The View from the Office.

I met up with Adelaide de Saint Etienne for lunch at Boucherie in the West Village. The place gives off Balthazar vibes but feels cozier, especially on a frigid January.

Adelaide works at Baselayer, a B2B startup run by Jonathan Awad, which leverages AI to assess the risk of doing business with small and medium sized companies.

She has a broad remit for marketing across events, content, and social media. We focused on how AI is reshaping the landscape for social media, especially LinkedIn.

LinkedIn is interesting because posts by the CEO drive a lot of leads. Also because the algorithm just changed, causing everyone to reevaluate it.

Traditional metrics like follower count, likes, and even the “Top Voice” badge are less relevant than before.

LinkedIn’s new algorithm – called 360Brew – has shifted the playbook from “post more” to “post better.”

Follower count matters less now because the algorithm evaluates who should see each post.

Comments matter far more than likes, especially if they are long and thoughtful (roughly 10+ words).

Posting frequently without depth can be a negative, along with AI generated or overly promotional content.

Your headline, profile description, job history, and posts need to reinforce the same themes. LinkedIn is clearly encouraging you to stay in a lane.

One of the biggest challenges Adelaide cites in working at a tech startup is simply keeping up with the blistering pace of change. Over the weekend, she used Claude to teach herself to vibe code a series of web pages that will improve SEO.

You can connect with Adelaide on LinkedIn or DM me for a warm intro.