What “bad” idea led to your greatest success?
Reid Hoffman
Entrepreneur. Product and Business Strategist. Investor. Podcaster. Author.
The best business ideas often appear laughable at first glance. Google, Facebook, Airbnb—they all sounded crazy, before they blitzscaled into spectacular successes! In the latest episode of the Masters of Scale podcast, “The Beauty of a Bad Idea,” we explore why getting laughed out of the room by potential investors might actually be a good sign for your startup, and why—counterintuitively—I'm filled with dread when I bring a company to my partners at Greylock, and they all say, “That's a great idea!”
You'll also learn the one question you have to be able to answer if you're going to succeed in the face of rejection, and the one thing that convinced me I was the right person to start LinkedIn.
It’s a fast-paced episode, full of provocative ideas and funny moments, featuring entrepreneurs like Bevel's Tristan Walker, Hint Water's Kara Goldin and The Muse’s Kathryn Minshew. Not to mention two successful venture capitalists, David Hornik and Josh Kopelman. It will make you think twice before you conclude an idea is “bad.”
For this week’s episode, I’d like to run a little experiment.
My theory is that many a great entrepreneur’s journey begins with hearing “No.”
I’d love to hear from you. What “bad” idea led to your greatest success?
Please write a short post on your LinkedIn newsfeed to engage the wider community. Tag your post #mastersofscale so I can find it. And if you’d like, Tweet it at me (@ReidHoffman) and @MastersOfScale. I and the producers of the show will be on the lookout for the best examples to feature in the future!
By the way, LinkedIn and Twitter? Those were initially considered “bad” ideas too.
General Partner of EINTAC L.P. Community Growth Firm. Ambassador for Daymond John / Sponsored by Robinhood.
6yThe pefect arm for LinkedIn. We are relevant to eeveryone's bottom linehttps://www.jobsatintegral.com/
n/a-freelance — 退休
6y蒙神祝福！
Consumer Duty Champion | R-Day 🎃 = Better Outcomes for 92% of Workers | Helping CEOs & Workers become Net Zero Heroes
6y#mastersofscale No it can't be done is like the proverbial red rag to a bull where I'm concerned. A lifetime of learning from other Entrepreneur's failures offers great perspective too, don't make the same mistakes. But when an idea surfaced off the back of Lehmans failure which meant I was the one writing the rule book and challenging an entire global industry worth Trillions, you are faced with 'if it does what you say it does, somebody would have done it already'. When the idea tears down the walls of global brands and exposes them for ripping off consumers, the execs whose brains are stuck in 20th Century models can't bring themselves to accept their dinosaur is on the verge of THE BIG BANG they said No. So I self funded and started giving away my money, funding random clients pensions to help target the £9trn savings gap crisis in the UK. But the problem is a Global one, in the US 401ks are badly underfunded and litigation in the billions has commenced. My clients pensions are 70% higher after all charges for no extra cost or risk...my Platform is 5x more profitable than the UKs largest Blue Chip and with just 4,000 clients it's market cap is Unicorn. I've secured the first 400 clients now it's time to choose the Fin Tech!
Co-Founder at Oz. Earth
6yEduardo Borges