Many people have never heard of Reid Hoffman but everyone knows the companies that he’s associated with. Hoffman originally started as an executive with Paypal and took the money from the eBay sale and made some of the best investments of our time. Now a partner at Greylock, Hoffman has made billions by being an angel investor in some of the biggest online companies in the world. Take a look at the investments of Hoffman. Most people would be fortunate to have just one of these let alone an early investor.
CoFounded LinkedIn in 2002. You know the story here. IPO netted him hundreds of millions
Facebook: An original Angel Investor in 2004 and also part of Series A. His low millions is now worth billions
Digg.com Series A investor. OK, not worth what it originally was
Ning.com Series A 2007
Funny or Die: Series A 2007
Zynga Angel and Series A 2008 (hundreds of millions if not billions yet again)
Along with Fred Wilson, Hoffman is one of the investors that you are honored to have invest in your company. When he steps into a Series of investment, the company is automatically put on the big board simply because he is involved. He is the ultimate example of “don’t follow the money, let the money follow you” .
Every sport has its’ “Albert Pujols”. 😉
Go Reid!
Stories like this kind of get the motivation going.
Oh to just have a few million to invest in the good ideas of others.
Problem is there are a LOT of “good” ideas out there. You have to be very good at knowing which ones to pick, and have a bit of luck on your side as well. It’s much easier to lose a few million, than to build a huge fortune when investing. How many Warren Buffets are there out there? 😉