Reid Hoffman 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…
QuestBridge currently supplies more exceptional low-income talent to top universities than all other non-profits combined (more than 2,000 students a year on $500 million in financial aid). QuestBridge has created a single, standardized college application accepted by 36 top universities like Stanford, MIT, Amherst and Yale. This allows them to use innovative campaigns (e.g. laptop giveaway forms that double as college applications) to offer scholarships to kids who might otherwise not even think of college. If you want to break the cycle of poverty, QuestBridge is one of the most fascinating tools I’ve ever seen.
I’d like to invite all of my readers and listeners to pour benevolent gasoline on this fire by contributing to one of QuestBridge’s prizes in Science (STEM) or the Arts. Just click here to check them out. The “prizes” are giveaway items like laptops or internships, and when kids apply for a prize, they are simultaneously applying to college. Student applications are due September 28, so there’s still time to influence this year.
If you prefer, you can create your own prize for a group you feel strongly about, like top low-income women, top low-income students from any geographic area (e.g. your home state), or those kids interested in a particular career (e.g. engineering). In effect, you might say, “I’d like to encourage Hispanic kids in Chicago [or girls in Tuscon interested in computer science, etc.] to apply to college. I’m happy to offer three iPads,” or something like that.
It doesn’t take much, and it really works wonders. For instance, QuestBridge’s Native American prize (20 laptops total) increased the Native American applicant pool from 34 to more than 350 in <12 months.
To create your own prize, or to simply discuss support or partnership, please reach out directly to Michael [AT] QuestBridge {DOT} org.
Again, to donate to existing prizes (e.g. STEM, the Arts, Rural), please click here. That’s a simple and fast way to make a real impact.
- Listen to it on iTunes.
- Stream by clicking here
- Download as an MP3 by right-clicking here and choosing “save as”.
Want to hear another podcast from an early stage investor? — Listen to my conversations with Chris Sacca. In this episode, we discuss unfair advantages, how Chris chooses founders and investments, stories of missed opportunities, and the styles that differentiate Wall Street from Silicon Valley investors (stream below or right-click here to download):
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? Of course you have, and that’s where MeUndies comes in. I’ve spent the last 2-3 weeks wearing underwear from these guys 24/7, and they are the most comfortable and colorful underwear I’ve ever owned. Their materials are 2x softer than cotton, as evaluated using the Kawabata method. Check out MeUndies.com/Tim to see my current faves (some are awesomely ridiculous) and, while you’re at it, don’t miss lots of hot ladies wearing MeUndies.
This podcast is also brought to you by 99Designs, the world’s largest marketplace of graphic designers. Did you know I used 99Designs to rapid prototype the cover for The 4-Hour Body? Here are some of the impressive results. Click this link and get a free $99 upgrade. Give it a test run…
QUESTION OF THE DAY: If you had the SAT scores and e-mail addresses of every high school student in the US, how would you increase the number of kids who apply to college? Let me know in the comments.
Scroll below for links and show notes…
Enjoy!
Selected Links from the Episode
- Learn more about Wittgensteinian language games
- The Checklist Manifesto by Atul Gawande
- Check out Avalon Hill, Reid Hoffman’s strategic board game
- The Start-up of You and The Alliance by Reid Hoffman
- Getting Things Done by David Allen
- The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
- Conscious Business by Fred Kofman
- Sapiens by Yuval Noah Harari
- Learn more about Greylock Partners
- Learn more about QuestBridge
- Features on QuestBridge:
- Connect with Michael McCullough
- Connect with Reid Hoffman:
Show Notes
- How do you answer the question, “What do you do?” [7:33]
- The circumstances of Michael McCullough’s birth [9:08]
- Lessons learned from Reid Hoffman’s unconventional high school [10:03]
- How Reid Hoffman evaluates the importance of a founder’s technical skills [11:33]
- The philosophy of Reid Hoffman [12:58]
- What it means to Michael McCullough to go off algorithm [17:08]
- What it’s like to watch a person’s eyes as they pass from alive to not-alive [20:58]
- What separates a good ER physician from a great ER physician [21:53]
- What makes a good “entrepreneurial firefighter” and how to work with bureaucracies [24:03]
- Recommendations for developing strategic thinking [30:13]
- What Uber has done well and what could have been executed more effectively/strategically [33:08]
- On meeting Mark Zuckerberg and investing in Facebook [35:28]
- Mark Pincus’s role in Facebook when Reid Hoffman decided to invest [38:23]
- On deciding not to take the role of CEO [39:53]
- What founders should think about when deciding to hire a CEO [42:43]
- Michael McCullough’s first 60-90 minutes, meditation, and neurofeedback [47:38]
- Reid Hoffman’s morning rituals and how he works through creative problems [49:53]
- The first thing that comes to mind when mentioning specific people in Reid Hoffman’s network [54:23]
- Most gifted book [1:04:28]
- Questbridge – What it is and what it does [1:26:53]
- If you could have one billboard anywhere, where would it be and what would it say? [1:19:53]
- Asks or requests for the listeners [1:20:48]