linkedin ceo shares his secret to success

Recently, Eric Kuhn ’09 caught up with Dan Nye, a member of the Hamilton class of 1988 and CEO of the social networking website, LinkedIn, to ask about his keys for success after college.

Eric Kuhn: Let's start with a definition. What is LinkedIn?

Dan Nye: The world's largest professional network. Our mission is to make the world's interconnected workforce more productive.

Was that what the site has always been doing, or has it evolved?

It has most certainly evolved. LinkedIn was started four and a half years ago. It was a concept. People were asked to invite others to join. They did that. The number of the people in the network grew. The functionality of the site improved. Now users of LinkedIn are seeing the true value of it as a productivity tool. We have seen the network growth accelerating to where we are now adding over a million members every month and just passed the 16 million mile stone.

Have you seen real-life interactions, networking that might have happened five years ago, change because of your site?

Absolutely. We hear stories every day about people finding the power of LinkedIn. Some examples will be small business owners who acquire major accounts entirely through LinkedIn. We hear about people who find the perfect job all on LinkedIn. We hear about employers who did reference checks and worked their network in order to identify truly exceptional people who made a huge difference. We have heard about investment firms who have acquired clients where they have brought in millions of dollars in to that client because they were recommended on LinkedIn. We've heard people who go out and ask a question onto LinkedIn Answers and get great advice and end up making a very different decision because of the advice they received. We hear tons of stories about people who build real relationships but have never actually met each other. All they see is their photo, but it started when someone asked a question on LinkedIn Answers, someone else provided a response, they ended up in an e-mail thread off line, they might have had a phone call, created a LinkedIn connection and next thing you know they are helping each other through the LinkedIn network and they develop a very genuine and real relationship even though they live on other sides of the world. LinkedIn is changing the world and is allowing people to be far more efficient and productive.

How many people do you have working for you now, who you hired through LinkedIn?

I would estimate that we have found about 50% of our employees by posting a job opening on LinkedIn or by leveraging our own LinkedIn networks. We probably used LinkedIn close to 100% of the time to reference check and validate that we had found the right person. Of course, we passed on many more candidates than we hired.

Are there unwritten rules for people using LinkedIn?

This is a whole new service so there are social nuances and there are new rules. It is important that anytime you conduct a reference check you do not put a candidate in an uncomfortable or awkward position. So when you can see that two people worked together in the same place a number of years ago, it is probably fine to reach out and ask that individual about the candidate or person you are talking to. But if you see that two people work together and you happen to share a connection, you need to be careful to reference check that person so as to not jeopardize her current employment situation.

Another social nuance is trying to figure out when to send an invitation to connect, when to accept an invitation to connect, and when to decline or archive an invitation. It's similar to the early days of email when everyone was figuring out how to use such a powerful and different tool.

Have you been surprised to find someone in particular on the site? Like, "Holy cow, President Bush is on LinkedIn looking for his next gig!" or something crazy?

LinkedIn is becoming so common that it is almost surprising when people are not on LinkedIn as opposed to being surprised that they are on it. Often, when I see that someone is on LinkedIn I can evaluate how active are they – how complete their profile is, how many connections they have, how well they have embraced it. There is no doubt that LinkedIn is an invaluable business tool that is becoming more powerful as the service matures. The people who see that, who figure it out and embrace it, tend to be some of the more forward thinking people. People who I would bet on!

According to your LinkedIn page you have been with the company for 10 months. What brought you there?

There were two big reasons. One is I believe the service really matters to the world and we are creating something that is incredibly valuable and will be more and more valuable every day to every professional around the world. We are creating something very useful that is changing the world. I was personally inspired by have the chance to participate in creating a service that will ultimately have over 100 million members spread to over 200 countries. It is exciting to work on something that is such a big idea. The second reason is I was really excited in the company itself. The company was very young, with excellent investors, really great people and an astounding founder in Reid Hoffman. When I thought about having the opportunity to take a company from 60 employees to thousands of employees, with such high quality people running together on such an inspiring concept, I knew it would provide a great challenge and opportunity to build the company the right way from the ground up.

Reid Hoffman said you are among "the best organizational builders and leaders." What do you think is the key to your success?

I have learned, through 20 years in the work force, how to approach problems, select people and build processes in an effective way. I attribute that learning to the people I have been surrounded by, the schools I attended, and the companies where I worked (particularly Procter & Gamble, Intuit and Advent Software). I had the great pleasure for working for some amazing people and they taught me some incredibly valuable principles…one, set the highest standards possible. Only hire people who you think have the ability to be the very best in the world at what they do. Two, maintain a customer focus. Put processes in place and create an organization that goes out and actively listen to its customers, or users, to understand how you can solve problems for them in a better and better way to make sure you are always in touch with what they need, so you are the first one to provide that to them. Three, put a premium on critical thinking and strong analytic and strategic thinking skills, so that you are working with really bright people in ways where you are always learning and growing. Four, maintain humility. Always be open to critical feedback from anybody, anywhere. Be very self reflective and always search for ways you can improve. No matter how successful LinkedIn becomes I will never think that we are great at what we do. We must always push ourselves to improve. Five, teamwork – make sure that everybody is pulling in the same direction, sincerely cares about each other and is willing to go beyond their job definitions to make sure the company will succeed. The last is clarity and communication. Make sure you do your homework and think through issues well enough to find eloquently simply solutions. Then communicate clearly, broadly and persuasively. Those would be some examples.

How has Hamilton prepared you for what you are doing now?

Let me start by saying I applied early decision to Hamilton. It was the perfect place for me and if I were to be back to that stage of my life, I would go back to Hamilton. That is quite an endorsement. Hamilton provided a whole bunch of experiences and training that I have been able to apply throughout my life. One was the development of critical thinking skills. Of course, this training was developed through many different methods. It is all about taking a challenge or problem and breaking it down into clear parts. The second is clear communication. Making sure that once you understand the problem, you can articulate yourself in a clear and persuasive way. I think Hamilton does a really great job at helping people develop rigger and discipline in the both of these areas, particularly with communication. Those two skills are incredibly powerful in and of themselves. The third thing Hamilton gave me was leadership opportunities. When I was on campus I had the opportunity to be a co-captain of the lacrosse team (with Steve Johnson and Pete Haeffner). I also served as the president of the DU fraternity and the Chair of the Senior Gift Campaign. These experiences gave me great opportunities to develop leadership skills. The fourth thing I would attribute Hamilton to is helping me get my first job at a truly world class company – Procter & Gamble – which I got through the Hamilton College Career center. At P&G, I was surrounded by exceptionally talented people who challenged me and invested in me. My first boss was a Hamilton graduate named Tom Finn (class of 1984) who is now President of Procter & Gamble Health Care. He is an amazing person, a great teacher and had a huge influence on my career development. Of course, I also have to acknowledge the great teachers and coaches I had, such as Professors Ted Eismieir, Frank Anechiarico, Vince Auger and the recently appointed AD, John Hind who was a lacrosse coach when I was on the Hill. Finally, I would be remiss not to acknowledge that I met my wife at Hamilton, attended Hamilton with my brother John and developed friendships that have lasted decades. Yes, I guess you could say, Hamilton had a big impact on me.

You were a government major and are now leading a technology company.

Yup, my plan at Hamilton had been to go to Washington and get involved in the political world. I spent the summer between my sophomore and junior year on Capital Hill as a congressional intern for Les Aspin and I spent the summer between my junior and senior year summer working in New Hampshire for the Dukakus for President campaign. Through those experiences I came to the conclusion that the political world was not what I wanted to do. There was no comparison when I compared the skills I would develop in Washington to those that I would develop at Procter & Gamble. P&G made it very clear that they would challenge me, coach me and invest in me. I did not know that I was excited about technology until I went to Harvard Business School where I found my passion. I came to the realization that I needed to work in high tech because it provided a chance to work in an industry that is changing the world and moves at a really fast pace. Of course, the pace has only accelerated since then. I spent the summer working at Dell Computer and came out to Silicon Valley just before the Internet boom that started in the mid 1990's.

Your most favorite Hamilton memory?

Getting married in the Hamilton Chapel.

Cute, but how about when you were a student?

I was purchased as part of "Rent a DU for a day." We ran an auction to raise money for philanthropy. So we did an auction in Commons and I was purchased for a couple hundred bucks and then had to do chores for the people who purchased me for a 24-hour period. That was pretty memorable. Of course, there are a lot of memories that I probably should not say!

When you were at the equivalent of a Bundy party, could you ever imagine this is what you were doing now?

I certainly didn't know that I was going to be working in Silicon Valley and leading a Web 2.0 company. That would have been impossible as there wasn't a World Wide Web at that time. That said, I had a strong belief that life was an exciting adventure, smart risks were worth taking and I wanted to develop my leadership skills. It certainly wasn't predictable but in hindsight, it was all logical.

The average age of a member in LinkedIn is 40.2 years. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg is 23 years old. What keeps you in touch with a younger generation and how do you attract someone still in college, to your site?

LinkedIn needs to make sure it understands what the needs are of the current and recent graduates of colleges and universities. Through that understanding – developed from qualitative and quantitative research methods – we will make our network more inviting to that age group. We are not trying to compete with Facebook. We are staying focused on building the world's most valuable professional network. As people graduate from college and think about their careers and professional image, they see that LinkedIn is a very valuable service to join. That does not mean they need to discontinue using Facebook, it just means they understand the power of LinkedIn for advancing their professional lives.

When you talk to my generation, what do you find most surprising about what we want in the job search?

The most surprising thing is that the younger generation does not understand how significant their professional networks actually are. They don't realize that they have very valuable professional networks already in place. Those are available through the connections they have and the people who are willing to open doors for them. Let's use Hamilton College as an example. Since Hamilton alumni care so deeply about the college, most Hamilton alums will open a door for any Hamilton graduate or current student. When a recent graduate of Hamilton can tap into a network like that and immediately connect to thousands of other Hamilton graduates, they are leveraging political capital built through the common bonds of a special institution and shared experience. I guarantee that the students who effectively leverage that asset will have doors opened and opportunities created that they had no idea were available to them.

The second surprising thing is that many recent graduates don't appreciate the importance of building and maintaining their professional brand on the Internet. Many people's names will show up when someone does a Google search on their name, and sometimes it is not flattering. If you have been pegged to a photo at a keg party and that is the image that shows up, that is probably not going to help you in your search for the perfect job or in advancing your career. With LinkedIn you control your own professional image and we enable you to have a public profile so when a Google search is done, your LinkedIn profile shows up under your name. It is your representation of who you are in a professional context. So the second point is current and recent graduates need to understand that in this world of open and available information, there are tools available – liked LinkedIn – to leverage and present yourself in a professional way. The other thing is LinkedIn is full of great job opportunities and it allows you to find people who have worked at the hiring companies so you can check to make sure it is the right place for you. Of course there are lots of people who use LinkedIn to find candidates for positions. So, even if you are you with modest experience, it is important to have a rich profile to enable recruiters or managers to find you.

What is next for LinkedIn?

The network growth is continuing to accelerate. We recently announced that we embraced Google's OpenSocial API platform. We are allowing third parties to develop functionalities to run inside LinkedIn. We are also building APIs that allow people to access their LinkedIn network when they are in other places, such as using a mobile phone or a product like SalesForce.com or other CRM systems. Those are pretty significant. We are also in the process of making LinkedIn available in foreign languages. We have seen tremendous growth and have hit critical mass in many parts of the world. We know there is a demand for the service and it will accelerate when we make it available in the local language.

For a freshman now reading this, what is your advice to them?

Appreciate the privilege, honor and opportunity of being able to attend a college like Hamilton. Apply yourself to get the most out of it. Have faith that if you apply yourself, build strong relationships and develop your critical thinking and communications skills, you will be setting yourself up for great professional opportunities, no matter what field you pursue. Finally, I'll suggest that you join LinkedIn early to start building your professional network. It is an asset that is larger than you realize.