社交媒體：雷德?霍夫曼

職業社交網站LinkedIn執行主席，格雷洛克公司合伙人

????雷德?霍夫曼的故事也許永遠不會被拍成好萊塢大片，但毫無疑問，他是社交媒體領域一顆耀眼的明星。2002年，Facebook創始人扎克伯格剛剛被哈佛大學（Harvard）錄取，而霍夫曼卻已經建立了LinkedIn。目前，這一網站已經成為世界上最大的職業網絡，共有1億名會員，并且每周以100萬的數量增長。

????LinkedIn成立于2003年，并由現年44歲的霍夫曼擔任掌門人。利用之前供職在線支付網站PayPal獲得的經驗，他帶領網站實現了早期的增長。2009年，霍夫曼把權利移交給目前的CEO杰夫?威納，但依然擔任公司的執行主席，并持有公司20%的股份。今年5月，LinkedIn成為美國第一家上市的社交媒體網站。最初，公司的股價為45美元，之后一度飆升至122美元，日前，股價在100美元區域徘徊。按照當前股價計算，LinkedIn的市值將達到96億美元，霍夫曼也成了億萬富翁。

????去年，LinkedIn通過市場營銷、招聘解決方案，以及高級內容訂閱等實現的收入為2.43億美元。網站的成功足以確立霍夫曼“社交網絡之父”的地位。但他絕對不是曇花一現的人物。

????1997年，霍夫曼對社交媒體產生了強烈的興趣。當時，他與人合作成立了最早的約會與社區網站Socialnet.com。2001年，該網站被出售給了約會網站Spark Networks公司。早期在富士通公司（Fujitsu）和蘋果公司（Apple）從事產品開發與用戶體驗的工作經歷使霍夫曼成功扮演了公司初創時期“產品強人”（霍夫曼自己的說法）的角色，也使他開始了解通過在線網絡實現人與人互聯的力量。

????之后，他加入Paypal公司，擔任首任董事和高層管理人員。通過將這一支付平臺出售給eBay，在當時看來，霍夫曼大賺了一筆。而且，他也因為是“PayPal黑手黨”的一員而聲名鵲起，之所以獲得這個稱號，是因為他的一些同事，包括聯合創始人艾倫?馬斯科、手機支付應用公司Square的基思?拉布伊斯和投資家皮特?泰爾，之后在技術領域都獲得了成功。LinkedIn是霍夫曼的代表作，但他同時也是硅谷最多產的天使投資人之一，最著名的青年創業顧問，尤其是對社交網絡感興趣的年輕人。在內容分享網站掘客網（Digg）、圖片分享網站Flickr，以及最大的分享網站Facebook的初期，他都投入了資金，并且收獲頗豐。

????2009年，霍夫曼加入風險投資公司格雷洛克（Greylock），目前為該公司合伙人。他主要負責監督公司在定位共享網站Shopkick與房屋租賃網站Airbnb的投資等。此外，他還是團購網站Groupon的顧問和社交游戲網站Zynga的董事，這兩家網站均以社交網絡為依托，它們即將進行的首次公開招股甚至會搶去LinkedIn的風頭。不過，霍夫曼在這兩家公司都持有股份，所以，他肯定不會擔心。

????美國網景公司（Netscape）創始人、風險投資家馬克?安德森稱：“在硅谷和行業內，大大小小的社交網絡公司經常會向他求助。他既是優秀的公司創建者，又是知識淵博的思想者，這是一種非常罕見的組合。每當我感到困惑，第一個想到的人肯定就是他。”

Social: Reid Hoffman

Executive chairman, LinkedIn

Partner, Greylock

????He may never be portrayed in a Hollywood blockbuster, but there's no doubt that Reid Hoffman is one of the stars of the social network phenomenon. In 2002, around the time that a certain young prodigy was matriculating at Harvard, Hoffman was already building LinkedIn, today the world's largest professional network with 100 million members and one million new recruits every week.

????LinkedIn launched in May 2003 with Hoffman, now 44, at the helm. He took the site through its early-stage growth, drawing on his previous experience as an executive at PayPal. In 2009, Hoffman passed the reins to current CEO Jeff Weiner, but remained as executive chairman with a 20% stake in the venture. This past May, LinkedIn became the first U.S. social network to go public. Shares were initially priced at $45, shot as high as $122, and today hover around $100. The current price gives LinkedIn a market valuation of $9.6 billion, and makes Hoffman a billionaire.

????The success of LinkedIn, which delivered $243 million in revenue last year from marketing and hiring solutions, and premium subscriptions, would be enough to establish Hoffman as a founding father of social networking. But he's no one-hit wonder.

????Hoffman caught the social bug in 1997, when he co-founded Socialnet.com, an early dating and community site that was sold to Spark Networks in 2001. Earlier stints in product development and user experience at Fujitsu and Apple trained Hoffman for his role as the startup's "product guy" (his words), and he began to understand of the power of connecting people through online networks.

????Next came PayPal, where as a founding board member and executive, Hoffman made a then-fortune from the sale of the payments platform to eBay. He also became known as a member of the "PayPal Mafia," so-called because colleagues like co-founder Elon Musk, Square's Keith Rabois and investor Peter Thiel went on to further success in tech. LinkedIn is Hoffman's claim to fame, but he also became one of Silicon Valley's most prolific angel investors and advisors to young entrepreneurs, especially those with a social bent. He placed successful early-stage bets on Digg (content sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and Facebook, the biggest sharing site of them all.

????Today Hoffman serves as a partner at venture capital firm Greylock, which he joined in 2009. He oversees the firm's investments in location sharing site Shopkick and home sharing site Airbnb, among others. He is also notably, an advisor to Groupon, and a director at Zynga, two companies that were built on the back of social networks, and whose upcoming IPOs could upstage LinkedIn's. But given that Hoffman has a stake in both, he's probably not too concerned.

????Says Netscape founder and venture capitalist Marc Andreessen: "Reid is one of the top go-to people in the Valley and in the industry for social Internet businesses of all sizes and shapes. He's both a great company builder and a profound thinker -- a very rare combination. He's my first call when I'm confused."