Reid Hoffman left SocialNet.com to join PayPal before co-founding LinkedIn.
Hoffman co-founded SocialNet, an early online social-networking and dating service, in the late 1990s. In January 2000, he left SocialNet and joined PayPal full-time, where he became chief operating officer and later senior vice president of business development.
His PayPal experience became an important part of the network that later shaped Silicon Valley technology companies. Hoffman worked with figures including Peter Thiel and other future entrepreneurs and investors associated with the so-called PayPal Mafia. He also gained experience in product strategy, online payments, business development, and rapidly scaling an internet company.
Hoffman co-founded LinkedIn in 2002 with Allen Blue, Konstantin Guericke, Eric Ly, and Jean-Luc Vaillant; the service officially launched in May 2003. The name SocialNet.com can appear simply as “SocialNet” in biographies and historical sources, but both refer to Hoffman’s earlier company. It should not be confused with Friendster, which was founded separately.