An Interview with Honorary Doctor – Reid Hoffman

The guest of the 17^th episode of An Interview with Honorary Doctor is an American internet entrepreneur, venture capitalist and author Reid Hoffman. He co-founded LinkedIn and is currently a partner at Greylock, one of the leading venture capital firms in Silicon Valley. Hoffman is the co-author of three best-selling books: The Start-Up of You, The Alliance, and Blitzscaling. He is also the host of the podcast Masters of Scale.

In this interview we will get to know more closely the life and career of Reid Hoffman. As a huge science fiction fan, Hoffman started to reflect essential questions on humanity already in his childhood. He was interested in “who we are, who should we be and what role does technology play into that”. Curiosity for the humanity and human aspirations have been important driving forces in the successful career path of Hoffman.

During the interview Hoffman reveals his recipe for innovations and how he recognises where to invest. To be successful investor should recognise businesses that have possibilities to bring something fundamentally new to human life and society in global level. This was the case with Airbnb, one of the businesses in which Hoffman believed as an investor from the very beginning.

Reid Hoffman is interviewed by professor Harri Oinas-Kukkonen.

An Interview with Honorary Doctor is a podcast series, in which we will get to know the honorary doctors of the 11th Doctoral Conferment Ceremony. The conversations will cover interesting stories about the life and achievements of the guests and their connections to the University of Oulu.