LinkedIn founder Reid Hoffman has been immersed in Silicon Valley since his August 1967 birth in Palo Alto, California, in the shadow of Stanford University, where he and fellow technology luminary Peter Thiel became friends as college students during the 1980s.

At the young age of 27, David Sacks was instrumental in constructing what would become one of the most legendary teams in Silicon Valley history, PayPal’s inner circle. This group would not only develop one of the first successful digital payment platforms but also set the stage for a network that would later influence the tech industry profoundly.