When was linkedin founded

He did so, even though he originally thought the company had "a terrible idea," Hoffman said, because he realized Thiel and his team were brilliant. Taking the risk changed everything for him. Now an investor at Greylock Partners, Hoffman, according to the Journal , is "generally considered one of Silicon Valley's most-high-profile angel investors," and he gets pitched constantly: between and pitches a week.

He winds up taking maybe six or eight of them seriously. And it's what he did with one of those six serious weekly pitches that led to his single biggest regret, he said. But, according to the Journal , there's one big opportunity he had that he let slip through his fingers, and that ranks now as his biggest professional regret. It's that he turned down the chance to have been an early investor in the online payments company Stripe, founded by brothers and Y Combinator alumni Patrick and John Collison :.

Hoffman met the brothers, liked them, and acknowledged that they had a "really good" idea. But he passed, because he thought they were valuing Stripe too high, and because he knew just how hard it is to make a go of it as a payments company.

As the business entered this year it was starting to grow amazingly fast with 85,, members at the start of the year. It opened up more offices around the world to take it to ten international sites and over 1, employees in the team.

At the break of the year LinkedIn had over million users. The year the interface all changed, Weiner was focused on making LinkedIn simpler, enabling growth and making it more every day for everyone and to this end released new profile layouts and functionality throughout the year. Over 50 million additional members joined last year taking membership to ,, at the start of As LinkedIn turned ten it celebrated its birthday in style, not just with a lot of press and a big party but with over million users across the globe now.

LinkedIn lowered its age of entry and targeted graduates and early stagers. LinkedIn has grown substantially with more than 5, full-time employees with offices in 27 cities around the world to reflect its footprint in more than countries. Fastest growing area is graduates and students as they start to realise and leverage the platform. LinkedIn has topped million users globally which statistically is the majority of professionals.

LinkedIn continues to grow, they add and remove features to keep the experience delivering for the users paid and free and it has become the default look up for all serious business professionals. Where does it go from here other than bigger and bigger? Who knows! But it will be interesting to see. When LinkedIn was young: the early years. LinkedIn was founded in late , reached 1 million users in and was profitable by As our readers know, Vator has started a series called: When they were young.

This is an early mockup of the member home page, created by Blue: Initial company description : "Socialnet, I learned all kinds of things. Traction, at one year and five months from founding, 11 months from launch : In April , LinkedIn reaches half a million users Traction, at one year and 11 months from founding, one year and five months from launch : In October , LinkedIn has 1.

This is the pitch deck the company submitted to Greylock in August LinkedIn's Third Year Traction, at two years from founding, one year and seven months from launch : In December , LinkedIn has 1.

Traction, at two years and four months from founding, one year and 10 months from launch : In March , LinkedIn is aggregating over , job listings Product, at two years and four months : In March , LinkedIn Jobs is launched as the company's first premium service and revenue stream.

LinkedIn's Fourth Year Traction, at three years after founding, two years and seven months from launch : In December , LinkedIn has four million members. Traction, at three years and four months, two years and 10 months from launch : In March , LinkedIn reaches five million members Image source: ourstory.

Steven Loeb All author posts. Read more from our "When they were young" series November 11, When BetterHelp was young: the early years BetterHelp and Vator have teamed up for Becoming Us, a virtual group therapy program Read more August 10, When Ginger was young: the early years Ginger started by selling health data to providers, before pivoting to becoming a provider itself Read more May 26, When Talkspace was young: the early years Talkspace was originally called Talktala, and focused on video group therapy sessions Read more Related Companies, Investors, and Entrepreneurs.

Reid Hoffman Joined Vator on September 13, May 28, Reid Hoffman: Pursue as a learning cycle. March 6, Reid Hoffman on Charlie Rose.