Good evening, I'm Mary Bradley. On today's program, our special guest is Reid Hoffman, the man who started the amazingly successful in popular website, LinkedIn. Reid, you were the first CEO of LinkedIn. Tell us a little about your website.
We basically provide a professional networking service, aimed at those looking to make connections within the business community.
Oh, so it's like Twitter or Facebook for people looking for jobs, sharing photos, meeting people or chatting. That kind of thing?
Not exactly. As a networking service, of course you can meet people and check with one another. Photos can be shared as well. But in order to make connections, you need to be introduced by someone else first.
So if we didn't know each other, I would need someone who does know you to send an introduction message first. And you could either accept or reject it.
That's right.
In my notes, it says your website started in two thousand three. It only took you 3 years to make money. And by two thousand seven, you reached 10,000,000 users. Tell us about the most recent changes in your company.
Jeff Weiner took over as CEO in two thousand and eight. Thanks to his hard work, we now have over 500 million members from 200 countries.