The Blind Spot in Dog-Fooding: Lessons from Reid Hoffman of LinkedIn
It’s a rare example of a founder confidently using complementary products, rather than just their own.
In contrast, Zuckerberg doesn’t publicly use Twitter. He’s a Threads super-user
This behavior reflects a broader pattern: founders “dog-food” their products and encourage employees to do the same. There’s value in this commitment
But sometimes, the writing is on the wall.
No amount of dog-fooding changed the fact that:
- Sales reps at Salesforce preferred Slack to Chatter
- Amazonians used the iPhone, not Fire Phone
- Googlers used Twitter, not Google+
- Yahoo! engineers searched on Google
These moments force a choice: adapt or double down.
The best adapt quickly and decisively:
- Benioff adapted, he paid big $$$ for Slack
- Bezos shelved Fire Phone within a year
The rest let inertia carry them:
- Google ran Google+ for 8 years before shelving it
- Yahoo! bled money on search until it finally partnered with Bing.
The lesson?
Have the self-awareness of Reid Hoffman to understand your product’s purpose. If not, be decisive like Benioff or Bezos. Else, be ready to bleed money.