He was driven to write the book, which distills the lessons from his Stanford class on entrepreneurship, to share with other innovative cities who hope to emulate Silicon Valley.

But, he argues, this is necessary because in today’s world there are more and markets where only the first and biggest player wins, particularly in tech-dependent enterprises. The uncertainty comes in because founders are spending money and hiring staff before they may fully understand the business model or the market.

Hoffman was at the Computer History Museum (CHM) on December 4, 2018, to discuss the new book he co-wrote with Chris Yeh to describe this practice, Blitzscaling: The Lightning-Fast Path to Building Massively Valuable Companies.īlitzscaling, explains Hoffman, is a specific set of activities that prioritizes speed over efficiency in an environment of uncertainty and allows a company to go from “startup” to “scaleup” at a pace that captures the market. But, says Reid Hoffman, cofounder of LinkedIn and partner at venture capital firm Greylock, the updated version of that narrative is that Silicon Valley, a “collective learning network,” has figured out that growing fast is more important than being first.

But what is the secret to this extraordinary success? Conventional wisdom attributes it to the Valley’s concentration of engineers and entrepreneurs, lots of available capital, and a culture comfortable with risk-taking. Silicon Valley is home to a disproportionate number of companies that have grown from garage startups into global giants. LinkedIn cofounder and Greylock partner Reid Hoffman in conversation with CHM CEO Dan’l Lewin.

Stanford blitzscaling