#101: The Oracle of Silicon Valley, Reid Hoffman (Plus: Michael McCullough)

Reid Hoffman (@reidhoffman) is often referred to as "The Oracle of Silicon Valley" by tech insiders, who look at his company-building and investing track record (Facebook, Airbnb, Flickr, etc.) with awe. Reid is Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of LinkedIn, which has more than 300 million users. He was previously Executive Vice President at PayPal, which was purchased by eBay for $1.5 billion. There, he was nicknamed "firefighter-in-chief" by CEO Peter Thiel. Noted venture capitalist David Sze says of Reid, "[he] is arguably the most successful angel investor in the past decade." They are now both partners at Greylock Partners. In this podcast, he is joined by Michael McCullough, MD, a close friend, co-founder of QuestBridge.org, and a successful investor with training as an ER physician. Michael is as an Assistant Clinical Professor at UCSF and previously served as the on-call ER physician to the Dalai Lama. Michael is also a Rhodes Scholar, Kaufman Fellow, and Ashoka Fellow. An avid meditator, he is particularly interested in investing in technologies and companies pertaining to the mind. We cover A LOT, including: Meeting Mark Zuckerberg for the first time and deciding to invest in Facebook "Fire-fighting" in startups and beyond Using board games to develop strategy Reid's view of what Uber has done well and what they could improve Some of Reid's suggested philosophers for entrepreneurs Non-technical founders and symbolic systems Going "off algorithm" in the ER to manage life-and-death decisions The 3 types of CEOs What Reid has learned from his network, including the founders of Airbnb, Kiva.org, etc. And, of course, we discuss QuestBridge, as Reid and I are both on the advisory board. All show notes, links, and resources from this episode can be found at http://fourhourworkweek.com/podcast This podcast is brought to you by MeUndies. Have you ever wanted to be as powerful as a mullet-wearing ninja from the 1980’s, or as sleek as a black panther in the Amazon? O