Reid: Well, I think entrepreneurship and the creation of new things is generally speaking an unabridged good. I think that technology can obviously do some harm too, but I think generally it is a question of how you use it. For example, one of the reasons why I really like online technology and internet mobile is because having people able to have a broader conversation, be able to present their identity, find the right people, collaborate, communicate - these are all things that I think are really good things, For example, I was on a panel in Davis earlier in the year where one of the panelists was like “Mobile phones are terrible!” I was like, “No, no. Mobile phones are actually a good thing.” Now, is it a little bit less stressful that we are always connected and can always be reachable? Yes, there are things and prices but overall we are now much more connected and much more able to work fast, much more able to find people. We can say we’ll meet at the train station or I’ll call you when my train gets in because then we can meet and that is the thing. All of these things are enhancements to human life.
Kamla: Greed. What role did greed play in the evolution of LinkedIn?
Reid: So one of my-
Kamla: You know what I am talking about.
Reid: Yes of course! So one of my funny lines about investing in the consumer internet is you are investing in one of what Thomas Aquinas calls the seven deadly sins. And that is because these have deep roots in human psychology. So lust is one, vanity is another and greed is another. Basically, these are actually part of reasonable human needs. And part of people having aspiration to be very successful, to successfully make a strong career, to make enough money not just to have kids and put their kids to college, but also to have a really nice house and really nice car. Well, using LinkedIn should enable your career so it should help you with much better economic competitors.
Kamla: And greed also played a role in the reason you created LinkedIn?
Reid: Yes. I tend to look at money as an instrument. So money is useful. It is useful for my own personal reasons like taking a vacation, like owning a nice house that I feel comfortable living in, like being able to hire a gardener as opposed to doing - my wife likes gardening, I don’t. Good ventures in these things are massively and economically successful. But for me it is more of an enabler of other things.
Kamla: I am just going to quickly touch upon something that you mentioned. You didn’t mention the word, but Janus faced. Technology is always two faced. So what are some of the things that you are doing with LinkedIn and all the other companies that you have invested in because there is also the bad side technology can be misused and it is people, who generally misuse it, it’s not the technology itself.
Reid: I think technology can be misused. There are two things. One is that you are trying to design societies that generally use technology. And the second thing is you try to design technologies so that generally and incrementally by their general usage improve the whole eco-system. You can never do that perfectly. Take LinkedIn, by connecting the people on trust network, you can use that to help assess other peoples’ reputation and that is not gameable. Now could someone put in their profile slander about another person and could that be used as a-absolutely! But then again, it is partially counteracted by do you trust they what they put on their profile or not? Because you use your network to evaluate that person. I think one always has to be a little careful about it, but generally speaking, I am very positive on what new, good things technology can bring.
Kamla: What keeps you awake at nights?
Reid: Can I get out all the features out in time?
Kamla: What goals do you think you still have to achieve?