Summary: (http://kamlashow.com/podcast/wp-content/uploads/reid_hoffman-150x150.jpg)LinkedIn was co-founded by Reid Hoffman in his living room in Silicon Valley in 2002. Today LinkedIn has over 100 million members with 9 million plus members in India alone. Over 2 million companies, big and small, have LinkedIn pages for their business. Given the size of its membership and the reach of its network it is no wonder that LinkedIn is billed as the largest professional network in the world. On May 19, 2011 LinkedIn is making its Initial Public Offering (IPO) on Wall Street and is expected to raise about $350-400 million dollars. LinkedIn's IPO (http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/05/18/linkedin-prices-shares-at-45/?partner=rss&emc=rss)is one of the biggest in recent years from Silicon Valley. This is also the first time that an American social network company is going public to raise money. Reid owns about 20.1 percent (http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_18091156?nclick_check=1)of LinkedIn shares. In this wide ranging interview Reid (http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/06/24/linkedin-picks-former-yahoo-executive-as-chief/?ref=technology) talks about his entrepreneurial journey, how he started LinkedIn, his plans to expand in India where mobile phones are the devices of choice to network and not computers and what technology means to him. What is LinkedIn's exit strategy? An IPO? In Part-1 of the interview Reid (http://www.charlierose.com/view/interview/10128) talks about the general philosophy behind LinkedIn, how he started it and their plans to expand in India. He also talks about other social network and where LinkedIn fits into the social network landscape. Here is how Reid put it: "Now the metaphor that I frequently use when we are talking about the three current giants’ is: MySpace is the bar, Facebook is home and LinkedIn is the office." LinkedIn has changed the way we network in more ways than one, and has become an important networking tool for professionals. Recruiters use LinkedIn to find prospective candidates, sales folks use LinkedIn to connect to their future prospects, while other use LinkedIn to expand their network. In this short exclusive video clip Reid offers a couple of tips on how to use LinkedIn. This interview was recorded in late 2008 in LinkedIn's Mountain View office. Don't forget to listen to (http://kamlashow.com/content/900410/maincontent/mp3/broadband/ReidHoffman_LinkedIn_KamlaShow_Part2.mp3)Part-2 (../../content/900420/maincontent/mp3/ReidHoffman_LinkedIn_KamlaShow_Part2.mp3) of the interview with Reid. This interview was originally published by LiveMint.
