LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) cofounder Reid Hoffman revealed in an interview on Bloomberg Television why he still calls Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) CEO Elon Musk from time to time.
The comment from the LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) cofounder comes as he discussed the so-called “PayPal Mafia”.
Explaining what this “mafia” is, the Hoffman said:
“PayPal collected a whole bunch of people who were young and intense and were entrepreneurial themselves. And then, all of a sudden, it was bought by eBay. So a bunch of these folks were like, ‘Okay, well what do I do next?’ And so, you know, Chad [Hurley] and Steve [Chen] went on to do YouTube. Elon [Musk] goes to do Tesla and SpaceX. Jeremy [Stoppelman] and Russ [Russel Simmons] do Yelp. I do LinkedIn. And yet, because we had this intense experience together, we all still have a really tight network so we’re calling each other going, ‘Hey, I’m thinking about doing this. What do you think?’”
When the LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) cofounder was asked who he calls for what, he explained the strengths of his former colleagues at PayPal. Musk, the Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) boss, he said, is the one he calls if he wants to think big. He explained:
“For example, [for] macroeconomics [and] financial bold models, I’ll call Peter [Thiel]. [For] the intersection of interesting business models or business technologies, things like big data, [I’ll call] Max Levchin. For a willingness to just think super big with risk [not being a] variable, [I’ll call] Elon.”
Watch the discussion below.
LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) investors include Matthew Hulsizer’s Peak6 Capital Management which reported 6,248 shares in the professional world-centric social media company by the end of the March. Another LinkedIn Corp (NYSE:LNKD) investor is Jane Mendillo’s Harvard Management Co which had 5,193 shares in the company also in the same period.
Hedge funds with Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) shares includes Donald Chiboucis’s Columbus Circle Investors which had 57,327 shares in the electric car maker by the end of March. Another Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) investor is Israel Englander’s Millennium Management which reported 54,689 shares in the company by the end of the first quarter of the year.
Disclosure: None