Reid Hoffman: Next Wave Of Tech IPOs Will Be Enterprise With Consumer Flare — Arrington Yawns

On stage today at Disrupt San Francisco 2012 TechCrunch Founder Michael Arrington asked LinkedIn Founder Reid Hoffman about the enterprise. Then Arrington yawned.  He later said this:

“”I like Ferraris, not mufflers.”

Enterprise – it’s boring. It gets that rap all the time. And frankly, for the most part, the stereotype is true. But Hoffman put it in the right context by saying that the next wave of tech IPOs will be enterprise but with a consumer flare. You can see that with the recent news from Workday, which has filed for a $400 million IPO. Workday borrows from the rise of social and mobile technologies to make better work experiences.

It’s Hoffman’s view that a shift in the way we work will have profound impacts.

“I think helping companies do what they do better is another way to change the world,” Hoffman said.

“I’m all for it,” Arrington said. “Yawn.”

The startups are saving the enterprise from its status as the dullard of the tech space. There are some awesome startups here that are doing such things as using visualization techniques to better collaborate. Again – it’s the consumer influence of services like Pinterest that are starting to have an impact on the way work is done in an enterprise setting.

But please – the writing is on the wall. Keep filling my ear with crap about compliance and I will do just what Arrington did this morning.

I will give a big yawn.