The Amazing Roller-Coaster Career Of LinkedIn CEO Jeff Weiner

In 1994, two years out of college, Weiner joined Warner Bros.

He wrote a report calling for Warner Bros. to go online.

 "I was just this little pisher, a nobody," Weiner told Forbes. "But they liked the report." ("Pisher" is a Yiddish word whose literal meaning is "one who urinates." It's used to refer to a bedwetter or, alternatively, a precocious child.)

Weiner rose to become a vice president at Warner Bros., overseeing its online presence in the early days of the Web.

YouTube screenshot

Then he and two other executives, Jim Banister and Jim Moloshok, launched a new Warner site, Entertaindom.

It was an early foray into original Web content, like the "God & Devil Show."

Things looked great! In late 1999, Time Warner was planning to spin out Entertaindom with an IPO. Employees got stock options. Weiner was named COO.

flickr/garryknight

Disaster struck: AOL bought Time Warner and put the kibosh on the Entertaindom spinout. Weiner left Warner Bros.

Former Warner Bros. CEO Terry Semel hired Weiner to explore digital opportunities at his investment firm, Windsor Media.

AP

Then Yahoo named Semel CEO in 2001. Weiner joined as a top executive.

He led Yahoo's search and content businesses, and oversaw the acquisition of hot startups like Flickr. People talked about Weiner as Yahoo's next CEO. But he was passed over and left in 2008.

Yodel Anecdotal

Weiner was still a hot commodity. In a rare arrangement, two top venture-capital firms, Accel and Greylock, hired him as an executive-in-residence.

Greylock had a troubled investment: LinkedIn. Weiner signed on as interim president in 2009.

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

The only thing interim was his title. Weiner became CEO in June 2009.

Flickr/The DEMO Conference

He got the company focused on selling high-end recruiting tools as well as advertising and subscriptions.

By 2011, LinkedIn was ready to go public. Weiner finally got his IPO—a decade later.

AP

LinkedIn is growing incredibly fast. They're putting up a whole new building at headquarters.

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

Weiner is the toast of Silicon Valley—and on the cover of Forbes.

With all that he's accomplished, it seems like Weiner is just getting started.

Steve Kovach, Business Insider

Now see the workers' paradise Jeff Weiner runs at LinkedIn >