A Position Has Opened Up

By her third date with Richard, Maya had stopped checking the careers page.

She had been checking it for four months. The company was exactly where she wanted to work, and she had done everything she could to make that clear. She tailored her résumé, wrote to a recruiter, and asked a former classmate whether he knew anyone there. The recruiter sent a polite response about keeping her details on file. Her classmate sent a link to the careers page.

Richard was more encouraging. He thought someone with her background could be useful. He would ask around on Monday.

Maya was twenty-five and trying to begin a career in marketing. Richard was fifty-six, ran a division at the company, and had recently begun putting more effort into his weekends. They met on LinkMyDaddy, a dating platform connecting young adults struggling to find work with older, successful people interested in younger partners. Her profile mentioned photography, bad horror movies, and wanting to do something creative. His mentioned travel, cooking, and the division.

Their first dinner went well. Richard asked questions and listened to the answers. Maya found him funny, and it was refreshing to spend an evening with someone whose explanation of what he did for a living was reasonably settled. When he asked about her job search, she described the applications, the interviews, and the junior positions that seemed to require having held a senior position somewhere else. He said the market was difficult. She had heard this before. Then he asked her to send him her work.

On Monday, someone opened the attachment.

We believe that moment explains the business better than a market-sizing slide. Maya’s portfolio had not changed over the weekend. Her qualifications were the same ones she had entered into the application form. What changed was that someone with influence now had a particular interest in her doing well. Her work reached a person who could assess it, accompanied by a recommendation from someone they already knew.

For young people trying to get started in a difficult economy, that is a meaningful advantage. They have been told to build relationships, find a mentor, and get someone senior to take an interest in them. LinkMyDaddy brings these possibilities into a setting where the senior person has also made an effort with his shirt.

Richard, meanwhile, had something he wanted too. He liked Maya. He liked that she had opinions about things he had stopped paying attention to. He liked receiving a message from her that had nothing to do with the quarter. Making an introduction was something he could do easily, and he was pleased that it mattered. When she thanked him, he suggested they celebrate if it led anywhere. He had already thought of a restaurant.

Maya got an interview. She prepared carefully, presented her work, and received an offer. Richard insisted that she had earned it herself. She agreed that she had done well.

The following week, a colleague asked Richard whether the team was hiring.

“Not generally,” he said.

Our investment in LinkMyDaddy begins with that distinction. A closed hiring process can still contain people willing to make an introduction, reconsider a candidate, or find room for someone promising. Meanwhile, those same people may be looking for a relationship with someone they have yet to meet. LinkMyDaddy gives both sides a reason to take an interest. We believe the team understands how attraction, ambition, and the desire to be useful can bring people together.

What gives us conviction is that both members have a reason to value the introduction. Maya met someone who took her ambitions seriously and could help her act on them. Richard met someone he wanted to see again. The company’s task is to make those matches consistently worthwhile, across different interests, professions, and expectations. We’re proud to back LinkMyDaddy as it builds a business around relationships that its members have good reasons to pursue.