The Dating App That Built LinkedIn

Estimated Reading Time: 3 minutes

🌟 Editor's Note:

Welcome to Behind the Books! A 3-minute read with stories, tools, and lessons from real companies—what worked, what didn’t, and what founders can learn.

💻 The Story:

LinkedIn started as a dating app. No, really.

Before LinkedIn, there was… SocialNet.

A startup so early, even the internet wasn’t ready.

Reid Hoffman, the guy who would later co-found LinkedIn launched SocialNet in the late ’90s. It was a dating platform based on shared interests.

Sounds smart. It wasn’t.

SocialNet flopped. Users didn’t get it. The tech couldn’t keep up. And it solved a problem no one really had yet.

But Reid didn’t just move on. He studied it.

He saw how people interacted in networks like what clicked, what didn’t, and what totally broke under pressure.

So for his next act, he narrowed the scope:

→ Forget dating. → Focus on professionals. → Build a real network, not just a site.

In 2002, LinkedIn was born.

But the early days were slow. Like… fake-it-til-you-make-it slow.

→ They manually invited users. → Faked engagement. → Seeded the platform with ghost activity.

By 2004, they hit 1M users.

By 2011, IPO.

Not bad for a “failed” founder.

The Lesson:

Sometimes your first idea bombs.

That’s fine. Let it.

If you’re paying attention, the second one might just change your life.

From Behind the Books:

Your first shot doesn’t need to be the final one. It just needs to be a teacher.

Your weekly prompt:

What’s one “failed” project that actually taught you how to win?

Write it down. Keep it close.

That’s your leverage.

See you next Friday,

– Yan

P.S. Know a founder who’s stuck after a flop? Forward this. They might be closer than they think.