Masters of Scale

Surprising Truths from the World's Most Successful Entrepreneurs

By: Reid Hoffman, June Cohen, Deron Triff

Narrated by: William DeMeritt, Reid Hoffman

What can you learn from a Silicon Valley legend and a pantheon of iconic leaders? The key to scaling a successful business isn’t talent, network, or strategy. It’s an entrepreneurial mindset—and that mindset can be cultivated.

“If you’re scaling a company—or if you just love a well-told story—this is a book to savor.”—Robert Iger, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Ride of a Lifetime

Behind the scenes in Silicon Valley, Reid Hoffman (founder of LinkedIn, investor at Greylock) is a sought-after adviser to heads of companies and heads of state. On each episode of his podcast, Masters of Scale, he sits down with a guest from an all-star list of visionary founders and leaders, digging into the surprising strategies that power their company’s growth. In this book, he draws on their most riveting, revealing stories—as well as his own experience as a founder and investor—to distill the secrets behind the most extraordinary success stories of our times.

Here, Hoffman teams up with Masters of Scale’s executive producers to offer a rare window into the entrepreneurial mind, sharing hard-won wisdom from leaders of iconic companies (including Apple, Nike, Netflix, Spotify, Starbucks, Google, Instagram, and Microsoft) as well as the bold, disruptive startups (such as 23andMe, TaskRabbit, Black List, and Walker & Co.) that are solving the problems of the twenty-first century.

Through vivid storytelling and incisive analysis, Masters of Scale distills their collective insights into a set of counterintuitive principles that anyone can use. How do you find a winning idea and turn it into a scalable venture? What can you learn from a “squirmy no”? When should you stop listening to your customers? Which fires should you put out right away, and which should you let burn? And can you really make money while making the world a better place? (Answer: Yes. But you have to keep your profits and values aligned.)

Based on more than a hundred interviews and including a wealth of new material never aired on the podcast, this unique insider’s guide will inspire you to reimagine how you do business today.

Why?

If you can get past “old white guys” or “white men” said over and over again (and not by Reid or the people profiled in this book) it’s good information. Why the moderator seems to make it about race is befuddling. Please stick to the protein of business. Otherwise the whole time we’re waiting for another racist comment to drop when we’re trying to learn.
Otherwise great information. Please please just focus on business.
Many entrepreneurs know it’s tough and this is good advice just wish you’d take the race BS out of it. Thank you

Wonderful!

what a gem of a book!! I will relisten to this book many times! Scale!

Has some excellent information!

Great book, I’ll listen to it again and again, I’m sure. Has some excellent information

Essential for entrepreneurs

This is full of inspiring stories and actionable advice on how to start from nothing and turn it into something big and impactful. Our team got a great sense of “we are exactly where we are supposed to be” in the early stages of making our product and staying very close to what our first set of users want. We also felt renewed confidence in what our vision can grow into once we get this stage right.

Socialism push, but still really good.

Reid is a socialist. Socialism is ruining the United States. If Capitalism dies, no one will be able to follow the principles in this book. My advise is to get rich before they ruin the country. Then go live in a place that doesn't try to steal everything you worked hard for.

This book does have some amazing advise though. If you've enjoyed his podcast, you'll love this book. I used to listen to every episode until it got too woke for me to stomach.