[gwintrob]

Thanks for writing, Morgan. It's thorough and I appreciate all the citations.

You point out that LinkedIn was able to prevent spam in the beginning through trusted referrals. I definitely receive unsolicited messages and see some clearly fake group members. Did you find any more recent examples where the company cracked down on spam even if it sacrificed growth?

[morganb180]

I didn't, and to be honest, after going through 10+ years of interviews and articles to find the growth nuggets, I wasn't exactly looking for them.

One thing, that I mentioned in the follow up comment, is that much of the early growth was built by Josh Elman, Reid, Keith Rabois, and then later Adam Nash and Elliot Shmukler. All of those people are now gone.

As LinkedIn looks to continue its growth, it will be interesting to see how the company responds to a massive talent turnover on the growth team, and whether they can 1) keep it going, and 2) balance growth with user experience and value so that it doesn't continue to alienate users.