Pitch Advice for Entrepreneurs by Reid Hoffman

It's been nearly 20 years since LinkedIn launched jobs and subscriptions as it's first business lines in 2005. Today, LinkedIn is said to have over 1 billion users from 200 countries, 61 million people use LinkedIn to search for jobs weekly, 2 million+ posts/articles/videos published daily. LinkedIn is said to have generated $16 billion in annual revenue in 2024 (Statista).

So, I thought it would be interesting to go back to Reid Hoffman's best contribution to entrepreneurs, his Series B pitch deck to Greylock with his detailed notes.

Detailed note: LinkedIn Pitch to Greylock

Some key highlights:

- The Context or Elevator Pitch: LinkedIn is more than just a recruiting business.

The pitch answered 3 questions really well:

1. What is LinkedIn? The graphic the team chose emphasizes that it is a network of people; 2. Why is it valuable? Because you can find and contact people you need; 3. How is this different? Because unlike Google search or other means, it involves people you already trust.

- The general rule is one business model drives the business.

LinkedIn back then had no revenue. They listed 3 potential sources (ads, listing, subscriptions). Today, majority of LinkedIn’s revenue comes from an enterprise version of their subscriptions product.

- Show, don’t tell.

The investment thesis for LinkedIn was: A new type of Professional People Search.

1.0: Search and transact via flat directories

2.0: Search and transact via networks

Pitch by analogy. But don't reason by analogy.

Online Payments 1.0: Citibank et al

Online Payments 2.0: PayPal

- Show that you're right, a lot.

In slides 10 and 11, the team compared what they promised in our Series A pitch with what they actually did. Its overdelivery against their Series A predictions provided strong evidence to new investors that they could execute against their plan.

- It’s always better to have less slides, but it’s much more important to have a great deck. A great deck needs to address all important concerns and tell your story effectively. Sometimes, that means setting up a narrative over several slides

- People frequently think the most fundamental strategy of a startup is its product strategy. In fact, the most fundamental strategy is the financing strategy. If your company runs out of gas (finance), your company will die no matter how good your product strategy is. Frequently, the product/service strategy is harder to develop, but the financing strategy should be there first.

- Show decisiveness.

Including specific dates, for example, shows decisiveness. Being decisive doesn’t mean that you have to stick with your decisions. Good investors expect you to iterate often as you figure out what product will grow your market.