Helen Sanders

TalentJet Group Ltd trading as HFBAC

Founded HFBAC (pron: half-back) to solve the #1 reason startups fail: getting the founding team wrong. 

It stands for:

Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies

As the world's first Chemistry First solutions provider, we've systematically transformed how entrepreneurs build their founding teams.

What I Built:

Created the proprietary ‘Chemistry First’ methodology - a 4-phase systematic approach that takes the guesswork out of founding team building:
• Foundation: Understanding what you actually need (not what you think you want)
• Search: Finding people beyond your immediate network
• Chemistry: Testing compatibility before you commit
• Integration: Ensuring teams gel for long-term success

Key Achievements:

• Built scalable business model serving everyone from bootstrapped solo founders (£47) to enterprise clients (£50K+)
• Currently developing global technology platform to deliver methodology 24/7 worldwide
• Authoring ‘The Founding Team Playbook’ to document proven frameworks (publishing soon)

The Insight That Started It All:

During my years as a BBC commentator, I observed that winning teams weren't always the most individually talented. 

They were made up of people with incredible chemistry who made each other better. 

This insight became the foundation of everything we do at HFBAC.

Our Impact:

We've transformed founding team building from ‘networking and hoping’ into systematic success. 

Our clients don't just find co-founders - they find partners who complement their strengths, challenge their thinking, and stick with them when things get tough.

The Bottom Line:

We don't just help you hire. 

We help you build founding teams that go the distance. 

Because great companies are built by people with awesome chemistry, not just impressive CVs.

Ready to stop gambling on your founding team decisions? Let's build something awesome together.

Founder & CEO at HFBAC | Author: "Hiring on a Shoestring" and "The Founding Team Playbook"

Curated Partners Ltd

- Advising and headhunting for hyper-growth companies: Partnering to secure top tech, marketing, and sales talent across the UK.

- Strategic talent acquisition: Focusing on finding the right fit for fast-paced, scaling businesses.

- Leveraging expertise: Providing advisory insights and direct headhunting for mission-critical roles.

Embedded Talent Manager

Virgin StartUp

Empower100 is a new programme of support from Virgin StartUp designed to level the playing field for founders growing the businesses they're passionate about.

I have been selected to support the Founder-led Empower100 cohorts from August 2023.

Virgin StartUp, the not-for-profit incubator for UK business founders, opened a new fully-funded accelerator programme for under-represented business owners based in Greater London. 

Thanks to funding from Greater London Authority via the UK’s Shared Prosperity Fund, Empower 100 will support 100 female, ethnic minority and disabled founders from the capital, maximising their chances of scaling and financing their businesses successfully.

Recruitment & People Ops - Delivery Partner

Entrepreneurs Circle

From start-ups to multi-million-pound businesses, at the Entrepreneurs Circle Local Meeting, you'll meet, mingle and network with like-minded, ambitious entrepreneurs and business owners from your local area.

We're a super friendly bunch, and we pride ourselves on making sure everyone, especially new members, feel immediately at home!

Entrepreneurs Circle's Local Meeting Agenda
This is so much more than just 'networking'...

'Who's Who in 22!'
No endless introductions here... you've got 22 seconds to tell everyone who you are and what you do! So keep it short and snappy!

Your Successes
It's your time to shine! Tell us what's working right now in your business and share your success stories so others can learn from what you've done.

The Shiny New Thing
At every meeting we share one super cool tactic, tool or strategy that you can take a way and use in your business to get more customers. You'll love it!

Content Session
Each meeting has a content session (complete with workbook!) focused on a specific aspect of business growth. You'll go away with new ideas and ways you can grow your business.

Your One Commitment
To make sure you see results in your business, at each meeting you can make a commitment to the group of one thing that you're going to go away and implement. It's that accountability that makes sure things get done and you see results!

Entrepreneur of the Month
Every month we crown our Entrepreneur of the Month (complete with certificate!) to a member who's seen great results - could it be you next month?

Networking
It wouldn't be a Local Meeting without the networking! You can stay for as much (or as little!) as you'd like but this is where you can really get to know your fellow members, exchange cards, do deals, get referrals and enjoy the social aspect of the meeting!

Phew!
As you can see, it's a busy meeting!

But we get it all done in just over 90 minutes each and every month.

Move your business to where you want it to be.

Co-Lead - Entrepreneurs Circle Local Meeting (Bristol)

Business &  IP Centre

Selected official Delivery Partner to the British Library’s Business & IP Centre, London. 

Facilitating and leading hands-on, practical workshops for founders, start-ups and scale-ups across diverse industry sectors on all things recruitment-related. These workshops include:

Hiring Your First Employee 
How to Hire Your Next Superstar
The Building Blocks for a Thriving Team Culture

Delivery Partner

Kinectid

Kinectid is revolutionising the response to climate change by empowering businesses and homes to become climate crisis solutions through decarbonisation.

Replacing outdated equipment with low carbon technologies like heat pumps, electric vehicle charge points, solar panels, and energy storage, Kinectid is decarbonising homes and businesses with the power of renewable energy.

The Kinectid community knows that we can’t solve the climate crisis without smart energy solutions. So, we’re redefining the future of energy. By replacing outdated fossil-fuel dependent technologies with forward thinking, clean solutions for modern, comfortable homes, we’re helping to create a liveable, thriving planet.

Hiring and HR Director

Your People Partners 

Running a tech, SaaS, robotics company is exciting, but let's face it – hiring can be a major distraction.  

That's where we come in.  

Your People Partners helps you build high-performing teams so you can focus on what matters most: innovating and growing your business.

We've got a proven track record of success with companies like yours. 

But we're not your typical recruitment agency. We understand that finding the right people is crucial, and that your needs are unique. That's why we offer:

A 12-month replacement guarantee: If your new hire doesn't work out for any reason within the first year, we'll find a replacement at no extra charge.

Flexible fees: We work with your budget, offering transparent pricing and a micro-company discount for smaller teams.

Ongoing support: We provide a full onboarding plan, "Ask Me Anything" calls, and even an employee support hotline to ensure a smooth transition for everyone.

We're more than just recruiters – we're your partners in building a thriving team. Let's work together to find the talent that will fuel your success."

Major Successes:

📣 Shadow Robot Company, London: Internal Hiring and HR Partner for 7 years, successfully hiring over 25 people across Robotics Software Engineers, DevOps, Mechatronics as well as Marketing and Ops.
📣 Tickitto, UK and EMEA: Led retained Talent Acquisition team for software engineers, marketing, channel sales, business development and DevOps.
📣 Grantify: led the Talent Acquisition team, taking the company from 19 staff to over 100, including Client Success teams, Sales and Account Manager teams, AI/Machine Learning Engineers, Bid Writers and Marketing.

We also help founder-led companies in the UK and USA who want to develop a proven and enjoyable hiring strategy for new headcount.

Start-Ups, Scale-Ups, Tech, SaaS + Robotics Recruitment Growth Specialist | CEO

Shadow Robot

At The Shadow Robot Company, we're building next-generation robot hands and systems with advanced dexterity.  

My role?  Ensuring we have the top talent to bring these incredible robotics technologies to life.

As their Internal Hiring and HR Partner for 7 years, I successfully built a high-performing team of over 50 staff in the UK and Spain, including:

Robotics Software Engineers
DevOps Professionals
Mechatronics Engineers
Marketing and Digital Marketing
Office Support and Ops

I'm passionate about connecting talented individuals with innovative companies in the robotics space.  My expertise lies in:

☑️ Full-cycle recruitment: I managed the entire hiring process from sourcing and screening robotics engineers to interviewing, skills assessments and onboarding.
☑️ Employer branding: developed and implemented strategies to attract top robotics talent in a competitive market.
☑️ HR partnership: providing guidance and support on various HR-related matters, ensuring a positive and productive work environment.

Hiring and HR Partner

WingroveTailored Ltd - Recruitment Training for SMEs

Supporting SMEs, business owners and hring managers to hire really well through recruitment training workshops and 1-2-1 coaching.

Recruitment Trainer for Business Owners, Entrepreneurs & Franchise Owners

Helen Sanders | The CV Writer

The CV Writer | Director

So, what does HFBAC actually mean? 

It stands for 

Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies

Pronounced 'half-back' (think rugby!)

But it's more than just a name. 

It's the culmination of everything I've learned about what makes teams truly successful, from my time as a BBC commentator observing high-stakes team dynamics to my years helping entrepreneurs build their own businesses.

What I discovered is that the most successful teams aren't always the ones with the most impressive individual CVs. 

They're the ones with the right chemistry.

They're made up of people who complement each other, challenge each other, and make each other better.

That's why I created the Chemistry First methodology. 

It's a systematic approach to founding team building that takes the guesswork out of finding the right partners. 

We help you understand what you really need in a co-founder, find people beyond your immediate network, test your chemistry before you commit, and integrate your new team for long-term success.

Most entrepreneurs treat finding a co-founder like a game of chance. 

We've turned it into a science.

And now, we're taking it to the next level. 

We're building a technology platform that will deliver our Chemistry First methodology to entrepreneurs all over the world. 

And I'm putting everything I've learned into my upcoming book, ‘The Founding Team Playbook’, which will be published soon.

We're not a recruitment firm. 

We're a solutions provider for the most critical challenge in any startup journey: building a founding team that can go the distance.

My Personal Mission…

This work means everything to me, but there's something even more important driving what I do.

My son overcame cancer at the age of 3 with incredible support from Young Lives vs Cancer. 

Watching him fight taught me something profound about what really matters when the pressure's on: it's not about having the most talented individuals. 

It's about having people who show up for each other.

People who make each other stronger.

And people who refuse to give up on the team.

That experience shaped everything about how I think about people. 

My mission is to raise £1 million for Young Lives vs Cancer. 

If you're an entrepreneur who's tired of networking and hoping, and you're ready for a systematic approach to building your dream team, let's connect. Together, we can build something awesome while making a difference for families who need it most.

Recruitment Strategic Partner | SME Recruitment Growth Specialist | CEO

There is an easier way to recruit and nurture new staff. Your People Partners can do it for you.

As a business owner responsible for every aspect of your company, knowing how to save time and money hiring your next member of staff is rather useful!

Would you love an easy, cost effective and efficient service to help you spend more time on the business and not just in it as you go about recruiting your next member of staff?

Good news.

You don't need to use a recruiter in the traditional sense.

I am Helen Sanders. And I head up a talented team of talent acquisition specialists who are Your People Partners.

You can use my 22 years (!) recruitment expertise in helping business owners like you to save time, save money, cut the risk of poor hires and remove the stress of the recruitment process.

Did I mention we are not an 'agency'?

If we work together, we're partners. We work together to make sure you hire well and your team can grow to meet your vision and better support your clients/customers.

Done-With-You:
We stand by you, jump in when you need, we guide and do the bits you cannot do, and you learn how to be really awesome at hiring. No, we're not trying to make you into a recruiter. Being a business owner who hires well can make or break your business. 

Done-As-You:
We are your in-house team. We ensure all people in touch with your company have an awesome experience of you, the business owner as well as your company. Given our partners (companies like yours) are between 3 and 50 staff, we know that you're competing for the talent you need.

All this for the same cost, or sometimes less, than a 'normal' recruitment agency.

Call me now on 0117 290 0208 for a chat about how we can take the stress out of your next hire, as well as support your growing team with all things 'people' and talent-related.

I'm a Brit who's also American.

Today is Thanksgiving. And I've been thinking about the humans who've shaped my journey.

Not the 'network' or 'connections'.

The actual people.

The ones who showed up when things got hard. Who believed in me before I believed in myself. Who told me the truth when I needed to hear it.

Here's my gratitude list (and yes, I'm naming names):

🌳 Mike - my coach at Entrepreneurs Circle. The one who keeps pulling excellence out of me when I'm tempted to settle for "good enough."

👍 Jason - my co-lead for EC Bristol. Partnership in its purest form. 2026 is going to be the year of EC Bristol!

❤️  Bex - my Yang to her Meredith. Every founder needs someone who gets it. She gets it.

😃  Tracy - the one who keeps me sane(ish). You know those people who somehow absorb your chaos and hand you back calm? That's Tracy.

💥  Chris - who showed me what's possible. Watching her being pivotal to two businesses while being brilliant at both? Eyes. Opened.

🚰  Samantha - the entrepreneur behind Halcyan Water Conditioners, a brilliant water conditioning business and constantly reminds me what focused determination looks like in action.

🐶  Victoria - who's led the breaking through of barriers for hundreds (perhaps even thousands?) of deaf students, customers and staff across some of the UK's biggest companies. Proof that one person's mission can change an entire landscape.

🌊  Faye - my fearlessness igniter. Every pep talk from her leaves me ready to charge at something I was afraid of five minutes earlier.

🎇  Jasbir - helped restore my confidence in telling others how I can help. She doesn't even know she was part of my rebuilding.

🧡  🙂 Inge - who taught me about being direct and true to ourselves. She knows exactly who she is. And that clarity is fantastic.

🏔️ Darren - we've enjoyed some interesting and fun times together. 2026? We're reconnecting for more awesomeness.

🌅 Chloe - fellow recruitment business owner and a beautiful human. She checked in on me throughout my surgery recovery. That kindness? I don't forget it. 

🎢  Jen - a bright spark who was formative to my early years in business. I've missed her. We've reconnected and I'm wondering what 2026 shenanigans we'll get into together...

😀 ★ Rowena - the ultimate warrior. She inspires me greatly and has been part of my business journey in ways I'm deeply grateful for.

🤖 Monika - my constant at one of my favourite companies. Proof that clients can become friends with real human connection. (Les Mis and dinner next week - can't wait!)

Grateful is an understatement.

Here's what I've learned:
Building a business is hard. Building a business alone is nearly impossible.

The founders who make it? They surround themselves with people who make them better.

Who do you need to thank today?

Drop their name in the comments. Let them know.

--
Happy Thanksgiving to my American friends and family. And to everyone else - gratitude doesn't need a holiday. 🧡

Fractional Talent Partner 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 UK + US Hiring for Growing Companies up to 100 people 🇬🇧 🇺🇸 25+ Years Transatlantic Recruitment 🌟 Human-First, AI-Optimised

Bootstrapped founders always ask:
'How do I compete with companies offering £80K salaries when I can only pay £35K?'

You can't out-pay them.

But you can out-care them.

Here's what I mean:
- Corporate job at £80K:
- Annual performance reviews
- Generic professional development budget
- Standard benefits package
- One-size-fits-all management

Startup job at £35K (done right):
- Monthly 1-on-1s focused on their goals
- Personal development investments in what THEY want to learn
- Flexibility when life happens (family, health, personal projects)
- Real ownership and meaningful decision-making

Notice the difference?

One is transactional. 

One is personal.

When you can't compete on salary, you compete on chemistry.

What this looks like in practice:
→ Remembering personal details (birthdays, family situations, interests) 
→ Checking in about professional goals, not just project updates 
→ Celebrating wins (both personal and professional) 
→ Being flexible when life happens 
→ Investing in their learning (even £50-100/month makes a difference)

Real example:
A bootstrapped founder I know paid for their VA's online marketing course (£200).

The VA was so appreciative, she turned down a higher-paying offer 6 months later.

Why?

Because she felt valued as a person, not just a resource.

That's the power of chemistry over credentials.

You can't buy that loyalty.

You build it.

When you're bootstrapped, your advantage isn't money.

It's that you can genuinely care about the people you work with in a way big 
companies simply can't scale.

Use it.

How do you build chemistry when budgets are tight?

🌟 Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies 🌟 Chemistry First and AI-Enhanced Hiring Methodology 🌟 Solo Founders → Co-Founders 🌟 Bootstrapped + Growing Teams → Building Teams up to 50 People

I spent over 10 years in broadcasting and 5+ years as a BBC sports reporter and commentator.

You know what separated winning teams from losing teams?

It wasn't always talent.

I watched teams with ridiculous individual talent fall apart:
⚽ World-class strikers who wouldn't pass
⚽ Brilliant defenders who couldn't communicate
⚽ Star players whose egos destroyed team chemistry

And I watched 'good enough' teams, like Wimbledon with average talent win as the underdogs (who remembers the Crazy Gang?)

They'd win:
⚽ Because they trusted each other
⚽ Because they communicated instinctively
⚽ Because they genuinely wanted their teammates to succeed

The pattern was so clear, I couldn't unsee it.

Chemistry mattered more than credentials.

Fast forward to last Tuesday afternoon...

I interview a candidate who spent 10 years in football academies.

Three different clubs. Premiership level. Years of dedication.

Then he walked away.

Not because he wasn't good enough.

Because it didn't fit who he was becoming.

And I thought: this is exactly what founders, entrepreneurs and business owners need to understand about hiring.

⚽ In football: You can have the most talented striker in the league, but if they don't fit your team's playing style, you'll lose.

In startups: You can hire the most impressive VP of Sales, but if they don't fit your culture, your team will struggle.

The question isn't "is this person talented?"

The question is "does this person make the team better?"

Sometimes that means hiring someone with less impressive credentials who complements your existing team's strengths.

Sometimes that means passing on someone brilliant who would throw off your team dynamics.

It's not about lowering your standards.

It's about expanding what "qualified" means.

Qualified = competent + chemistry

Not just one or the other.

The candidate I interviewed last week is technically solid.

But what makes me excited to present him to my client?

He understands what it means to be part of something bigger than himself.

He learned that from 8 years in team sports. And from watching his mum put family first.

You can't teach that in onboarding.

You can only hire for it.

Have you ever hired someone less impressive on paper who turned out to be your best hire?

Sharing this with my founder community - a brilliant opportunity for someone early in their career who wants real insight into startup life.

Automated Architecture (AUAR) (Automated Architecture) is looking for a Founders Associate to work directly with CEO and Co-founder Mollie Claypool. They're building robotic micro-factories for sustainable and affordable housing - genuinely exciting stuff.

The role blends GTM strategy, ops, and commercial support. You'd be helping drive expansion into the US, EU, and Canada. High-trust, high-context, and a lot of learning.

Based in East London (E17), hybrid, full-time.

If you're ambitious, a quick learner, and energised by variety - or you know someone who is - details in the original posts below. 👇

Looking for a Founders Associate to join AUAR. You'll be working with Mollie, our CEO & Co-founder - supporting on GTM strategy, ops (👋) and gaining a real insight into life as a founder of a rapidly growing start-up.

AUAR's been an incredible place to work the past 1.5 years with learning opportunities left, right & centre. If you're interested or know a superstar who might be - apply below!!

The candidate who talked about his mum in our interview?

He said something else that stuck with me.

"I spent 8 years in football academies. I know what it's like when someone only cares about your performance, not about you."

That hit hard.

Because that's exactly what traditional recruiting does.

Traditional recruitment reduce people to:
- Years of experience
- Technical skills
- Previous company names
- Education credentials

We interview for competence and hope chemistry works out.

Then we're surprised when:
👉 The brilliant developer who doesn't communicate leaves the team in the dark 👉 The impressive VP of Sales who dominates every meeting crushes team morale 
👉 The "perfect on paper" hire feels like a cultural mismatch within 3 months

Here's what I've learned after 20+ years:

🚀 Competent people who don't fit will slow you down more than good-enough people who gel will speed you up.

That's not motivational speaker fluff.

That's math.

A team of 6 people with great chemistry ships faster than a team of 8 people with brilliant individuals who don't communicate well.

So how do you hire for the whole human?

Start by asking different questions:
👎 "What are your strengths?" 
👍 "What kind of work makes you lose track of time?"

👎 "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" 
👍 "What matters most to you in a job right now?"

👎 "Tell me about overcoming a challenge." 
👍 "Tell me about a project you're proud of and why."

The goal isn't to be their therapist.

The goal is to see them as a person with:
- Values that were shaped by real experiences
- Working styles influenced by their background
- Motivations beyond just payday

When you hire the whole human, you get someone who shows up fully.

Not just their hands and brain.

❤️  Their heart too.

And that's when teams actually work.

What question helps you see candidates as whole humans?

I interviewed someone yesterday who made me stop taking notes.

Not because he said something wrong.

Because he said something so honest, I didn't want to miss it.

We were 20 minutes into the conversation.

I'd asked my usual questions about technical skills, previous roles, what he's looking for.

Then I prodded a little on something he'd said but glossed over: 

"What was that you said about playing football - you said you played but then quickly moved on... tell me more!"

He paused.

Then he started talking about his mum. 

Well, it started with football but really, it showed me loads about the respect he had for his mum.

How she put him first his entire childhood. 

How she supported him through three different football academies (including Premiership level). 

How she never pressured him when he decided to stop pursuing professional football after years of dedication. 

How she just wanted him to be happy and find something he genuinely cared about.

His voice changed when he talked about her.

Not rehearsed. Not polished. Just... real.

And I realised - this is what most interviews miss.

We're so focused on: 

👉 "Tell me about a time you overcame a challenge" 
👉 "Where do you see yourself in 5 years?" (I don't ever ask this, FYI)
👉 "What are your strengths and weaknesses?" (again, I ask this in a different way too!)

That we never ask the questions that reveal who someone actually is.

The candidate I spoke with yesterday?

He's technically competent. His CV shows that.

But what his CV doesn't show:

👉 He understands loyalty (he watched his mum model it) 
👉 He knows how to make difficult decisions (walking away from football after years of investment) 
👉 He values being seen as a whole person, not just his output 
👉 He'll show up differently for a business owner who treats him like family

You can't find that information in a skills test.

You find it by creating space for people to show up as themselves.

That's the difference between hiring a competent person and hiring the right person.

I don't know yet if this candidate is the perfect fit for my client.

But I do know he felt safe enough to share something personal in an interview.

And that tells me everything about the kind of culture he'll thrive in.

When was the last time a candidate surprised you by sharing something real?

"They could leave at any minute."

That's what a founder told me on a strategy call yesterday.

He'd built a team of freelancers. They'd been working together for about a year. 
But he didn't see them as a "real team."

❓ Why?

Because they weren't employees. No contracts. No notice periods. No security.

Here's what I asked him:
"If you hired permanent employees tomorrow, could they also leave?"

Of course they could.

Notice periods are usually a month for most roles. Employees resign all the time. 

Having someone on payroll doesn't guarantee loyalty.

But these freelancers? They'd chosen to stick around for 12 months. Without being locked in. Without being obligated.

That's not instability. That's commitment.

The real question isn't "How do I convert freelancers to employees?"

It's "What's making them stay - and how do I protect it?"

Here's what we explored:
- What would actually change if they became employees (sometimes less than you think)
- What's keeping them engaged right now ( 👉 hint: it's probably chemistry, not money)
- Where the genuine gaps are (and where you're solving a problem that doesn't exist)

Sometimes the "stable team" you're looking for is already in front of you.

You just haven't recognised it yet.

Happy Hiring!

P.S. If you're planning hires for Q1 2026 and want to think through what you actually need, I'm offering free 30-minute strategy calls through December. Link in comments.

Looking for a qualified accountant in Bristol who wants MORE than just another practice job?

I'm working with Focus Accountancy (lovely small practice in Stapleton, team of 9) who need a Client Manager - someone who can manage their own portfolio AND grow into practice management.

This isn't your typical accountancy job. 

It's for someone who: 
- Actually enjoys client relationships (mostly remote - Zoom/phone/email) 
- Is confident with technology and cloud systems (FreeAgent) 
- Wants autonomy and genuine progression, not corporate BS 
- Can see themselves helping shape how a practice operates

£40-50k + performance element, hybrid 3:2, within 10 miles of Bristol.

The interesting bit? 

Barry Adams (the founder) is specifically looking for someone who can eventually help run day-to-day operations while he focuses on growth. So if you're tired of being a cog in a big firm and want real impact, this might be it.

Know someone brilliant? Tag them below or send them my way 👇

#AccountingJobs #BristolJobs #ClientManager #PracticeAccountant

Stapleton, England, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

January is coming and I'm already seeing solo founders make THE biggest co-founder mistake of 2025...

They're planning to "find a technical co-founder in Q1" without doing ANY of the groundwork that prevents business divorces 18 months later.

Here's what I've learned after helping 400+ bootstrapped founders (and cleaning up the mess when they got it wrong):

1. Stop choosing co-founders like you're hiring employees

- Most founders pick co-founders based on impressive CVs or because "we need a developer."
- Skills can be learned or outsourced. Values and decision-making styles? Those are hardwired.
- Ask yourself: "Would I trust this person to make million-pound decisions when I'm not in the room?"

If the answer isn't an immediate YES, keep looking.

2. Test for chemistry BEFORE you commit equity

- 70% of startups fail because they got the founding team wrong.
- Run a trial project together for 4-8 weeks. Not coffee chats - actual work under pressure.
- Watch how they handle disagreements, missed deadlines, and pivots.
- If you wouldn't survive a 12-hour road trip together, you won't survive building a company together.

3. Have the uncomfortable conversations NOW
- Equity splits. Work-life boundaries. Exit vision. Conflict resolution.
- If you can't have these conversations during courtship, you definitely can't have them during crisis.

4. Don't confuse friendship with business compatibility

- Your best mate might be brilliant. They also might be the worst possible co-founder for you.
- Friendship is built on shared history. Co-founder partnerships are built on shared vision and complementary strengths.

5. Stop rushing because you're lonely or desperate

- A bad co-founder will slow you down more than having no co-founder at all.
- Take the time to find the RIGHT person, not just ANY person.

For bootstrapped founders, getting your co-founder choice right isn't just important - it's EVERYTHING.

That's why I built the Co-Founder Compatibility Toolkit - a systematic framework to test for fit BEFORE you commit equity.

Inside: chemistry assessment questions, trial project templates, red flag checklist, and the exact conversations you need to have.

Want it? Comment "FOUNDER" below (and connect with me so I can send it over).

The #1 mistake non-technical founders make when looking for a technical co-founder:
They optimise for impressive credentials over chemistry.

I've seen it happen dozens of times:

Founder meets someone who worked at Google. Built products at {insert brand here} - let's call them Facebook. 

Has the perfect CV.

They partner up. 6 months later, they realise they have completely different working styles.

One wants to move fast and break things. 

The other wants to plan everything meticulously.

One makes decisions by gut feeling. 

The other needs data for everything.

The partnership falls apart. The company stalls.

What should you do instead?
- Test chemistry BEFORE committing.
- Work on a small project together for 20-40 hours. 
- See how you communicate. 
- See how you handle disagreements. 
- See if you can actually work together.

Chemistry is what makes winning teams. 

Not CVs.

(This is what we'll cover in depth in the January workshop. Link in comments.)

🌟 Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies 🌟 Chemistry First Methodology 🌟 Solo Founders → Co-Founders 🌟 Bootstrapped & Growing Teams → Team Building

Here's what we're covering in the January workshop (Find Your Technical Co-Founder in 30 Days):

Session 1 (Jan 8): Foundation
- Why most co-founder searches fail
- How to define what you actually need
- The Chemistry First framework

Session 2 (Jan 15): Search
- Where to find great technical co-founders
- The 5 unconventional places to meet developers
- Outreach templates that actually work

Session 3 (Jan 22): Evaluate
- The 20-point vetting checklist
- How to test chemistry before committing
- Red flags to watch for

Session 4 (Jan 29): Partnership
- How to structure co-founder agreements
- Equity splits and vesting schedules
- First 90 days onboarding plan

All live. 
All practical. 
All based on helping 400+ founders over 20 years.
2 for 12 special until Sunday midnight at £48.50 per ticket.
Then Super Early bird: £97 (until Dec 1)

Check out the info and book your ticket here:

Open article: Find Your Technical Co-Founder in 30 Days: Live 4-Week Workshop by eventbrite.co.uk

Find Your Technical Co-Founder in 30 Days: Live 4-Week Workshop

Using LinkedIn for outreach came up at our Entrepreneurs Circle Bristol Local Event last week. 

I highly recommend pretty much everything jessie van breugel 🟣 has to say so best do what he says if you want to win at the game of LinkedIn and outreach.

“inbound is dead.” yeah… right | check my featured section to see how we’re still making it work ↓

After 5+ years on LinkedIn, I’m happy to announce:

Cold DMs are finally dying – steal this new strategy ↓

This strategy works exceptionally well if you’re tired of: 

𐄂 Endless LinkedIn pitch DMs
𐄂 Spray and pray cold outreach
𐄂 Cringy “just following up :)” messages

These strategies aren’t just annoying.
It also burns trust with your prospects.
Long before a real conversation even starts.

I just released a 15-page guide on LinkedIn Inbound Sales – a proven system that attracts inbound leads on LinkedIn, and how to convert these leads into revenue.

Here’s what’s inside:

☑ The 7-Step DM Flow to go from cold → close
☑ How to use AI & Lead Magnets for 1,000s of inbound leads
☑ The Cold → Warm → Hot nurture model for closing deals without pitching.

For the next 24 hours, I’m giving it away.

Want a free copy?

1. Like this post so it can reach (and help) more people
2. Comment “LINKEDIN” & I send it to you

♻️ repost this for priority access – or wait a few days before the resource arrives (my inbox is very full at the moment)

Free Q2 2026 Hiring Strategy Sessions: Plan Your Growth Hires Before January

If you're a founder or business owner planning to hire in Q1/Q2 2026, let's talk before the chaos starts.

I'm offering 10 FREE 30-minute strategy sessions in November/December to help bootstrapped and growing companies get their hiring strategy right BEFORE they start interviewing.

👉  These sessions are for you if:
- You're planning to make your first sales hire, first marketing hire, or first technical hire in Q1 2026
- You know you need to hire but aren't sure exactly WHAT role or WHEN
- You've hired before and it didn't work out (wrong person, wrong timing, wrong process)
- You want to avoid wasting 3-6 months on the wrong hire

What we'll cover in 30 minutes:
- Your specific hiring challenge for Q2 2026
- Whether you need a full-time hire, fractional hire, or contractor (most founders get this wrong)
- The #1 mistake companies at your stage make when hiring
- A clear hiring roadmap for Q1/Q2 with realistic timelines

❓ Why I'm doing this:
I've spent 20+ years helping 400+ founders build founding teams and their growing company's teams using my Chemistry First methodology. 

I've seen the same hiring mistakes cost companies 6-12 months and £50K+ in wasted time and money.

If I can help you avoid those mistakes in a 30-minute call, that's worth my time.

The reality:
- This is NOT a sales pitch (though if Chemistry First hiring is right for you, I'll mention it)
- Only 10 slots available (Nov 20 - Dec 13)
- First come, first served
- Zero pressure to work together afterward

If you're planning Q2 hires and want an experienced sounding board, book your slot:

📅  https://lnkd.in/eapSq7wj

Or tag a founder who's about to hire their first sales/marketing/technical team member.

P.S. I focus on chemistry over CVs/credentials because I learned from many years as a BBC sports commentator that winning teams aren't built on impressive CVs - they're built on people who work brilliantly together. 

Let's make sure you hire someone who fits your team, not just your job description.

Open article: Helen Sanders - hfbac (Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies) - Q2 2026 Strategy Call | TidyCal by tidycal.com

Helen Sanders - hfbac (Hiring For and Building Awesome Companies) - Q2 2026 Strategy Call | TidyCal

I worked with a founder who interviewed 47 developers for a co-founder role.

47 coffee meetings.

She couldn't decide.

Everyone seemed qualified. 

But how do you tell who will actually be a good partner?

Here's what was missing:
- A systematic process for evaluating chemistry and compatibility.
- She was asking the wrong questions. Looking for the wrong signals.

Once we built her evaluation framework:
- She could compare candidates objectively
- She knew what questions to ask to reveal true working styles
- She found her technical co-founder in 3 weeks
- They shipped their MVP in 8 weeks.
- They're now at £1.2M ARR.

The Chemistry First framework works. 

I'm teaching it in January.

Details below (and we have a 2 for 1 offer on tickets this week!)

Getting ahead with next year's events...

Can't quite believe it's Nov 18th. November!

❓ How?

And who's with me in knowing that 2026 is going to be an awesome year?

Want to know what will make it awesome?

Doing 2026 differently than you did 2025.

- Not alone. 
- Not hoping things will magically improve. 
- Not just learning without implementing.

That's why our first Entrepreneurs Circle Bristol Local Event of 2026 kicks off on Tuesday, January 13th.

Every month, Bristol & Bath business owners gather to:
- Share real strategies that are working NOW
- Learn tactics to implement immediately
- Commit publicly to ONE thing they'll do
- Report back next month (accountability that works)

Your first month is completely free.

Come see if this is the community that helps you make 2026 genuinely different.

Tuesday, January 13th, 2026... 6.30-9pm
Ruby Jeans, Shirehampton, Bristol (fellow EC Member). 

Link below for more info.

Here's to making 2026 actually awesome (yes, even when we still have 44 days worth of 2025 to go!)

View event: EC Bristol: Business Growth + Accountability (Not Just Networking)

EC Bristol: Business Growth + Accountability (Not Just Networking)

I watched a man ski down Mount Everest last Sunday. 

No, seriously.

Andrzej Bargiel, a 37-year-old Polish ski mountaineer, did something no one else on Earth has ever done: climbed Everest without oxygen, then skied all the way back down.

But here’s the bit that stopped me in my tracks:

His brother was flying a drone above him the entire descent.
Not to film it (though that was a bonus).

To guide him.

‘Crevasse on your left. Rock face ahead. Adjust your line.’

Andrzej had the skill. 

He’d trained for years. 

But having that aerial view - someone who could see what he couldn’t - made the difference between success and disaster.

And that’s exactly what hiring your first employee feels like. Or adding to your team of 8. 

You’re navigating terrain you’ve never seen before.

The stakes can feel terrifying.

One wrong move could cost you months of progress, tens of thousands of pounds, and the momentum you’ve worked so hard to build.

And you’re doing it blind.

Most founders I talk to say the same thing:

“It feels like I’m gambling with money I can’t afford to lose.”

“I’m terrified of getting it wrong.”

“What if they look great in interviews but turn out to be a disaster three months in?”

You’re not wrong to feel scared.

Hiring is one of the highest-stakes decisions you’ll make as a business owner or a founder.

And if you’ve never done it before - or if you’ve been burned in the past - you’re essentially skiing down Everest with no visibility on what’s ahead.

Here’s the thing:

You don’t need someone to make the decision for you.

You need someone to be your drone operator.

Someone who can see:
	•	Red flags that show up in conversation three but not conversation one
	•	Misalignments between what they say and how they actually behave
	•	Chemistry indicators you’d miss if you were just screening CVs
	•	Stage-fit issues (brilliant person, wrong company size)

You still make the climb.

You still make the call.

But you’re not doing it blind.

The truth?

Companies fail because they get their team wrong.

Not because of bad products.

Not because of lack of funding.

Because they partnered with the wrong people.

And most of those failures happen because founders are making hiring decisions without a drone operator.

❓Question for you:

When you made your last hire (or when you’re about to make your next one), what scares you most?

Drop a comment. I’d genuinely love to know.

P.S. If you’re staring down a hiring decision right now and it feels scary as hell, I offer free 15-minute strategy calls where we can map out the terrain ahead.

No pitch. No pressure. Just clarity.

DM me or 📞 drop ‘CALL’ 
in the comments and I’ll send you the link.

Spotted this and wanted to help spread the word.

Anna Zaphiriou-Zarifi and her co-founder Sophia are building SELARA - a health and wellness AI platform - and they're looking for a practitioner to collaborate on content.

If you're in the health and wellness space and love the idea of shaping how AI communicates about wellbeing, this could be a lovely fit.

Details in Anna's original post below. 👇

HIRING!!!! 

My Co-founder Sophia Zaphiriou- Zarifi and I are looking for a health and wellness practitioner to collaborate with on writing content for our AI Website. 

Please see job description. 

Any enquiries about the role please email- info@selara.uk.

Greater London, England, United Kingdom (Hybrid)

Yesterday morning I reconnected with someone I hadn't seen in years.

Adele Bryant ACC and I met through Entrepreneurs Circle back in 2017-ish.

Life happened. Kids. Health stuff. Caring. Surviving.

We lost touch.

But yesterday we jumped on a call.

And something magical happened.

We both talked about feeling like we'd been asleep for years.

Motherhood. Medical trauma. Just... surviving.

And now? 

We're both waking up.

Adele said: 'I'm entering my Wonder Woman era.'

I smiled. 😄  This hit big!

Then she grabbed her Wonder Woman POP figure from her desk.

I grabbed my Lego Wonder Woman figures - two of them - Mother's Day gifts!

So then Adele one-up's me and grabs her Lego Wonder Woman too.

We both have two Wonder Woman figures!!!

Ha ha! Neither of us knew.

Here's what I've learned about women like us:

We spend years putting everyone else first.

Our kids. Our partners. Our clients. And many others.

We push our own needs down so far we forget they exist.

And then one day - through illness, through loss, through our children finally 
becoming adults - we wake up.

And we think: 

'Who am I now? Who do I want to be?'

The answer?

Wonder Woman.

Not because we're superhuman.

But because we've survived things that would break most people.

And we're still here.

Still building.

Still showing up.

Women who lift women are the best women.

So here's to 2026.

The Wonder Woman Era.

Who's joining us?

Sarah Cook, I have a feeling you've been in your Wonder Woman ear for a while!

Bex Midgley, you are Wonder Woman to me so thinking you can formalise that by being part of our WW era too!

Ooooh, Adele, perhaps it's the WWE but not with all the leotards and fake punches?

Yesterday I walked into a client's office for the first time in 6 years.

I've been their embedded talent partner for a decade.

Hired many people for them this year alone.

But I hadn't physically been there since before lockdown.

What I saw at lunchtime stopped me in my tracks.

And made me smile. 😊

The kitchen was buzzing.

Not with people heating up sad desk lunches.

Not with people grabbing a sandwich to eat alone at their screens.

People were making salads.

Rummaging through the fridge to see what they could throw together.

Chatting. Laughing.

The tea drawer (yes an entire deep drawer of tea options) alone told a story - a vast collection including some a few team members had brought back from their last trip to China.

And then - this is the bit that got me - they sat down and played cards.

Together.

Engineers. Taking a proper lunch break. Doing something that had nothing to do with work.

Playing cards like it was 1985.

Later, I watched their new IT infrastructure chap - who's also become the office's unofficial coffee aficionado - carefully prep the machine with fresh beans.

Taking genuine pride in making sure it was ready for his colleagues.

I stood there thinking: "This is it. This is what I've been helping build for 10 years." 

Yes, I have a small part to play. These individuals have become an incredible team. The environment and culture is their environment and culture.

My role is not filling roles.

It's building teams that actually like each other.

Teams where chemistry isn't a nice-to-have.

It's the foundation.

Here's what I know after two decades in recruitment:

You can hire the most qualified person in the world.

But if they don't gel with your team?

They'll eat lunch alone at their desk.

They'll leave within 18 months.

And your culture will slowly erode.

The companies that get hiring right?

They end up with kitchens full of speciality tea from China and someone who 
genuinely cares about the coffee.

That's not luck.

That's intentional hiring.

That's Chemistry First.

Starting the week with a reminder that showing up matters.

Last Friday I had a strategy call that made my whole week.

A company I helped 6 years ago reached out.

Pre-Covid. 
Different challenges. 
Different stage.

They'd used other recruiters since then.

But they said something that made me smile:

"We knew we'd come back to you. We know we needed more than transactional recruiters."

❤️  That hit different.

6 years of staying visible.

That's the real game here.
- Not every post will go viral 
- Not every week will feel productive
- But the right people are paying attention

If you're wondering whether it's worth showing up this week - it is.

The clients who need you in 2031 might be watching right now.

Happy Monday. 

😃 Keep going!

Tony Restell

Social-Hire.com

Since 2012, we've been helping Founders and Partners to build their personal brands and generate business wins through social selling - but ONLY if their firm wanted to have us handle their company's entire social media marketing.

That meant we didn't have an option for working with individual Founders, Partners or Executives who wanted to invest in their own personal brand and social selling initiatives - until now.

We have an extensive track record of producing outcomes such as your ideal clients:

- Registering for a business breakfast, launch event, networking drinks evening or other in-person event
- Booking in for a Zoom call or in-person meeting with you or your team
- Registering for a webinar or online panel discussion
- Attending a free workshop or taster session
- Booking a screen share call to do a demo of your offering

Find out more and book in for a call below:

Personal Branding & Social Selling Lead | Founder of B2B Social Media Agency

Sometimes businesses end up finding success in strange places. Serving needs that are far removed from the business opportunity the founders had originally identified. That's exactly what's happened to us at Social-Hire - and how we evolved to become a highly regarded Social Media Marketing agency serving both the recruitment industry and SMEs!

During our early years as a career networking site, we become best known as experts in building a social media presence in the careers and recruiting space. Everyone wanted to know how we'd done it! That's when we realised that our core business wasn't being a networking site but rather helping other businesses achieve far greater results from their social media presence and through adopting the right approaches to social media marketing.

That's how Social-Hire evolved into being a Business-to-Business (B2B) specialist social media marketing agency. Today we serve i) organisations wanting to reach candidates or recruiters via social media; and ii) small businesses wanting to generate client leads, web traffic or sales through social media. Essentially we deliver these results for you - for a tiny fraction of the cost of hiring a Social Media Manager.

My own focus is to help companies understand the types of results they could enjoy with social media. Usually the most cost effective option will be for us to then be engaged to deliver on that strategy - but in circumstances where companies want to do everything in-house we're also able to help.

You're welcome to check out our packages and book in for a call via Social-Hire.com website. If you've any questions whatsoever that I can help with, please feel free to reach out here on LinkedIn or via Twitter (@tonyrestell)

I look forward to speaking with you and taking your social media presence to an altogether higher level.

Director, Social Media Marketing Agency

Engaged by leading MBA schools and universities across Europe to present in-person and via Zoom on subjects relevant to current students and alumni groups:

- How to use social media and LinkedIn to further your career
- How to use LinkedIn to get a career in your desired sector when you graduate
- How business leaders can leverage social media for themselves and their organisations

Have travelled extensively across Europe and presented at schools including Bath University School of Management, Bayes Business School (formerly Cass Business School), Cambridge University (Judge Business School), City University, Durham University, EADA Business School, EDHEC Business School, EM Lyon Business School, Hult International Business School, IESE, Lancaster University Management School, Leeds University, Manchester Business School, SDA Bocconi, SKEMA Business School, Vlerick Business School and WHU – Otto Beisheim School of Management.

If you are looking for a keynote speaker for a forthcoming event, feel free to message me here to discuss further.

Keynote Speaker for University & Business School Careers Services

My original vision with Social-Hire.com was simple. I wanted to create a platform where any executive candidate could discreetly discuss their career options with any employer or recruiter in the world - without cost and without having to invest time in gradually building up a network of contacts.

However, Social-Hire became best known as an advice site for Recruiters and for Candidates wanting to figure out how to use social media marketing in their hiring or job search strategies. We also became known for our huge social reach and our success in growing our social profiles and creating vibrant, engaged audiences of followers across social media.

On the strength of this reputation, I speak on social recruiting and social media marketing topics. Feel free to contact me should you have need of a speaker or trainer in this area.


* Timeline *

2012 - beta trial proved a great success, early adopters included recruiters from Accenture, Amazon, AOL, Aon Hewitt Ariba, Audi, Avanade, Booz Allen Hamilton, Britvic, Cisco, Cognizant, Columbia Sportswear, CSC, Deloitte, General Motors, Groupon, Hitachi Consulting, JC Penney, KPMG Advisory, Legal & General, McAfee, Microsoft, Oracle, Paddy Power, Philips Healthcare, Sage, SAIC, Samsung, Sears, Skype, Sporting Index, Starbucks Coffee Company, Thomson Reuters, Twitter, Unilever, US Olympic Committee, Verizon, Vodafone, Volkswagen, Wipro & Worldpay

2013 - a job search engine was added, trawling 35 million+ jobs to help candidates quickly find career openings they may not have been aware of. This has allowed us to add openings from the likes of Apple, Bank of America, BNP Paribas, BSkyB, BT, Chevron, Deutsche Telekom, eBay, EDF, Goldman Sachs, Google, Hewlett Packard, HSBC, J.P. Morgan, McKinsey, Nestlé, Procter & Gamble, Shell, Siemens, Skype, Telefónica, Tesco & Walmart

2014 - launched services to manage the social media marketing campaigns and build the social media presence of recruiting teams and recruitment businesses.

Founder of B2B Social Media Agency

YCS Digital

Provide social media expertise and delivery to YCS Digital, enabling the business to offer social media management services to those clients wanting to incorporate social media into their broader marketing strategy.

Social Media Partner

Top-Consultant.com

I was the driving force behind the sales & marketing aspects of Top-Consultant.com when launched in 2000. Without start-up investment, our team built it to be the leading management consultancy focused online careers site with £multi-million revenues derived from:

o The Annual Careers Fair held in London attracting 500+ recruiters and 3000+ candidates

o Jobs board for management consulting roles, used by direct employers and recruitment agencies

o Provision of training seminars for management consultancy firms and professionals

o e-Newletter publishing the latest management consultancy headlines and trend data

As testimony to the market leading position of www.Top-Consultant.com, the site was acquired by newspaper group Daily Mail General Trust (DMGT) and leading job board Jobsite in 2005. 

Over the years the site has served a client base including most of the world's leading consulting businesses including Accenture, Arthur D Little, Arup, Atos, BearingPoint, Booz & Co, BT, Capgemini, Cognizant, Deloitte, Ernst & Young, IBM, Infosys, KPMG, Logica, McKinsey, Monitor, PA Consulting, PwC, Roland Berger Strategy Consultants, Sapient,Serco,  Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro.

The site also attracts hiring campaigns from numerous FTSE companies, major global employment brands and organisations such as Amazon, American Express, AstraZeneca, BAA, BAE Systems, Barclaycard, BSkyB, BT, Cancer Research, Canon, Credit Suisse, Direct Line (formerly RBS Insurance), Dixons Retail, easyJet, Financial Services Authority (FSA), Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, Gartner, GlaxoSmithKline, Google, Macmillan Cancer Support, Microsoft, Moody's, National Grid, Nationwide, PepsiCo,  Santander, Scania, The Coca-Cola Company, Thomson Reuters, Times Warner, UBS and Vodafone.

I continue to be involved in the day to day running of Top-Consultant and remain well connected within the management consultancy recruitment market at undergraduate, experienced hire and MBA level.

Entrepreneur and Co-Founder

Jobsite

My primary responsibilities at Jobsite included:

- Formulation of Jobsite's 3 year Strategic Plan especially with regards to existing and potential new partnerships. Devised the Jobsite White initiative (launched 2012), created business case for launch and convinced the DMGT Board of Directors to prioritise investment in this initiative.

- Maximisation of the profit contribution by Top-Consultant.com, including assessing M&A and organic investment opportunities in the professional services space.

- Sharing best practice from Top-Consultant (eg. in Virtual Careers Fairs, Careers Fairs, Social Media) with other businesses within the Jobsite Group.

Senior Business Development Executive

Roland Berger Strategy Consultants

Was responsible for leading client teams on strategic consulting engagements across a range of industry sectors. Outstanding client feedback and internal reviews saw me promoted 4 times in 4 years (Business Analyst > Junior Consultant > Consultant > Senior Consultant), one of the fastest promotion tracks in my peer group.

Senior Strategy Consultant

Southwestern

Lead sales manager for a team of 15 field sales people, based in Wisconsin

Organisational Team Leader

I get a real buzz from helping B2B firms turn social selling into a growth engine for their businesses. Using LinkedIn in ways that mean the "Feast & Famine cycle" is no longer something that keeps you awake at night. Highly relevant for management consultancies, recruitment agencies and other professional services and SaaS businesses.

If you would like to bring more predictability and consistency to your sales funnel, getting your social selling strategy right is the key to achieving this.

A few examples to help you picture what good looks like:

🔹 For a newly launched consulting business, we grew their prospect audience by 798 people in the first 3 months, generated sales meetings from week 1 and set up a webinar and sales call funnel that resulted in us producing 80% of their revenues in their first years in business.

🔹 For an established consulting business, we grew their prospect audience by 902 people in the first 3 months and transformed their in-person client prospect events from having ~30 attendees to having 100+ attendees (and subsequently being able to run them more frequently, too).

🔹 For an established recruitment business, we helped them launch into a new fast-growth sector in a country they had never worked in before. We grew their prospect audience by 936 people in 3 months and then secured client meetings and speaking engagements from this audience.

🔹 For a new SaaS business, we grew their prospect audience by 954 people in the first 3 months and then secured hundreds of trial users and trialists' feedback to successfully launch the business.

So, my question for you is this: do you have a well-defined B2B audience that your firm wants to win work from?

If you answered "yes", it'd make sense for us to have a chat. I'm happy to share what works.

You're welcome to email me on 📩 tony.restell@social-hire.com 📩 or you can book a call either via my profile here, or via the Social-Hire.com homepage.

Are you fed up with fake engagement on LinkedIn?

If so, here are some instructions direct from LinkedIn's Executive Escalations team:

Any profiles or companies you come across that are selling fake engagement services, please report directly via email to 📩 trademark@linkedin.com

LinkedIn want to crack down on these kinds of businesses, and we can all help.

Earlier this week, I posted about a company selling LinkedIn likes, connections, reviews, etc. I tagged in LinkedIn Help and invited them to contact me if they wanted to have the company's details to be able to act on this.

To my surprise, within hours, the Executive Escalations team contacted me to seek my help in taking action against this company (first message below).

We had several back and forth exchanges and they offered to have a call as well.

The upshot is that they are keen to receive tip-offs from users about any profiles or companies that are selling these kinds of services - and supported me sharing the above email address publicly for anyone who can provide them with more tip-offs.

Please save the email address and let's all be proactive in reporting things like this.

P.S. if you missed the original post where I shared the seller of fake LinkedIn results, it's here:
https://lnkd.in/eCYgAJvk

Helping B2B firms use social selling to end the feast & famine cycle | Founder of Social-Hire.com, a B2B social media agency | Ask me about our guaranteed results and industry-leading client retention rates

I wonder how many people know that this kind of cheating takes place on LinkedIn?

I was just approached by a company that wanted to get a paid guest blog on Social-Hire.com ; the business name had me suspicious, so I checked out their website.

Their whole business model is that you can buy fake actions on dozens and dozens of social media sites, LinkedIn included.

Just look at all the list of things below that you can pay to have inflated (misrepresented).

I've not shared the business name here as I don't want to help promote their services, and needless to say I've declined to publish their guest blog. 

LinkedIn Help and Gyanda Sachdeva - happy to share the details with you if you would like to try and take this service down?

I really hope I'm wrong about this...

... because if I'm right, it's going to impact millions of LinkedIn users.

These last weeks, we've seen a worrying change being beta-tested on LinkedIn in the US.

On regular LinkedIn, the ability to search for people by job title has been completely removed from the site.

Instead, you put in the search bar the type of person you're looking for - and LinkedIn's AI finds a selection of people who match what you're looking for.

But you can't find everyone who has a particular job title - not even people in your network - unless you upgrade to a Sales Navigator or Recruiter account.

Let that sink in for a moment...

That one single change has the potential to mean:

❌ Recruiters can't search to find candidates
❌ Salespeople can't search for potential clients
❌ Jobseekers can't network as part of their job search
❌ Founders can't search for business partners / investors
❌ You can't find and contact people in your existing network

(unless you pay to upgrade to a Sales Navigator or Recruiter licence)

There's obviously no way of knowing if LinkedIn will roll this out globally, or if it might just be a temporary setup to force usage of the new AI-powered search they're developing and collect some data on how useful people are finding its results.

But if it is implemented site-wide, it would mean no one could effectively use people search for commercial or job search or networking purposes, unless they pay for a higher level of subscription.

(Premium accounts are impacted by this change too, so don't think that just because you pay for LinkedIn you're immune to this)

What's your reaction to this change? It's pretty shocking, isn't it?!


P.S. if you'd like to object to this change, the best thing you can do is submit feedback about how this will impact your use of LinkedIn using this feedback form:
https://lnkd.in/eU6nrFdn

LinkedIn algorithm update (that's more than doubled my reach):

I've been monitoring how my posts are being shown to people, and there's a clear pattern.

Any post that's on a specialist topic, or intended for a specific audience, is being shown to people outside my network first.

My early engagement is coming almost entirely from 2nd degree connections.

Why does this matter?

LinkedIn no longer shows your post to a portion of your own network and assesses if they think it's interesting.

LinkedIn now shows your post to a selection of users it thinks should be interested in that post, and assesses if those people think it's interesting.

To get good reach, you therefore need to write in ways that educate, or strike a connection with, people who don't already know you.

Before the algo changed, the key thing was to spark engagement from your connections, from people who already knew you.

That's the big change.

Oh - and to benefit from this, you need to be writing posts that are either tackling specific topics or are written to appeal to a specific audience.

(that's what allows LinkedIn to determine the audience that your post should be shown to)

Hope that's a help? Does it mirror what you've been seeing?

P.S. full transparency - my posts have 54,112 impressions in the last 7 days; in the final week of May, before the algo change, I had 18,981 impressions. 

P.P.S. just saw a Forbes columnist claim that posts with a selfie get four times as many impressions. So let's see how this one does...

❓ A question about Calendly etiquette:

Over the weekend, I saw a CEO pretty annoyed at other people sending a Calendly link for them to book into.

There were a lot of replies from people who also find it irritating to be sent a Calendly link as soon as you've said you're happy to have a call.

So, how do you handle this?

Once someone's said they'd be happy to have a call, I will usually say:

Do you have a calendar link I can book into (or I can send you mine if easier)?

It means an extra message back and forth, but then at least someone's either requested my calendar link or they've sent me theirs.

Interested in how others handle this, what's your approach?

Sometimes, your genuine activity on LinkedIn can trick LinkedIn's bots into thinking you've been using automation tools here.

I hear this a lot from recruiters, whose viewing of multiple candidates' profiles in quick succession often triggers a warning.

And I myself got a warning earlier this week (screenshot below), as did many of the more active LinkedIn users (thanks for the reassurance on yesterday's call Alicia Teltz).

I hadn't done anything I shouldn't be doing. But I had been doing two things intensively:

1) Using LinkedIn's content search page to see the latest posts of a couple of hundred people whose content I don't want to miss. This functionality hadn't been working for me for the last month, so when it came back I was playing catchup!

2) Sending a standard message response back to everyone who's sent me a connection request - as I can't accept connection requests, having hit the 30k connection limit here several years ago.

I'd like to make the LinkedIn Help team aware of this - and also to flag the part of the message that says "If you have questions or believe that your activity may have been flagged in error, you can reach out or visit the Help Center"

LinkedIn Help - the email you send this message from is a noreply email address, so when you say "you can reach out", it's not clear how a user should go about doing that? (the link to "visit the Help Center" just takes you to a page about not using prohibited software and extensions).

Please consider this as me reaching out to report that my activity has been flagged in error, if there's anything else I need to do to report this, please advise. Thanks.
‌

One of the things I like to be known for is calling out bad LinkedIn advice - and I saw a real stinker this weekend!

The advice was that you should go through your LinkedIn network and delete people who've not been actively posting and commenting.

The reason given for doing this?

Because they're of no value to you if they're inactive here, and they'll drag down how much reach your LinkedIn posts get - because LinkedIn sees only a low % of your network engaging with your content and so demotes your posts.

This advice is wrong on so many levels.

Here are a few reasons I would definitely NOT do this:

💥 Talk to anyone winning business here and you'll invariably hear that loads of their client wins came from "lurkers" - people who'd not interacted with any of their posts before, and often weren't actively posting themselves either.

(Richard van der Blom even shared some stats on this in the last weeks, from memory those who've not engaged with your posts are 33x more likely to become clients than those who do engage)

💥 Your post impressions get penalised if LinkedIn shows your post to people and they don't seem to be interested in it. So someone who's not active on LinkedIn doesn't feed into this equation, as they're not on the site to be shown your post!

💥 Increasingly, LinkedIn is showing your posts to people outside your network first (ie. people it thinks should be interested in the topic of your post, rather than just a selection of your connections), so the composition of your own network is less of a factor than it used to be.

(see my post yesterday for more on this)

💥 You never know what career changes people might make that mean overnight they become potential clients, business partners, investors or employers. Why cut yourself off from that serendipity by removing a connection of someone who was previously interested in you?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying never clean up your network. By all means, people who are constantly pitching you or are all take and no give, feel free to disconnect from them with no negative repercussions! But just don't do it for the reasons that were stated at the top of this post.

I hope this is a helpful counter to the advice I saw shared here this weekend...

... and what other bad advice have you seen doing the rounds here?

I get it, the job market is REALLY tough right now.

But, for your own sake, please avoid relying on AI - it can really get you in trouble.

I'm hearing from a growing number of recruiters that they are receiving job applications that have clearly been falsified by AI (and the volume of these is rocketing).

The applications suspiciously show candidates being experienced in all the tech stack that the company uses, or having all the skills that were listed in the job advert.

In other words, AI has made them look like the perfect candidate.

The trouble is, as soon as a recruiter looks at your LinkedIn, they see that none of this is true.

So the AI lies on your behalf, but doesn't get you an interview.

Or, worse still, it gets you an interview - but then you go through the humiliation of having your experience pulled apart.

Or, even worse still, you somehow get offered the job and live every day with the fear that you could be fired, demanded to repay your salary and possibly face prosecution (those would be the repercussions in the UK, can't say what they might be elsewhere).

I can't imagine that candidates are knowingly sending off CVs that are so blatantly falsified. So I can only assume there are services out there that allow candidates to do this on autopilot...

Indeed, a quick google search for "automatically apply to jobs with ai" has uncovered a whole load of them.

Please be wary of any job application being sent on your behalf that you haven't personally reviewed.

This mass-applying may feel like it's helping you, but it's not.


P.S. This is the perfect example of the dilemmas our entire society will face with AI in the coming years. Just because AI is able to do something, doesn't mean that we necessarily should have AI do it...

There are two schools of thought on LinkedIn:

"Spray and pray" vs build relationships.

Advocates of the first approach (most lead generation agencies, for example) believe you should:

- Bombard 250 people with sales messages
- Annoy 249 to convert 1
- Burn bridges and move on

At the end of the day, "it's just a numbers game."

Those who believe in the second approach say:

- Your reputation is your biggest asset
- Quality connections trump quantity
- Relationships drive sustainable growth

The bottom line is that building trust takes time, but ultimately going down this path pays off.

Here's something for everyone to consider if you are thinking of using an outreach tool or a lead generation agency:

Most will push you towards the first approach because it's easier to show "quick wins."

But those wins come at a cost - your reputation. And it's you who faces this cost, not the company that sold you on pursuing this approach.

When someone remembers you as "that annoying spammy salesperson," you've burnt all chances of working with them; and are there really enough decision-makers in your market that you can afford for lots of them to feel that way about you?!

I'd rather connect meaningfully with 10 people than irritate 100.

P.S. Which approach do you see working better on LinkedIn? The volume game or the relationship game? 🤔

💣 In case you needed some extra motivation to share your professional expertise on LinkedIn...

... content from LinkedIn is now the second most likely to be cited in answers across these major AI tools.

And if you're especially concerned about being visible in Google search results, LinkedIn content is more likely to appear there than content from any other source.

(keep this in mind when you're deciding how much of your time to invest in commenting on LinkedIn vs. publishing your own posts or articles / newsletters)

I've found quite a lot of my own content appearing in Google AI search answers, have you?

P.S. the full Semrush results are well worth a look if this is a topic of interest:
https://lnkd.in/eKKZh6JG

Have you heard about the new AI sales assistant LinkedIn is building into Sales Navigator?

I attended a briefing yesterday by LinkedIn's Steve Carroll, who walked us through some of this new tool's functionality.

At the moment, it's in beta and has been rolled out to a selection of enterprise customers. But it's set for far wider roll-out soon.

At the heart of it is the ability to specify the character traits of your ideal clients and the platform will then interpret those requests and hunt for people that match those criteria.

The ability to focus in on people who are active is great (this is not the "posted in the last 30 days" active search on regular Sales Navigator, this is searching for people who've done anything - like update their profile - that would indicate they are active users).

But you can also put in really niche requests (in this example, see how we searched for people who've posted about cats!!)

Once you've set up your criteria (and you can have multiple personas being targeted in different campaigns), the Sales Assistant then serves you up each day a raft of your ideal clients to focus on. Has the potential to be a big time saver, I suspect.

Alongside this, there's also the ability to write AI-powered draft messages for each person you want to approach - which pulls in personalisation not just from that person's LinkedIn activity, but also from external info about the company like recent announcements.

The jury's out on that part of the AI-offering, I would need to test it to know if the resulting drafts are well crafted or read like AI...

The bad news is that there are no plans to offer this to Sales Navigator Core users, only to the middle and upper subscription tiers of SN. That's a pity for lots of SME businesses; here's hoping that LinkedIn has a rethink on that once it's fully rolled out.

What do you make of this? Potentially a big time-saver if you were to get access to it? Love to hear your thoughts.

P.S. Thanks to Alicia Teltz, Sam Rathling and James "JON" Keel for the probing questions to fully understand the new functionality, and to Sergej Pavljuk for organising the call.

A bit of Sunday fun...

See how AI visualises your career journey, just plug in your LinkedIn profile here:
https://journey.snipki.de/

PSA: LinkedIn is experiencing an outage with Cloudflare 500 error messages appearing in place of the site.

If you're on LinkedIn now but your access goes down shortly, this'll be why...

Lots of founders have made one false assumption.
One that ends up costing them business wins:
They assume posting here generates leads.

On my recent LinkedIn bootcamps, one of the big "aha" moments has been the realisation that business wins are triggered by what you do in the DMs, not simply through what you post.

Think of your posting here as a credibility builder.

- Your posts demonstrate your expertise
- People's appreciation of your posts builds your authority
- So when you message someone, they already hold you in high regard

I hear from so many Founders that they're posting pretty consistently, but wondering why there's no regular flow of leads coming in.

It's because they're missing the crucial second step - starting conversations.

Your content smooths the way to having good DM conversations.

Your DM conversations are what move things forward.

But lots of founders have been sold the lie that great posting will win them business - and so don't appreciate that their LinkedIn strategy is missing a key pillar.

P.S. Do you actively use DMs as part of your LinkedIn strategy or just focus on posting? 🤔

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The Battle

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taplio

The Battle

Helen Sanders

Tony Restell

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance Score.css-goub6s{font-size:var(--chakra-fontSizes-md);font-weight:500;color:var(--chakra-colors-gray-600);display:block;margin-top:var(--chakra-space-1);}Helen Sanders's LinkedIn Performance

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