Attn Entrepreneurs: Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t the Role Model. Reid Hoffman Is. | Hacker News Reader

Attn Entrepreneurs: Mark Zuckerberg Isn’t the Role Model. Reid Hoffman Is.

techcrunch.com

123 pointsjnoller29 comments

I just happen to be reading the LinkedIn S1 filing[1] last night and was thinking the same thing while going through it - these guys have not been getting nearly enough credit for what they have created.

LinkedIn was generating revenue within a year of being founded, and its current numbers are just crazy: 1,100 employees, 102M members, 75M visitors, 7.1B pageviews last quarter, $93M in revenue last quarter and on track to do almost $400M in revenue this year. Look at the revenue growth: 2009: $120M, 2010: $243M. Over a billion invitations sent last year. 75% of the Fortune 100 using their professional services as part of recruiting, and they have already diversified to three separate and solid revenue streams.

They are not profitable but that is because they do not want to be - they have doubled investment in R&D, development and marketing in the past 12 months. They still have plenty of room to expand, especially internationally.

I am not surprised that their target listing price has increased a number of times since the filing - they are on target to reach about $1B in revenue in 2012/13 and a market cap of $3B seemed low, it might still see a sharp first-week increase with the new list price.

Excellent return for the investors, who have only had to invest $103M[2] to date (Greylock, Sequoia, BVP and Kopelman). Not sure why they went with the NYSE over the NASDAQ, but this IPO could be a nice investment if you are looking for a tech IPO.

LinkedIn haven't nearly received the amount of coverage they deserve, it is a web 2.0 sleeper hit that went about building its business with little controversy, no huge news splash, no secondary market price surge, and no personality conflicts (at least not in public).

Edit: And not to forget, LinkedIn has made some excellent contributions to open source software, especially with Voldermont, their distributed kv store (I have used it in dev but not in production, it is pretty cool). If you are using Apache Lucene and/or Hadoop, checkout the LinkedIn projects.

[1] http://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/0001193125111...

[2] http://www.crunchbase.com/company/linkedin

[3] http://linkedin.github.com/

[4] http://project-voldemort.com/

Usually these kinds of pieces say more about the author than they do about the people they're talking about. I mean, it's silly to think that one way to lead people is inherently better than another. Reid Hoffman simply has a different style than Mark Zuckerberg does. No more, no less.

Is it my lack of energy or the piece does not read well. I had to backtrack a few times to see what she's talking about.

Anyway, from the outside, it seems as both Zuck and Hoffman are both the quiet-doer personality that stays out of spotlight and would rather produce "goods". I like that. Their humility is what makes them role models.

> Is it my lack of energy or the piece does not read well. I had to backtrack a few times to see what she's talking about.

That phenomena is endemic to TC posts.

Good on Sarah Lacy for highlighting one of the anonymous Silicon Valley soldiers like Reid Hoffman. He's been toiling away in obscurity for years now...

Not sure what your definition of "obscurity" is... anyone who's not Time Man of the Year? Partner at Greylock, angel investor, founder and CEO of LinkedIn... he's one of the most prominent Silicon Valley personalities.

Sarcasm doesn't do well on hacker news, unfortunately.

But did he have a movie made about him? :)

I'm not one for role models, but I'd pick the other "Reed" (Hastings) more as someone to emulate.

Absolutely. Made a boatload after he sold Rational and could have easily just gone on living a great life, but instead went on to build one of the most influential companies of the 21st century.

That Reid is a much better role model than this one:

http://www.reidfleming.com/rf01.html

It takes years to build an overnight success.

Except when it doesn't.

The article uses "sexy/sexier" FIVE TIMES. I'm no mormon but what's that all about?

Well, if we're piling on... "phenomenons"?

I must say that LinkedIn has done more good for me in the one year since I've signed up for it than Facebook has ever been.

The IPO is going to fare well. It's LinkedIn after all, most people have heard of it and many will want to get in, despite not knowing the revenues, because in this environment they are more worried about being left out.

Not a criticism, maybe the revenues will in fact justify the valuation, I don't know.

You realize you can look at their finances in the S-1[1] that they filed?

[1]http://sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1271024/00011931251114221...

Interesting premise. Until I saw that it's a Sarah Lacy piece and promptly closed the tab.

If you actually read it you would see that its Sarah at her best (making good big picture conclusions based on sound evidence) instead of her worst (gossiping shallowly about something she doesn't really understand.)

If I actually read every article she wrote, just to glean the rare gems from the copious garbage, how will I ever get back all the time that was lost?

I'll stick to my original assessment. Down vote away to your heart's content.

"making good big picture conclusions based on sound evidence" .. oh come on, its Sarah creating confrontations where there is simply different styles... and NOW she says that "we the early adopters"... garbage at her best

The real question is, given the terrible performance of the RenRen IPO (which was hyped up lot), how will LinkedIn perform tomorrow? Anyone have a guess?

Terrible performance?

The stock rose as high as $21.93, or almost 56.6 percent above its $14 IPO price in its first day of trading on the New York Stock Exchange before closing at $18.01, or 28.6 percent, above the IPO price. Earlier on Wednesday, Renren raised $743.4 million in its IPO.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/05/04/us-renren-ipo-idUS...

It's now trading at $13.70, which is pretty close to what it floated at. That's a decent - if not great - performance for a company with as many questions as RenRen. I don't think you could characterize it as terrible though.

(And I don't think it was hyped much at all. I follow this field reasonably closely and I hadn't even heard of RenRen)

It's not an either/or thing.

Zukerberg/Hoffman, Facebook/LinkedIn.

Otherwise good article.

Yet neither of them have made the world a better place...

while both Zuckerberg and Hoffman should be emulated and commended for what they've done, I admire Zuckerberg more. He built his company from his own code, marketing, and hustle rather than relying on outside funding, and the echo chamber that was originally linkedin. While nothing should be taken away from companies like linkedin or quora or path, but how much of their success can be attributed to just being part of the echo chamber and knowing the right people. While it is a skill to be part of the right social circles.. Zuckerberg built success without it ( yes pre Sean Parker Facebook was quite successful). More startups today are probably in a closer to situation to Zuckerberg than Hoffman.

Zuckerberg started a social network at HARVARD. What part of being doesn't involve being part of building a social network at Harvard not involve "being part of the right social circles"?

linkedin started by getting top vc's and ceo's in the valley to use their product. Now if you asked me which company were more likely to succeed I would guess Linkedin. Regardless not taking anything away from Linkedin or mr Hoffman but there are things a company can do to increase their probability of success.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com