Reid Hoffman is ready and willing to spend potentially hundreds of millions of dollars in his quest to fix some of the country’s lingering political, social and economic ills.
Reid Hoffman could spend hundreds of millions to fix some of the country’s biggest political problems
He’s looking at issues like free speech, political engagement and fake news.
Asa Mathat
The LinkedIn co-founder and Silicon Valley investor stressed onstage at the Code Conference on Tuesday that he’s ramping up his work to fund tools and other efforts that seek to address issues like the “future of work,” the troubles with fake news and emerging threats to free speech, like “how these things get hacked by autocratic hostile actors.”
So far, Hoffman has aided services like Cortico, a tool that seeks to make sense of the “fragmented” conversations on sites like Twitter, he said. And he’s teamed up with Mark Pincus, the founder of Zynga, to help launch Win the Future, a group that seeks to serve as something like a Kickstarter to boost progressive-leaning political causes and campaigns.
The value of that work: Hoffman estimates he’s spent “probably millions” so far on his efforts. Asked if it could reach into the hundreds of millions, he remarked: “It could get there.”
“I’m investing a bunch of money. I’m trying to actually facilitate a bunch of conversations, trying to facilitate what the right kinds of ideas are,” Hoffman explained. “Like, what are the ways we can make sure that we have vibrant economic ecosystems and middle-class jobs across the country?”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
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