Question 1

True or false: Reid Hoffman wrote the book 'The Lean Startup.'

Accepted Answer

False. That book was written by Eric Ries. Hoffman co-authored 'Blitzscaling' and 'The Startup of You.'

Question 2

True or false: Hoffman is a venture partner at Sequoia Capital.

Accepted Answer

False. Hoffman is a partner at Greylock Partners, not Sequoia. He joined Greylock in 2009 to focus on early-stage investments.

Question 3

True or false: Reid Hoffman was born in the United Kingdom and moved to the US as a child.

Accepted Answer

False. Hoffman was born in Palo Alto, California, and grew up in Berkeley. He studied at Stanford and Oxford.

Question 4

True or false: Hoffman played a key role in OpenAI's early funding and board structure.

Accepted Answer

True. Reid Hoffman was an early donor to OpenAI's 2015 founding, contributing to its $1 billion pledge, and served on its board from 2018 to 2022.

Question 5

True or false: Reid Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn after serving as an executive at PayPal.

Accepted Answer

True. Hoffman served as executive vice president at PayPal, and later co-founded LinkedIn in 2003, drawing on his 'PayPal Mafia' connections.

Question 6

True or false: Reid Hoffman has a PhD in philosophy from Stanford University.

Accepted Answer

False. He earned a master's in philosophy from Oxford as a Marshall Scholar, but his Stanford degree is a BS in symbolic systems.

Question 7

True or false: Reid Hoffman was an early investor in Airbnb.

Accepted Answer

True. Hoffman participated in Airbnb's Series A funding round in 2010 through Greylock Partners, providing early capital that helped the company grow.

Question 8

True or false: Hoffman invested in Facebook before Mark Zuckerberg dropped out of Harvard.

Accepted Answer

True. Hoffman made a $40,000 angel investment in Facebook in 2004 during its first funding round. At the time, Zuckerberg was a sophomore at Harvard; he dropped out the following year to focus on the company.

Reid Hoffman Trivia Questions