YouSaid · the spoken record

Jeff Weiner

lines on the record: 86
first: 2015-09-08
most recent: 2015-09-08
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“You need to be equipped with the right information, especially in this day and age. And we realized early on that by virtue of understanding who people are connected to, you could see what people were sharing in a professional context, and that was going to create value for others. And we took that a step further with the influencers platform. So we identified roughly 500 professional luminaries.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Yeah, I think people. A lot of journalists do. So that's this first component is connect to your professional world. The second is to stay informed through professional news and knowledge. And in order to enable people to be more productive, more successful, take advantage of those opportunities regardless of how they're presented.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“What you're trying to do there? So ultimately our core value proposition to members is to help connect them to opportunity. And we see that from the member perspective happening in one of three ways. First, we connect them to their professional worlds, and that's connecting you to the right people and helping you to build your network, keep up and keep in touch with the people that matter most to you professionally. That's about following the right companies, providing access to the right job opportunities, providing access to investments if you're an entrepreneur, providing access to prospects if you're a salesperson. I mean, you name it. As a journalist, enabling you to research people, do primary research.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So talk about what you've done since then. I mean, you really have made it into a content, and this is your interest, obviously content, but it's been a big focus of your acquisitions, lynda.com acquisition. It's content. You added pulse, those kinds of terrific. But it's not what people would think of. Can you explain it a little bit, what you're trying to do there”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“But as a result of that, we were able to start this recruiter business, which enabled passive candidate recruiting at scale. And that was in the very early days. So you could see the potential of that. And you could see the potential of what would be possible by virtue of connecting professionals and enabling them to build out their networks. And then all the good things that could result on top of that. And that's where we've been able to take the company.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There were the establishment of profiles when people weren't actively looking for jobs, which was unusual. People updating their profile when they weren't actively looking for a job, that's not how resumes work. The only time you dust off your resume is when you're actively looking.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, but you could see what would be possible if you were able to introduce content professionally relevant content to people. And as someone who had for a while been interested in education reform, you realize when you're exposed to something like LinkedIn that providing people in education is only one part of the problem. And I think what always attracted me or drew me to education was this idea of not only democratizing access to information, but democratizing access to opportunity. So people who were deserving and willing to work hard and had the best ideas would be able to do something with that. And so when you look at a platform like LinkedIn, you realize how unique it is in terms of its ability to scale. When I joined, we were 32 million members. And today we've started.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Way to get a job, digital resume. And then the more I started digging in and looking into it, you recognize the power of this as a platform. To enable capital, all forms of capital eventually, intellectual capital, working capital, human capital, which is human capital is where the company has historically been focused, to flow to work can best be leveraged. And that's the economic graph vision we have right now. And it's taken some time to get there, but you could see the basic building blocks and put another way in the parlance of social platforms or social networks. If you think about Facebook as a social graph that connects friends and families and digitally maps those relationships, Twitter is an interest graph, LinkedIn was founded as a professional graph. It was created before those two.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was just several months. The other thing was evaluating investment opportunities. And so I officially started in that capacity in September 2008. And the initial reason I left Yahoo in terms of timing was the birth of our daughter. So I went out on paternity leave and decided that would be a good time to transition and started in the executive and residence role formally in September. And then within a couple of months, a couple of the partners at Greylock mentioned that LinkedIn was thinking about making a leadership transition. And would I be interested in helping out?”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Some extent. And the other thing that turned out to be really satisfying is you have an opportunity while you're there to work with portfolio company founders and CEOs. And because you're not a partner, you're not on their board, they're really very open. sometimes more open than they would be with some of the partners. And so those reminded me of product reviews, which is one of my favorite parts of the job.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, very specifically, the role was designed to potentially find a vehicle, find a company, potential acquisition and investment that I could help run. As opposed to an entrepreneur in residence, which is going to join a venture capital firm because they've got an idea they want to start. And that firm may or may not invest.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“No, I'll tell you what I did. That was it. It's on my LinkedIn profile. It says executive in residence did snacks from September of 2000. I'm sure you did.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I didn't leave Yahoo. I didn't leave the internet. I was an executive in residence at Excel in Greylock on an interim basis. Which means.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I remember calling Jerry and saying, Get them off quickly, these are evil people from another planet. They were smart. They are sure smart. So you stay out for a while. You were in the media space. Ultimately.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Before anyone knew what Firefox was. And once the Firefox browser took off, it turned out putting a search box in the upper right hand corner of that browser was an incredibly powerful means of distribution. And that if your search quality, your algorithmic search quality was anywhere close to parity, distribution made all the difference because people are going to do what was frictionless.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Came much later. You had to fix the problem. We acquired Ink to me, too. Right. And after acquiring ink to me, we were actually able to launch an algorithmic search product that was pretty high quality. We started to gain share. And then Google, in a brilliant move, which I think Sundar had something to do with in retrospect. And I know that Larry and Sergei were very focused on it. They did a distribution deal with Firefox.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I think you two would have been a very strong addition to Yahoo. I think once it became clear that Google had reached escape velocity in terms of search, they had a multiple year head start in terms of trying to solve search as a principle.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Didn't work out that way. What did you, you guys didn't buy YouTube, for example? I remember you were in the running to do that and others. Is there something you think if you could go back and redo there? What would you have redone?”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And there were extraordinary people there Some of the most talented people I've ever worked with, and I learned a ton from, and who've gone on doing business. They're now running other successful internet. Rob Solomon, you know Rob Solomon. Rob Solomon once said that Yahoo would emerge as somewhat of an equivalent to GE in terms of the way it would yield a lot of future leaders.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“two thousand one to two thousand four were some pretty amazing times. Right. The internet industry had experienced a pretty sharp correction, if not implosion, in 2000 and early 2001. And Yahoo was incredibly well positioned, which was one of the reasons I think Terry was attracted to the opportunity. He felt it was an amazing brand, amazing asset, huge audience in reach.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“So, Seth, I'm going to move forward to LinkedIn, but assess your time at Yahoo. How did you look at it then? You guys missed a lot of stuff and then you also didn't miss a lot of stuff and you didn't miss Alibaba. You didn't miss a whole bunch of.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I was like, what? He's like, I'm going to do it. And I was like, well, good luck with that. I'm going to stay here in Sunny LA and keep doing what we're doing. And he said, no, it'll be an adventure. You'll take it one day at a time. And so Toby and I came up. I still had my apartment in Santa Monica. I didn't give it up. And day one, Jerry pulls Toby and I into a conference room and says, I don't know about this idea that you guys are going to be Terry's guys. You're going to need full-time jobs. You're going to need titles. And so from this point going forward, you're going to be running Corp Dev. And that's how that all started. And then about a year and a half into that, Dan Rosenzwig very persistently had been recruiting me to move into OPS operations.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And I said, Terry, they may make you an offer to run Yahoo. It'd be a really interesting fit because your media background where they're going to take the company. He said, no, no, no, it's not going to happen. I said, I don't know. We'll see. He's like, no, I'm Jerry and I met in Sun Valley and we're just reconnecting. Probably need some advice. So he flies up, flies back down, walks into the office, big smile on his face, says you were right.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, when I started, it's a funny story. We were in Terry's offices and he said he got a call from Jerry Yang and he was going to go up and visit Jerry in Silicon Valley. And Yahoo had just announced that they were going to be transitioning leadership, and Tim Kugel was going to be leaving. And I said, Terry, you know”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And that's when Terry was leaving. He and Bob had already announced that they were going to be leaving and retiring from Warner Brothers starting their next chapter. And then Terry started a private equity company and he wanted to invest in media and digital.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Of course, there's a pony in there. So of course you remember. So then AOL and Time Warner merged and they said we're not going to spend on any digital assets because we're now a digital company. And that was it.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“And long story short, Malchock eventually came on, and he and myself and a guy named Jim Bannister helped build that division. And we were there for many years and it was an amazing ride and we saw the rise of the internet. And at one point, Time Warner was thinking about spinning out its digital assets. It wasn't just us seeing it interactive and Pathfinder. I don't know if you remember. We're going way back with a”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Almost brought Warner Communications down. It was, you know, it was a very painful experience for the studio. And so they were reluctant to invest in CD-ROM, but they approved the online piece as long as it would be self-funding.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That's a very good memory. So Jim wasn't involved yet. That was the brainchild of the head of corporate development, a guy named Stephen Coltai. And Terry Semmel and Bob Daley ultimately approved that themselves. That's where they said we're going to go with this. We had also looked at CD-ROM. And they didn't want to do CD-ROM because of the inventory risk. And I don't know if you remember this, but ET, no, I'm saying the ET cartridge investment for Atari.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“There's your problem. Well, in retrospect, it's interesting, trying to limit yourself to innovate an environment where you have to be break even is going to be challenging. But back then, people didn't necessarily understand all the implications. And I think a lot of studios ended up throwing a lot of money away, chasing various ideas. And that was the impetus for us to do the licensing deal with AOL, which enabled us to generate resources and capital that was invested into original programming, things like entertained them. Right. So it was a really cool way to learn about the business. And for me, that business plan, so I wrote the business plan for Warner Brothers Online December of 1994.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“I mean, by comparison with some of the activity at the other studios, it was fairly successful. Warner Brothers Online was a break-even internet.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“That would be too complimentary. I did way too much work early on. So you came to Hollywood, you worked at Warner Brothers, which was doing a lot of really early stuff in the internet they did. They had a lot of Warner Brothers Online, licensing relationships.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, you know, it's interesting you say that because today when people ask me for advice, especially like interns or new college grads. And they'll say, What kind of advice would you have for someone who's embarking on their career and ultimately wants to be successful? I say it's going to sound obvious and maybe like an oversimplification, but it's true. It needs to start with understanding what it is you ultimately want to accomplish.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“It was early in the cover letter, I mentioned that I was of the belief that it was content that was increasingly going to determine where the value was created, not necessarily the technology in and of itself, that content would be the differentiator. and that there were people who were overseeing media conglomerates, people at that time like Michael Eisner, Steve Ross would have been a model, Ted Turner, folks like Terry Selmel. And I wrote to my dad that I realized how unlikely it was, but if I had an opportunity to work for someone like that, I'd be able to learn how they combine both strong business acumen. And a sense of how to create content that people want to consume.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Well, in 93, late 93, early 94, I was having a discussion with my dad about what I wanted to do next, and I was throwing out some ideas. And he said, you know what, you should jot it down. And the clearer you can be, the better. And if you can be explicit about it, I think you'll be able to make it happen and we'll take it from there. And so I still have that. It was a mock cover letter. I wrote my dad and I said that with the rise of what was then called convergence. digital and media education etc. I thought it was going to completely change the way a number of industries were actually manifesting themselves.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT
“Nope, I had been in strategy consulting in Boston and I realized I didn't want to be a professional consultant and I had gone to Wharton Undergrad, the University of Pennsylvania, so wasn't interested in going back for an MBA and have long been interested in the media world and have been interested in education and education reform for as long as I can remember. And with the rise of digital technology, felt like media was going to play an increasingly important role in the way information was distributed, democratize access to information. Yeah, I mean it was me.”
2015-09-08 · Decoder with Nilay Patel · Recode Decode: LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT