Reid

The fundamental choice that venture-backed entrepreneurs face is simple: M&A or IPO? The short answer is that it almost never makes sense to start a company with the intent of selling it. You incur nearly as much risk, and shed as much blood, sweat, and tears whether you sell or go public. And even though only a small set of companies succeed in going public, the value of going public is such that the expected value of going public is mammothly higher. The big problem with building to sell is that companies are bought, not sold. As a result, in a very real sense, it's harder to build your company to sell than it is to build it to go public because if you’re aiming to go public, at least you know what public market investors want to see. Fortunately, there is one approach that allows you to build to go public AND to sell.

While there is a tendency for pundits to say that everything has changed, and that we’re in a new world, Reid Hoffman posits that more is actually the same than different. Converting challenge into opportunity is a normal part of the entrepreneurial journey, and right now is precisely when people with entrepreneurial skills are accomplishing amazing things, because generally speaking, it's actually better in the long-run to successfully start a business during a recession than during a bull market.

In 2014, Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman co-authored The Alliance with Chris Yeh and Ben Casnocha. The book argued that in the modern economy, the key to a stronger, healthier, longer-lasting employee relationship was to be honest about the temporary nature of nearly every job. Much like negotiators of a treaty of alliance, employees can work with their managers and employers to steer their careers on a track that transforms both company and employee. In 2020, the world is suffering through the Covid-19 pandemic and its economic fallout, and those alliances are under more stress than ever before. Chris and Reid discuss how the current crisis also represents an opportunity to honor and strengthen those alliances, even in cases where employers are furloughing or laying off employees.

In May, Jeff Weiner stepped down as CEO of LinkedIn after 11 amazing years. Greylock general partner and LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman shares his favorite memories and key lessons learned from their long partnership.

Today we are excited to announce our investment in Neeva, an ad-free and deeply personal consumer-focused search service built with privacy at the foundation.

While the disruption and turbulence associated with the Covid-19 pandemic is broadly negative and unpredictable, it does open up new opportunities. Even during a pandemic, there will still be blitzscaling opportunities. They’ll just look different from the opportunities that emerged during the long economic expansion. Greylock general partner Reid Hoffman and his Blitzscaling co-author Chris Yeh say it is now more critical than ever to focus on and enable entrepreneurship.

Greylock-backed founders joined our virtual town hall to hear general partner Reid Hoffman's assessment of the current economic, political and public health landscape. He answered questions about how entrepreneurs, investors and new graduates can adapt to the new market and societal conditions.