Gabriel (Gabe) Diop

I would like to start off by saying THANK YOU to LinkedIn! It’s not an easy place to leave. Working two internships in recruiting and sales, I realized the power of LinkedIn. This realization led me to LinkedIn’s Business Leadership Program (BLP). They recruited at Harvard and a friend of mine had completed the program. After speaking with her regarding BLP and LinkedIn overall, it was a clear top choice of mine. I wanted a long sales career, but I also wanted a rotational program because I thought that would best prepare me for success in sales. When interviewing, I asked everyone what makes LinkedIn great and what keeps you here. Everyone kept repeating “the people.” In true sales fashion, I pushed back and dug deeper, asking, “I keep hearing this, but what do you really mean by that?” I vividly remember one of my interviewers saying, “The same people I work with everyday are the same people I grab a drink with after work and watch sports games with on the weekends.” I soon found out how right they were! I spent July 4th with two colleagues and one of their families sailing from Cape Cod to Nantucket, spent three separate weekends in Tahoe with other colleagues, went to a few Giants games with my team, spent most weekends with co-workers, and had a going away party at my house with over 40 co-workers in attendance. I am not only leaving my first real job, but also many of my best friends.

Why I Should Stay...

The free delicious food, phone bill reimbursement, free health & dental insurance, a more than generous 401(k) plan, free public transportation, weekly happy hours, free yearly trip to Vegas, Equinox gym reimbursement, and the 17th floor outdoor patio overlooking AT&T Park and The Bay were surprisingly easy to give up. As great as all these things are, they are simply benefits. What’s hard to give up is the fact that I still 100% believe in LinkedIn’s mission to connect the world's professionals to make them more productive and successful and the company’s vision to create economic opportunity for every member of the global workforce. What’s even harder for me to give up is the people. I thought I would be spending at least 5-7 years at LinkedIn. I had my eyes set on climbing to be an Enterprise sales rep, gaining international experience in a place like Australia, and then obtaining sales management experience all at one of the best tech companies in the world.

I was well on my way to having a successful LinkedIn career. During my recruiting rotation, where we were not held to any metrics, I would sometimes come into the office at 6am to talk to East Coast candidates. I welcomed five Enterprise sales professionals into LinkedIn. It’s a pretty cool feeling to be 22 years old and receive the following message from a sales guy who has overachieved quota for more than a decade, “All this happened because of you. I want to thank you for your support and I will be very happy to meet you in person when I am in San Francisco.” Moving on to my Enterprise Services rotation, I solved 161 cases for our customers. It was great to be a problem solver and practice what LinkedIn constantly preaches, “Our members come first.” With my recruiting and customer support rotations under my belt, I was well prepared to begin my sales development role.

Fortunate to get my number one choice, the Sales Solutions team, I pushed the boundaries of what a sales development role entails. I had a true passion for what I was selling and hoped to become an Enterprise rep in record time. As an example, I paid $400 out of pocket to fly down to a client visit to join one of my account executives. Even though my compensation is based only on scheduling an introductory call, I wanted to gain the experience of a face-to-face meeting and help bring in a deal for the business. This trip led to a deal closing and then an upsell within a month. For another account, I saw it through the negotiation stage, and it closed for over $20k. This included over 25 InMail messages, 10 emails, 20 phone calls, and a Friday evening back and forth with our customer service and billing teams. These are memories and skills I will never forget--and there is no doubt I would have learned many more valuable skills from the talented people I worked with at LinkedIn.

Why I’m Leaving...

First and foremost it is because of Taylor Offer . I first met Taylor while in corporate housing the weekend before we started at LinkedIn. We then became desk buddies sitting next to each other during our first recruiting rotation. He joined Equinox to play basketball, and I soon joined to play with him. This is where our friendship and symbiotic relationship really began to grow.

He is a scorer and one of the best players on the court. I’m a rebounder, defender, and hustler. Whenever I grabbed a rebound, I immediately looked for Taylor. The way we compliment each other on the court, holds true in our business relationship as well. He is the master of social media and as much as I love my Snapchat stories, all I want to do is focus on selling.

I always knew I would end up at a startup. My major requirement was that I needed to know the owner and fully believe in him or her. The passion Taylor had for his socks and the hard work he put into launching it off the ground caught my attention from day one. This reminded me of my experiences as an Uber driver and Dorm Crew Captain. I got addicted to driving Uber for two weeks as I loved the feeling of picking someone up from their night shift and bringing them home safely. When I was cleaning a dorm of my Harvard peers, I loved the feeling of turning a typical college room after a year of use into a room ready for an alumni reunion. You don’t need revolutionary technology or a fancy banking title to have grit and passion.

Great, I believed in a friend, but what about socks? Each month, LinkedIn gives employees a day to focus on themselves, the company, and the world. During one InDay with the theme of giving back to the community, I had the pleasure of joining a small group of my colleagues as well as the SVP of Sales Solutions. Each of us had a $200 gift card. We walked into a nearby shelter and our SVP asked what would be most valuable to bring back. I can still hear the guy today saying, “socks and underwear.” Well, we returned with roughly $1,000 worth of socks. Doing my research, I learned that FEAT Socks has donated thousands of socks in its young existence. One place that has benefited is the Charlestown Boys & Girls Club in Massachusetts. Is it a coincidence that this is where I played basketball for a few years growing up? Suit Up Springfield is another organization FEAT supports. Is it a coincidence that this is just miles away from where my 3 cousins grew up and unfortunately where my uncle overdosed?

Now trust me, I do not get caught up in emotions or fairy tale stories. I did not work my butt off in high school, get into Harvard, and secure a top job out of college to squander it all. I did my research on the sock industry, looked into the product, looked into the numbers, etc. I understand there are no real barriers for entering the sock market and lots of other companies are out there making socks. All I can ask is how many of them produce 80% of their socks in the USA, have Michael Jordan’s agent as an advisor, and feature a line of socks 100% made in the USA for our Olympic gold medalist, Aly Raisman?

I never forget where I came from and never make a life decision without running it by my mom and sister. At the end of the day, they were the only ones at my 6am hockey games or helping me with my homework at odd hours. If I wasn't trying to get straight A's like my older sister in high school, it’s unlikely I would have achieved all that I have. I needed no more than having their support and the feeling I had when I flew down to LA to meet with Taylor and the other co-founder, Parker Burr . We each bring something special to the table. Many people are very supportive, but others think I am crazy for leaving LinkedIn for socks. After reading this, you can doubt my decision. However, just keep in mind you are also doubting the single mom who made many right decisions and landed one kid at Columbia and the other at Harvard. LinkedIn, I love you, but it is now time I join Taylor and Parker and grow a FEAT Empire.

Gabriel (Gabe) Diop

Miami Beach, Florida, United States 3K followers 500+ connections

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Harvard University

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