LinkedIn Wisdom #1
The "Kitchen Table Test"
The "Kitchen Table Test" - why every startup's most critical hiring decision happens at home, not in your office...
Last year, my heart sank when I got the Sunday night call: "I need to back out. My wife is concerned about the startup risk. We have two kids, a mortgage..."
6 months of recruiting, gone. Until I remembered: You're not just hiring the person. You're getting buy-in from their whole family.
One last shot – dinner at my house. Both partners. Over homemade pasta, we talked about everything: the risks, the vision, the real story. His wife asked the hard questions about burnout and failure that no one else dared to. By dessert, she wasn't just supportive – she was excited. Today, he's one of our strongest leaders, and his wife has become our biggest advocate in the tech community.
The Kitchen Table Test is simple: Would your startup's story hold up when your senior hire explains it to their partner at home? Because that's where the real decision happens – not in your boardroom, but at their kitchen table.
Our new playbook:
- Final round = dinner with partners. No agenda, just connection.
- Radical transparency about risks AND opportunities.
- Share the mission as a story, not a pitch.
- Keep partners in the loop post-hire.
The results? 95% retention rate for senior hires over 2 years (vs industry's 50%).
In startups, personal and professional blur. Embrace it. Pass the Kitchen Table Test, and you're not just hiring talent – you're building a family alliance.
What's your take on this? Has your startup passed the Kitchen Table Test?
#KitchenTableTest #StartupLife #Leadership #Hiring
The "Activation Rule"
Meet "The Activation Energy Rule" - why the best ideas often die before they reach your audience...
Last month, I was staring at an incredible insight from our Head of Engineering. A game-changing perspective on technical hiring that could help hundreds of founders.
But it sat in our drafts. Why?
"This is solid gold, but I can't post it. The format feels too..." he trailed off.
That's when it hit me: Ideas have an activation energy barrier. Just like chemical reactions need a catalyst, great insights need the right format to spread.
Yes, LinkedIn's style can feel formulaic:
- The dramatic hooks
- The white space
- The personal stories
- The "Agree?" at the end
But here's the data: When we adapted our content to the platform's "activation energy requirements," our reach went from 200 likes to 200,000 views. More importantly, our ideas actually reached the founders who needed them.
Sometimes innovation isn't about fighting the medium – it's about respecting the activation energy required to make your ideas spread.
That engineering insight? Once we rewrote it in LinkedIn's native language, it helped dozens of startups improve their hiring. The format felt uncomfortable, but the impact was worth it.
Lower the activation energy, spread better ideas.
What valuable insights are you sitting on because the format feels wrong?
#ActivationEnergy #ContentStrategy #Leadership