2,600 characters · most founders waste all of them
Your About section is a landing page, not a memoir.
Published July 10, 2026
TL;DR
Five parts, in order: a three-line hook that survives the "see more" fold, who you help, proof, how working with you goes, one next step. First person, short paragraphs, written to the buyer about their problem. Check how yours reads to a stranger with the free 8-Second Test.
Nobody opens LinkedIn hoping to read an autobiography. When a buyer clicks your profile, they've got a question burning a hole in their attention: "can this person solve my problem?" Most founder About sections (LinkedIn's own name for the summary section; if you came looking for summary examples, there's a full examples file) answer a different question nobody asked: "what is the chronological story of my career?"
That mismatch is why the section underperforms. The fix isn't better writing, it's a different genre. Stop writing memoir. Start writing landing page.
The fold: three lines decide everything
LinkedIn shows roughly the first three lines, then hides the rest behind "see more." Most visitors never click. So those three lines are your headline's second chance, not your childhood's opening chapter.
The 5-part structure
1. The hook (lines 1-3)
Name the reader's problem or make a claim they'd argue with. You're buying the "see more" click, nothing else.
2. Who you help, precisely
"B2B SaaS founders between $1M and $10M ARR" beats "businesses of all sizes." Precision repels the wrong readers, which is the point. The wrong readers were never going to buy; the right ones now feel seen.
3. Proof, stacked tight
Numbers, named client types, outcomes. Three lines maximum. "We've placed 214 senior engineers with a 92% one-year retention rate" does more than four paragraphs of philosophy. No numbers yet? Use specificity: the exact problem you solved last quarter is proof too.
4. How working with you goes
Two or three lines that de-risk the next step. What happens first, how fast, what it costs if you're comfortable saying. This is the part almost everyone skips, and it's where buyers quietly decide you're safe.
5. One next step
One. "DM me 'audit' and I'll review your funnel this week" beats a list of every way to reach you. A landing page without a button is a poster.
Voice rules
- No third person. "Jane is a visionary leader" reads like a press release written by Jane. Everyone knows. First person or nothing.
- No adjective stacking. "Passionate, driven, innovative" are claims. The reader wants receipts.
- No wall of text. Two-to-three-line paragraphs. This gets read on phones, in elevators.
- No jargon armor. If your mom can't tell what you sell, neither can a buyer skimming at speed. Technical founders: this is the translating-depth problem, and it's solvable without dumbing down.
Keywords, quietly
Your About text is indexed by LinkedIn search and read as context by the ranking system deciding who sees your posts. Weave in the terms buyers search ("SaaS onboarding," "technical recruiting," "fractional CFO") naturally, in sentences that would survive without them. Keyword salads read as desperation to humans and add nothing with the machines.
The composite check
The About never performs alone. It confirms (or contradicts) what your headline promised and hands off to the proof pinned in your Featured section. When those three disagree, buyers trust none of them, a failure pattern common enough that it made my list of trust-killing profile mistakes. Run the 10-minute audit after any rewrite to catch the mismatches, and see 7 summary examples for full sections built on this structure.
Free · two minutes · no login
Find out if your About survives an 8-second skim
The 8-Second Test reads your About the way a buyer does: fast, impatient, and next to your photo, banner, and headline. You get a blunt verdict and specific rewrites to make first.