By Braam Pretoriuis
You know you’ve made it when a Founder from Dubai, a School Teacher from Navarra, a Salesperson from Fujitsu, and someone from Heineken Beverages all check out your LinkedIn profile… in the same week.
Now, this could mean one of two things:
- You’re on the verge of being headhunted for a hospitality-tech-education-beer hybrid startup.
- Or... it’s nearly the end of the quarter, and they’re all subtly checking whether you’re still alive and kicking, because their KPIs say, “engage with five profiles before Friday”.
LinkedIn is a strange beast. It’s not Facebook, where your aunt shares blurry birthday cakes. It’s not TikTok, where people dance their way to brand deals. And it’s definitely not X (the platform formerly known as Twitter, now having an identity crisis bigger than most startups).
No, LinkedIn is where people wear suits in their profile pics, post holiday photos with hashtags like #Grateful #Blessed #WorkLifeBalance, and humblebrag about running marathons and quarterly reviews, in the same sentence.
But every now and then, the curtain slips.
You see someone from that one meeting three years ago quietly visiting your profile. No message. No connection request. Just a silent “Hi, I’m still watching you.”
And you know what? That’s okay.
We all stalk on LinkedIn. It’s the polite way of saying “I’m mildly interested in your career, but not enough to send a DM.” It’s digital birdwatching. And some days, it’s oddly comforting to know that someone, somewhere, with a Heineken in hand, thought, “I wonder what Braam’s up to…”
So, here’s a cheers to the silent scrollers, the curious competitors, and the sales reps hitting their view quotas.
I see you. You see me. Let’s all pretend we’re just doing market research.
Until next time, stay visible, stay curious, and don’t forget to update your profile pic before December 2025.
PS: If you’re the Founder from the Dubai Hospitality Industry, drop me a note. I make a mean cup of moerkoffie. :-)