candid answers.
The two of them together run through the pillars of starting a company (having
a hypothesis, testing it, MVP, distribution and strategizing about funding)

My favorite part is Hoffman suggesting to know when to quit or look a reason
to stop/quit and pivot or move on. Altman however, presents himself as he is
well known for, and as PG has corroborated: tenacious/persistent. Hoffman
responds to this with with what he calls "flexible persistence" \- when
founders have conviction with their own theory/vision but still the ability
and willingness to listen to guidance. More specifically he suggests re-
evaluating the original hypotheses and proposing slight alterations.

