Episode Details

Keith Cline joined LinkedIn on December 8, 2003. He's member number 55,829. Twenty-three years later he has 20,000 followers, and almost nothing he's posted is about him.

He's interviewed the CEO of Klaviyo, the co-founder of Android, and roughly 435 other founders. He built VentureFizz, the front door to Boston tech, out of a Blogger page during a recession because his recruiting business had dried up and he was bored. He hired a developer off Craigslist. Day one, a guy at Novell paid $50 to post a job, and Keith couldn't believe it was real.

Then something happened that he never planned for. Once people knew he ran VentureFizz, the introductions came to him. Investors started referring founders directly. He stopped competing for search work entirely. The side project turned out to be the best business development of his career — and he built the whole thing by promoting everybody except himself.

Justin and Keith get into what reputation looks like when it's built by accumulation instead of by campaign. Why VentureFizz ran eight years as a side hustle and what kept it alive when the revenue didn't justify it. The New York expansion that taught him what he isn't. What separates a real employer brand from a careers page, from a guy who's sold employer branding for seventeen years. And the question at the center of the show: if you've been on LinkedIn for 23 years and have 20,000 followers, are you behind, or is the scoreboard wrong?

If you've been telling yourself you'll start posting once you have something worth saying, this one is the argument for starting anyway.

WHAT YOU'LL LEARN

▸ What "building in public" looked like in 2003, before it was a phrase or a strategy
▸ Why being early to a platform matters less than you'd think in the words of someone who was
▸ How a Blogger page of copy-pasted press releases became a regional tech ecosystem's front door
▸ Why the first $50 mattered more than the money
▸ How a side project became a business development engine that ended competitive bidding
▸ Why Keith promotes everyone but himself, and what seventeen years of that has returned
▸ The difference between reputation and reach, and why founders keep confusing the two
▸ Why the New York expansion failed, and what it taught him about localized audiences
▸ What separates a real employer brand from a careers page, with HubSpot as the case study
▸ How answer engine optimization is rewriting employer branding as job seekers research in ChatGPT
▸ What 437 founder interviews taught him about preparation as a form of respect
▸ The one thing Keith says he's failing at and it's the thing this show is about

CHAPTERS

00:00 Intro
01:32 437 episodes and the consistency problem
04:10 LinkedIn member #55,829
05:19 What LinkedIn actually was in 2003
08:22 "You beat me, I'm 11,263,435"
09:43 Why his feed is about everyone but him
13:09 Boston's momentum shift
18:24 From recruiting in '98 to founding Dissero
20:49 2009: the recession side project
21:48 What version one actually looked like
24:19 The first $50 job post
30:25 Eight years as a side hustle
31:56 What kept it going when nothing was working
34:25 The New York expansion that didn't work
39:48 Quality over quantity: 20,000 connections
42:00 Employer brand vs. a careers page
43:57 How job seekers search now
45:42 Who's doing it best: WHOOP
47:32 What 437 interviews teach you
52:04 Rapid fire
54:30 Where to find Keith

CONNECT WITH KEITH

VentureFizz: https://venturefizz.com
The VentureFizz Podcast: https://venturefizz.com/podcast
LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/keithcline

CONNECT WITH JUSTIN Obey Creative: