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, number one New York Times best-selling 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 start-ups (such as 23andMe, TaskRabbit, Black List, and Walker & Co.) that are solving the problems of the 21st 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.

©2021 Reid Hoffman, June Cohen, Deron Triff (P)2021 Random House Audio

Critic reviews

“Whether you’re at a start-up or working to drive change within a large organization, the business principles in this book will help you deploy your strategy with creativity, integrity, and realism.” (Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft Corporation)

“What if, instead of learning from one entrepreneur at a time, you could distill the lessons of many of the greatest founders of our time? This book combines memorable stories with actionable insights from world-class leaders to help you turn your biggest, boldest ideas into reality.” (Adam Grant, number one New York Times best-selling author of Think Again and host of the TED podcast WorkLife)

“[Hoffman] seizes on traits that might otherwise be missed...[and] earnestly contends that, through careful attention to leadership and culture, the propulsive drive to grow can be disentangled from the toxic behavior so often associated with explosive expansion. It feels like the triumph of hope over experience.” (The Wall Street Journal)

“[Reid Hoffman] shows how any company of any stripe can bake generosity and social good into its DNA, and how making a positive contribution to the world can be the driving force that helps your company scale.” (Daniel Lubetzky, executive chairman and founder of KIND and New York Times best-selling author of Do the KIND Thing)

l

I congratulate and deeply thank Reid from my heart for sharing his knowledge and enriching experiences that provide us with the tools to learn, improve and be useful to society and to our love ones. Thanks again for so much dedication and effort
Sincerely
Alvaro J Sucre

“Masters of Scale”

Great book. Love the management concepts through real world lessons with examples. Would recommend to anyone in management, looking to start a company or someone looking to improve their leadership skills.

So far, good?

I’m 2 chapters in, and the other book ‘Blitzscaling’ has been referred to at least 5 times already. It’s distracting at the least.

Good to hear from the other entrepreneurs.

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

Favorite book

Listed to it twice! Plans are to check out his next book as I begin to scale my company

Epic

Loved all the real stories and how they each overcome many challenges

what a book!

A must read for business founders

This was such an amazing book with very real and applicable tips for growing a business! I loved it!

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.