Hi, I’m Ryan. I help high performers become founders by using LinkedIn to build real, profitable businesses.

My career didn’t fall apart. I didn’t burn out. I finished every role cleanly - Director, VP - leading hundreds of engineers across the world and helping build multiple billion‑dollar companies.

And still, I knew I wanted to build on my own.

I’ve founded 5 companies and earned multiple exits while scaling teams behind $1B+ in outcomes. I loved the work, but I wanted a life where I could build big things and be present for my family. I wanted ownership. I wanted flexibility. I wanted proof I could do it on my terms.

LinkedIn became the path. I grew from 1,200 to 100,000+ followers in nine months, built a brand that opened doors I didn’t know existed, and stepped fully into my own business.

Since then, I’ve coached 50+ founders to design careers, income streams, and opportunities that match the life they actually want - not the life their company dictates.

Here’s how we work:

- Identify the opportunities you can’t see in your past experience.
- Build a clear, practical brand that attracts the right people.
- Turn your skills into simple offers, real customers, and predictable income.

Today, I own my time. I build, coach, and spend my days with my family - and help others do the same.

If you’re a high performer who wants a business that fits your life, DM me.
Partnerships, speaking, press: ryan@ryanyockey.com

Professional highlights:
• 5× Founder | Multiple exits
• Scaled teams responsible for $1B+ outcomes
• Grew to 100,000+ followers in 9 months
• Coached 50+ founders
• Trusted by leaders at Google, Adobe, Meta

Ryan Yockey

I’ve been watching people for years. The patterns are wild.

The loudest person in the room? Usually compensating.

The flashiest? Probably broke or close to it.

The one who won’t shut up about how smart they are? Not that smart.

Here’s what I’ve noticed about people who actually have it:

The strongest are gentle.
They don’t need to intimidate. Their presence does the work.

The smartest are quiet.
They listen more than they talk. They know they don’t know everything.

The wealthiest are simple.
No logos. No flex. Just compound interest and time freedom.

The happiest are private.
They’re not performing for an audience. They’re living for themselves.

Real power doesn’t need to prove itself.

It just exists.

The person who’s actually built something doesn’t need to tell you about it every five minutes.
Their results speak.

The person who’s actually confident doesn’t need external validation.
They’ve done the internal work.

If you find yourself constantly trying to prove your worth, your intelligence, your success—pause.

Ask yourself who you’re trying to convince.

Because the people who’ve made it?
They stopped performing a long time ago.

They just started building in silence.

That’s what I write about every Saturday. One short note to 135,000+ entrepreneurs who care more about real progress than public applause.

It takes 4 minutes.

And its free: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

No noise.
Just the work.

Actionable strategies to grow your audience, monetize your skills, and build leverage online. | Trusted by leaders at Google, Adobe, Meta

The real luxury isn’t making millions.

And it’s definitely not your internet dream.

It’s easy to confuse money with freedom.

Fast cars.
Big houses.
Screenshots and timelines.

But watch closely.

The people who actually "made it"
optimize for something much quieter.

I control my time.
I can choose when to workout.
I dont have nearly the level of stress I once did.

Slow mornings without guilt.
Rested afternoons whenever I want.
Sleep that isn’t borrowed from tomorrow.

And most importantly:

People you love.
Who love you back.

Money can certainly help create these things and more, theres no denying that.

But chasing money at the expense of them usually destroys the very life you’re trying to build.

I learned this the hard way.

The goal isn’t more.
It’s enough — designed intentionally.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short email to 135,000+ entrepreneurs on building work and lives that don’t collapse under success.

It takes 4 minutes to read.

It’s free. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Slow down.
You’re closer than you think.

I waited longer than I should have.

Not because I didn’t have ideas.
Not because I wasn’t capable.

Because I kept telling myself I needed:
More clarity.
More confidence.
More proof it would work.

I thought I needed a better plan.

I didn’t.

I thought I needed permission to try new things.

I didn't

I thought I needed someone to tell me it was okay to start.

I didn’t.

What I actually needed was to stop questioning myself.

Every meaningful thing I’ve built started the same way:
Messy.
Incomplete.
Uncomfortable.


The people I know who’ve built real businesses didn’t wait for the right time.
They started before it made sense.
They figured it out while delivering.
They gave themselves permission to start.

Most people do the opposite.

They plan.
They ask.
They wait.

Your competition isn’t other people.

It’s your own hesitation.

Stop asking if you’re ready.
Start doing the thing you keep thinking about.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short note to 135,000+ entrepreneurs who stopped waiting and started building.

It takes 4 minutes.

It’s free: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Start sooner than you feel comfortable.

The most valuable skill isn’t productivity.

It’s knowing what matters.

Anyone can work harder.
Anyone can move faster.
Anyone can optimize their calendar.

That’s not the edge.

The edge is knowing what not to do.

Because efficiency on the wrong things is still wasted energy.

I see this constantly.

People obsess over:
• Morning routines
• Task managers
• AI workflows
• Productivity hacks

But they’re applying them to work that doesn’t matter.

So they feel busy.
They feel exhausted.
And they wonder why nothing compounds.

Real leverage comes from clarity.

Knowing:
• Which decisions actually move the needle
• Which problems are worth solving
• Which work creates momentum instead of maintenance

Most professionals don’t need better systems.

They need better filters.

Once you know what matters, productivity becomes obvious.
Until then, it’s just motion.

That’s what I write about every Saturday.

One short email to 135,000+ entrepreneurs on building conviction, making clearer decisions, and designing work you’re proud to stand behind.

It takes 4 minutes to read.

It’s free. Join here: https://lnkd.in/gfyweeTM

Keep building.
The right people notice.

Leveling the data playing field for DTC brands | CEO & Co-Founder at Opensend

Ten years ago we were the handymen behind the scenes - helping data giants like Axiom, Neustar and Sovrn build the targeting machines that power today’s Fortune 500.

I saw all the ins and outs of how these giants operate.

How they turn anonymous web traffic into persistent identities, how they stitch together fragmented journeys, and how they use that data to convert, re-engage and dominate.

Fast forward to now: 

CEO and Co-founder of Opensend, a data company for ecom brands that my co-founder and I bootstrapped from zero to over 1,000+ brands in just 24 months, empowering brands like TrueClassic, OatsOvernight, Benchmade, AlexaderWang, and Rhone to supercharge their retention efforts. 

Our mission?

We want to democratize Fortune 500 marketing data/technology and bring it to the rebels.

We’re transforming how brands retarget and re-engage consumers by turning unknown web traffic into real revenue, across email, SMS, ads and direct mail.

Our platform is built on three core products:

• Connect – Identify and convert engaged visitors
• Reconnect – Track known customers across devices and browsers
• Revive – Get the latest, most active emails for bounced subscribers

Brands spend millions to get traffic to their sites, but most of it goes to waste:

- 95% of site visitors leave without converting.
- Most remain completely anonymous. 
- Traditional tools fail to track users across devices and browsers.

We’re finally changing that. Opensend makes it easy to:

+ Identify and convert engaged visitors.
+ Recognize returning customers across new devices and browsers.
+ Retarget and re-engage with precision across email, ads, direct mail and SMS.

Whether your goal is to scale profitably, reduce CAC or personalize customer journeys at scale, we make enterprise-grade growth tools accessible to the brands rewriting the rules.


Book a demo or send me DM! To learn more about Opensend here:

opensend.com

Francesco Gatti

Failure isn't the opposite of success.

It's the material from which success is created.

We always look at people who've made it and assume the path was smoother than it was.

But zoom in on almost any success story and you'll find the same things:

→ Setbacks that felt like endings
→ Stretches where nothing seemed to move
→ Decisions that only made sense in hindsight

That's not a flaw in the process.

That IS the process.

The problem is, most of us expect progress to be linear.

And when things get messy or slow, it feels like something's wrong, even when it's just the middle of the journey.

I've felt this myself.

Looking back at my own path, all the biggest breakthroughs never came when I expected them to.

They only came after months of feeling like I was going in circles.

Work that seemed wasted at the time turned out to be laying the groundwork for what came next.

I couldn't see it then. 
But I can see it now.

So if you're in one of those stretches right now, where the direction isn't clear and the progress feels invisible, I'd offer this:

You don't need to see the full picture before you move.
You just need to keep moving.

Direction tends to come from doing, not from waiting.

And if you're still going, even when it's slow, even when it's uncertain...

You're probably closer than it feels.


📷 Image credit: Gareth Lloyd

♻️ Share this to inspire someone in your network.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more.

A lot of people overcomplicate learning AI.

But the hard part is just knowing where to start.

You might be searching YouTube, scrolling through courses, buying ebooks you'll never finish...

All while overlooking the simplest path:
Going straight to the source.

OpenAI, Anthropic, Google, Perplexity... they all publish their own guides.

They're free, clear, and often better than anything you'll find elsewhere.

Here are 6 I'd recommend bookmarking:

1️⃣ OpenAI Academy
↳ https://lnkd.in/eaq6Vt59
↳ Short, practical lessons from the team behind ChatGPT.

2️⃣ Perplexity Labs
↳ https://lnkd.in/eSHFdhdA
↳ My go-to when I need to research something quickly.

3️⃣ Claude from A to Z
↳ https://lnkd.in/eFuAmQFv
↳ How to write, plan, and reason with Claude.

4️⃣ Gemini Prompting Guide
↳ https://lnkd.in/ejEWKQJ6
↳ Google's prompting guide. Underrated.

5️⃣ Guide to AI Agents
↳ https://lnkd.in/eX-YgnPb
↳ How to build automations that actually work.

6️⃣ Deep Dive into LLMs
↳ https://lnkd.in/evnadDWG
↳ For understanding what's happening under the hood.

Pick one. Give it 30 minutes.

You'll likely learn more than most paid courses would teach you.

Credit to Paul Evans for compiling these!

♻️ Share this to help others get started with AI.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more.

ChatGPT is useful.

But it's not the only AI tool worth knowing.

Incredible resource from Chris Donnelly - thank you!

No single AI platform does everything best.

They each have strengths.
The key is knowing when to use each one.

Here's a simple way to think about it:

🤖 ChatGPT
Good for general-purpose work.

↳ Writing, brainstorming, quick automation, browsing
↳ Strong plugin ecosystem and memory features
↳ Works well when versatility matters

Use cases:
→ Turning rough notes into cleaner drafts
→ Summarizing a competitor's site
→ Generating first-pass outreach emails

Worth noting:
→ The free tier runs on an older model
→ Outputs still need a human eye

🤖 Gemini
Best for teams already inside Google's ecosystem.

↳ Deeply integrated with Gmail, Docs, and Search
↳ Handles multimodal content well — images, video, audio
↳ Useful for summarizing long threads with attachments

Use cases:
→ Reviewing email chains with files attached
→ Creating drafts that include charts or visuals
→ Async prep before team syncs

Worth noting:
→ Advanced features are behind a paywall
→ Works best when paired with Google Workspace

🤖 Claude
Where depth matters most.

↳ Handles long documents better than most (200k+ tokens)
↳ Strong in technical, legal, and research contexts
↳ Writes in a way that feels more natural

Use cases:
→ Reviewing lengthy contracts and surfacing risks
→ Breaking down dense research into shorter formats
→ Dropping in a script and getting structured code back

Worth noting:
→ No image or audio generation
→ Can lean conservative in tone
→ Not as fast for quick idea generation

The main thing you need to know is that one tool isn't best.

It's matching the tool to the task that makes the ultimate difference.

Full comparison in the sheet below.

♻️ Share this to help someone exploring AI tools.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more on leveraging AI.

How many times have you known exactly what to do...

And still not done it?

Success gets broken down into neat steps all the time.

See the goal, clear the doubt, stay on track...
And honestly, none of it is wrong.

But I've noticed something over the years:

Most people already know what to do.

They've read the books and watched all the videos. 

Knowledge isn't usually the problem.
The hard part is doing the work when you don't feel like it.

🚫 When doubt creeps in.
🚫 When progress slows down.
🚫 When the results you expected don't show up on time.

That's where most people end up stopping.

They didn't forget the steps.

The steps just got too boring. Or uncomfortable. Or both.

I don't think success requires a perfect mindset every day.

I think it requires showing up on the days your mindset is terrible.

Confidence only builds while you're moving.
And clarity only comes when you're doing.

So don't keep yourself in a perpetual state of waiting or planning.

The steps are simple.

Repeating them when no one's watching is the actual work.

Where do you tend to fall off?

♻️ Share this to inspire someone in your network.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more.

Sales gets you started.

Marketing is what builds you a legacy.

Early on, sales is everything.

It brings in money, it proves your offer works, and it keeps the lights on.

But it doesn't add up long-term.
Every result requires another push, or another call.

Marketing works differently.

Done well, it builds something that gives back over time, even when you're not actively working on it.

I think about it like this:

🟡 Sales (short-term)
↳ Fast revenue
↳ Offer validation
↳ Essential early, but hard to scale alone

🟢 Marketing (long-term)
↳ Brand trust and steady demand
↳ Lower acquisition costs over time
↳ Accumulates quietly in the background

If you're thinking about building marketing that lasts, here's where I'd start:

1️⃣ Create content with a longer shelf life
↳ Something useful that continues working while you focus elsewhere.

2️⃣ Know who's visiting your site
↳ Identity tools let you engage visitors before they ever fill out a form.

3️⃣ Automate based on behavior
↳ The right message, at the right moment, without manual effort.

4️⃣ Measure what actually builds
↳ Not just clicks, but retention, referrals, lifetime value.

5️⃣ Own your distribution
↳ Algorithms change. Email lists, SMS, and direct mail don't disappear overnight.

Sales keeps things moving.
Marketing builds the foundation underneath.

Both matter. 

But if you're thinking long-term, marketing is where the leverage lives.

♻️ Share this to help a founder balancing both.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more on ecommerce growth.

HubSpot proved something most B2B brands still don't believe:

Emotion works better than features.

HubSpot's "Spread Too Thin" campaign got me thinking about what actually makes brand work land.

Because this is a great example of one that did.

It launched in October 2024, aimed at marketers drowning in tools and tabs and mounting pressure...

And it really resonated for this reason:

It opens with empathy.

The ad shows what every marketer knows but rarely admits: 
The chaos, the overload, the feeling of being pulled in twelve directions at once.

You see it, and you feel it.

Then the shift happens.

Chaos → Calm.
Scattered → Controlled.

The contrast makes it stand out.

HubSpot doesn't rattle off features or make technical promises.
Instead, they communicate one clear idea:

"You're doing too much. We simplify it."

That's positioning, stripped down.
The creative execution amplifies it.

A marketer literally stretched thin. Humor. Visual metaphor.

These aren't just aesthetic choices., 
But ones that make the message memorable.

In a space crowded with generic software demos,
This stands apart because it reflects human experience first, product second.

The reach supports this.

The YouTube version pulled in roughly 10 million views, according to the platform data.

So what's worth borrowing here?

→ Start with real frustration.
When your audience sees themselves in the story, they pay attention.

→ Show the transformation, not just the tool.
Before and after matters more than bullet points.

→ Don't underestimate emotion in B2B.
Visual metaphors and humor create stickiness, even in serious categories.

→ One clear message beats a feature list every time.
Simplicity cuts through. Complexity buries.

→ Watch the metrics that matter.
10M+ views signals resonance, not just distribution.

Strong brand work mirrors what the customer already feels, then positions the solution as the natural response.

HubSpot nailed that here.

Did you also find this ad particularly effective?

♻️ Share this to help marketers in your network.
Follow me, Francesco Gatti, for more.

taplio

The Battle

Ryan Yockey

Francesco Gatti

Followers

Posts

Engagements

Likes

Performance ScoreRyan Yockey's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreFrancesco Gatti's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

taplio

The Battle

Ryan Yockey

Francesco Gatti

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);}Ryan Yockey's LinkedIn Performance

Performance ScoreFrancesco Gatti's LinkedIn Performance

Ready to grow your LinkedIn presence?

Performance ScoreRyan Yockey's LinkedIn Performance