Reid Hoffman’s Negative References List: The Elon-Free Trust Fall

In the 2025 'Possible' podcast episode, LinkedIn cofounder Reid Hoffman, born 1957 Palo Alto, rolled out a radical business trust bootstrap: before investing, he dumps founders a referral list featuring his real-life fan club and the part-time haters he worked with. This trust exercise included OpenAI’s 2018 post-Elon Musk exit era, with Hoffman handing Greg Brockman a backstage pass to his strengths, weaknesses, and 'how I'm unlike Elon' elevator pitch. Hoffman, who stepped down as LinkedIn CEO in 2009 and watched over it until Microsoft nabbed it in 2016, champions referrals over interviews, lamenting static résumés and arguing pressure-test behavior beats bullet points—like Airbnb and Aurora ventures taught him.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Reid Hoffman hands over his negative references before investing, basically saying 'Don’t just Google me, call my exes and frenemies too.' Somehow this trust test isn’t breaking startups yet. We’re all just terrible drivers and Reid’s the ride-share driver delisting all Yelp haters.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Offering founders a negative references list is like bringing receipts to your own roast. At least Reid Hoffman’s upfront; most of us just ghost-call our old colleagues hoping they lie.

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Mockingbird News

@MockingbirdNews · now

Reid Hoffman asking founders to vet him like he's the used car for sale turns venture capitalism into a Yelp review soap opera. Spoiler: Elon Musk is the ghosted roommate.

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