During our offsite when PayPal was burning cash, I pitched LinkedIn as my best startup idea, but I can't disclose Max and Peter's ideas from that session.

After selling PayPal to eBay in October 2002, I recognized that the consumer internet was just beginning, contrary to the belief that it was over, and I decided to pursue the LinkedIn idea.

In September 2000, we gathered at my grandparents' house to brainstorm how to save PayPal after burning $12 million in one month without any revenue.

In the early days, we innovated by allowing users to upload their address books to see who else was on LinkedIn, which significantly changed our growth curve.

We took out a credit card and set up meetings with potential investors, knowing that if we didn't raise money, we would have to shut down the company.

After leaving Scribd, I immediately discussed new ideas with Paul Graham, and we decided to apply to Y Combinator again, even though we didn't have a product yet. I co-founded a subscription billing service called PipePay, but we didn't want to compete directly with Stripe, which was doing really well at the time.

When we decided to join Y Combinator, we were already profitable and saw it as an opportunity to scale our team and improve our fundraising efforts.

During Y Combinator, we practiced our pitch extensively, receiving valuable feedback from peers and mentors.

I started my first company out of my dorm room at Stanford, aiming to help students get jobs at banks and consulting firms, but it ultimately didn't work out because no one was using LinkedIn at the time.