The service lets professionals create online profiles that help them more easily connect with other professionals to get advice, find jobs and make key hires. The uber-connected Hoffman sees it as a karmic, self-perpetuating social circle. John Lilly, chief executive of Mozilla Corp., creator of the Firefox browser, calls the service "a manifestation of how Reid's brain works."
More than 24 million people have followed Lilly in trading in their cardboard boxes and Rolodexes crammed with business cards in favor of LinkedIn, which makes money in a variety of ways, including advertising and premium subscriptions. The site offers people the chance to do small favors that could help others in big ways, Hoffman said. That's his theory of the "small good," something he's been practicing for years.
Jeffrey Taylor, senior vice president at public relations firm Fleishman-Hillard Inc., scored $250,000 of patent work after a 10-minute phone conversation with a prospective client who found him on LinkedIn. Darrell Rhea, chief executive of strategic consulting and market research firm Cheskin Added Value, reconnected with a former client and landed a $1-million business deal. Scott Rafer became CEO of MyBlogLog, a Web service later sold to Yahoo Inc., after reaching out to its founders on LinkedIn.
Hoffman is proud of these "ah-ha" moments. He's also an avid user of LinkedIn himself, turning to the site to find his replacement. He hired Dan Nye, an accomplished executive, to succeed him as CEO so he could focus on innovation and building the organization.
Hoffman is still the nucleus around which everyone at LinkedIn revolves -- creating what some people refer to as the Reidosphere. People file in and out of his office throughout the day to get his guidance. Leaning back, he swivels rhythmically in his chair, hands fidgeting, deep in thought.
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While reviewing a marketing video frame by frame with LinkedIn's director of marketing, Surya Yalamanchili, Hoffman spots places to refer to social networking in warmer, more emotional terms.
"Networking has gotten a bad brand," he told Yalamanchili, a Procter & Gamble Co. veteran who appeared on the reality TV show "The Apprentice" in 2007. "It's not about being an asset, it's about collaboration. It's about doing the right thing."
