Using Silicon Valley Tactics, LinkedIn’s Founder Is Working to Blunt Trump
- 7 years ago
Using Silicon Valley Tactics, LinkedIn’s Founder Is Working to Blunt Trump
“My approach to political investing is the Silicon Valley approach,” Mr. Hoffman, 50, said in an interview.
SAN FRANCISCO — Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn
and a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has made a half-dozen or so investments in recent months with a specific aim: to counteract the influence of President Trump.
Mr. Hoffman is motivated by a sense that people are morally obliged to participate in civic society, said Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley investor
and a founder of the digital payments company PayPal.
Chris Lehane, the head of global policy and public affairs at Airbnb and a former top adviser to President Bill Clinton, said, “Even before the election, Reid talked about the idea
that the technology industry has to own its responsibility for the changes in society that it is driving.”
Mr. Hoffman has since used his cash and connections to shape the organizations and start-ups
that support the issues where he wants to exert the most influence.
But how effective a Silicon Valley approach to political change can be is a question — and Mr. Hoffman has experienced stumbling blocks before.
Years of mismanagement, Mr. Hoffman said, had “essentially atrophied” the start-up and it was always running a deficit.
In the spring, Mr. Hoffman convened a small group of tech leaders to dine with Tony Blair,
the former British prime minister, at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, Calif.
In the spring, Mr. Hoffman pumped almost $30 million in new financing into Change.org and installed new board members, to try again.
“My approach to political investing is the Silicon Valley approach,” Mr. Hoffman, 50, said in an interview.
SAN FRANCISCO — Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn
and a billionaire Silicon Valley venture capitalist, has made a half-dozen or so investments in recent months with a specific aim: to counteract the influence of President Trump.
Mr. Hoffman is motivated by a sense that people are morally obliged to participate in civic society, said Peter Thiel, the Silicon Valley investor
and a founder of the digital payments company PayPal.
Chris Lehane, the head of global policy and public affairs at Airbnb and a former top adviser to President Bill Clinton, said, “Even before the election, Reid talked about the idea
that the technology industry has to own its responsibility for the changes in society that it is driving.”
Mr. Hoffman has since used his cash and connections to shape the organizations and start-ups
that support the issues where he wants to exert the most influence.
But how effective a Silicon Valley approach to political change can be is a question — and Mr. Hoffman has experienced stumbling blocks before.
Years of mismanagement, Mr. Hoffman said, had “essentially atrophied” the start-up and it was always running a deficit.
In the spring, Mr. Hoffman convened a small group of tech leaders to dine with Tony Blair,
the former British prime minister, at the Rosewood Hotel in Menlo Park, Calif.
In the spring, Mr. Hoffman pumped almost $30 million in new financing into Change.org and installed new board members, to try again.