LinkedIn was built for résumés.
Launchpad is built for representation.

LinkedIn launched in 2003. Indeed launched in 2004. Both were built by employers, for employers, in a labor market where job postings still ran in newspapers and a résumé was a physical object you mailed somewhere. The infrastructure was a meaningful upgrade over what came before. For its time, it was the right answer.

The market it was built for no longer exists. The young professional of 2026 sends 87 applications to get one interview. The median time from final exam to first full-time offer is 5.2 months — up from 6.4 weeks in 2014. 80% of young professionals report feeling "unrepresented" in their own job search. The funnel has collapsed.

The funnel collapsed because the platforms aren't built around the human at the center of the career. They're built around the employer who needs scale. LinkedIn's customer is the recruiter; talent is the product. Indeed's customer is the employer paying for the posting; talent is the inventory. Neither business model can be aligned with the candidate's outcome, because the candidate isn't paying.

The representation gap.

In every high-stakes, high-information-asymmetry market that involves a human at the center, the market has produced an agent class. Athletes have agents. The reason a 22-year-old basketball player doesn't walk into the Lakers' front office with a résumé is because the industry decided 60 years ago that the talent deserves representation. Entertainers have agents. Authors. Musicians. Filmmakers. Voice actors. Newscasters. Real estate buyers. Anyone closing a deal worth multi-six-figures.

Young professionals had job boards. The structural reason: knowledge work didn't used to be a high-stakes, high-variance, high-information-asymmetry market. Then it became one. Compensation variance for the same role across companies is now ~3×. The wrong first job vs. the right one is a difference of $200K-$2M in lifetime earnings. The information asymmetry between what an entry-level candidate knows and what the hiring company knows is now larger than the asymmetry between a 22-year-old NBA prospect and the team that drafts him.

Every condition that produced an agent class in other industries is now true in knowledge work. The agent class hasn't been invented yet. That's the gap. That's the business.

What we measured.

This isn't an opinion. It's a measurement. Launchpad's longitudinal data across 480 placements (2014-2024), backstopped by public LinkedIn and Indeed market data:

52 days vs. 5.2 months. Represented candidates close in 52 days median; direct-application candidates close in 5.2 months. 3.0× faster.

6:1 vs. 87:1. Represented candidates submit 6 applications per interview; direct candidates submit 87. 14.5× better.

78% vs. 14%. Represented candidates' offer close rate is 78%; direct candidates' is roughly 14%. 5.6× better.

+27% net comp. Realized compensation on placements is 27% higher than estimated self-negotiated comp at the same companies. Same tier. Better terms.

The methodology behind these numbers is published openly in Vol II of Launchpad Research. The market data is in Vol III Q2 2026. The case can be replicated, critiqued, or contributed to. CC BY 4.0.

What we are building.

Launchpad is what a talent agency looks like when you design it around the human at the center of the career — not around the employer who needs scale.

The agency is $0 out of pocket for the candidate. Employers pay placement fees. The candidate is the client; the employer is the customer. The alignment vector is fixed at the model level. The agent only earns when the client lands a role they accept and stay in. Subscription career coaches have no skin in the outcome. Recruiters have skin in any outcome that closes. Launchpad agents have skin in the right outcome — the one the client says yes to and stays in.

The agency holds a 1:12 agent-to-client ratio as a methodology floor, not a scaling target. Below 8 clients per agent, the unit economics break. Above 16, close rate falls from 78% to 51%. An agency that scales beyond 1:12 stops being an agency and starts being a recruiter. Launchpad holds the line.

Three free tools sit on top of the agency — the Career Path Engine, the Market Value Calculator, and Agent Match. They replace what an accelerator interview used to do. They are free because the candidate is the client; the tools are the front door.

What this isn't.

This isn't an attack on LinkedIn or Indeed. The platforms are infrastructure that hundreds of millions of people use every day, and many of them — including most of the people Launchpad places — still use them. The platforms aren't bad; they're just structurally limited. They were built to do what they do, and they do it. They were never designed to answer the question "who represents me?" — because the question wasn't being asked in 2003.

The question is being asked now. Launchpad exists to answer it.

The invitation.

If you're a young professional reading this, you have three things you can do in the next ten minutes, completely free.

Map your trajectory with the Career Path Engine. Anchor your market value with the Market Value Calculator. Find your agent with Agent Match. All three are free. The output is yours to keep. None of them require representation — they exist whether or not you decide to apply to Launchpad afterward.

If after using all three you decide to apply to Launchpad, the application takes 8 minutes. The acceptance rate is ~14%. The placement fee comes from the employer. You pay $0 out of pocket. If you decide LinkedIn and Indeed are still the right setup for your career, that's fine too. The Lab will have made your self-directed job search measurably better either way.

— Ali Sina, June 2026