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- Reid Hoffman said he encourages founders to check his background before letting him invest.
- Hoffman said he uses this strategy to build trust, offering both positive and negative references.
- He applied this approach with OpenAI after Elon Musk left the startup in 2018.
Due diligence is a two-way street, according to Reid Hoffman.
In an episode of the “Possible” podcast released on Wednesday, the LinkedIn cofounder said he always asks founders to look into his background before letting him invest in their companies.
“I say: ‘Look, I’m going to give you a bunch of references. I would like you to find anybody that I perfectly worked with,'” he said. “You’re allowed to talk to anyone and you can tell them, they know this, that they should tell you my strengths and weaknesses.”
And don’t just call people who had good experiences, he added.
“I will identify people to you who I think are my negative references, people I’ve worked with before,” Hoffman said.
Hoffman said he gave OpenAI president Greg Brockman a list of his references before investing in the AI startup. This happened after Elon Musk left the company in 2018.
“One of the natural questions you guys should ask, that you might feel intimidated asking, is how do I think that I’m different than Elon as a partner,” he said, referring to Brockman and Sam Altman, OpenAI’s CEO.
Hoffman cofounded LinkedIn in 2003 and stepped down as its CEO in 2009. He was involved with the professional networking platform until Microsoft acquired it in 2016.
Hoffman served on the board of OpenAI from 2019 to 2023. His other investments include Airbnb, self-driving firm Aurora, and air transportation company Joby Aviation.
The serial founder and angel investor has been a big advocate for referrals and has said he prioritizes them over interviews.
“One thing I’ve learned when building teams: when you can, give more weight to references than to interviews or résumés,” Hoffman wrote in a LinkedIn post in July.
“It’s not that interviews or credentials don’t matter, but they can be static signals,” he added. “What they often miss is how someone behaves under pressure, in uncertainty, with a team.”
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