Someone read your post. They liked your headline enough to keep going. They scrolled down to your About section — the warmest, most interested reader you will ever get on LinkedIn.
And then they hit three sentences of third-person corporate bio. Or a blank box. Or a list of every job you've held since 2011.
So they leave.
Your About section is the one place on your profile where you get real room to convert an interested stranger into a lead. It isn't a 220-character headline — it's 2,600 characters of open space. And most founders fill it with the one thing the reader didn't come for: a résumé.
Your About isn't a bio — it's a sales page for one reader
Here's the reframe that changes how you write it: your About section is not your biography. It's a sales page. And it has an audience of exactly one — the specific person who just got curious enough to scroll down.
Think about who that person is. Your headline earned them the scroll; the post before it earned the visit. By the time someone reaches your About, they've raised their hand three times. They are the warmest lead your profile will see all week. The About's entire job is to take that warmth and turn it into a next step.
A biography doesn't do that. A biography informs. A sales page persuades — it names the reader's problem, shows you can solve it, proves it, and tells them what to do next. That's the job. Your work history is, at most, evidence in service of that job — not the point of it.
Why the résumé version quietly fails
The default About reads like the "About" tab on a corporate website: third person, past tense, a tour of roles and responsibilities. "Jane is a seasoned marketing leader with over a decade of experience across B2B SaaS and fintech…" It feels professional. It converts no one.
It fails for the same reason a job-title headline fails: it answers the wrong question. A work history tells the reader what you've done. But the person reading your About is silently asking can you help me — with the problem that brought them here. Your list of past employers doesn't answer that. They'd have to translate it themselves, and warm as they are, most won't.
Then there's the smaller stuff that compounds the damage:
Third person creates distance. "Jane helps companies…" reads like someone else wrote a tribute to you. First person — "I help…" — sounds like the human they'd actually talk to. On a platform that runs on personal trust, distance is expensive.
No hook means no read. LinkedIn truncates your About after the first few lines with a "…see more." If those opening lines are "I am a results-driven professional," nobody clicks to expand — and the other 2,500 characters, however good, are never seen.
No call-to-action means no action. Even the founder who writes a compelling About often ends it with… nothing. The reader finishes, nods, and leaves, because you never told them what to do next. A warm lead with no next step is a wasted one.
What a strong About section actually does
An About that converts does a handful of concrete things — and, not by coincidence, they're the same things a good profile check looks for.
It opens with a hook, not a title. The first two or three lines are all that show before "…see more," so they have to earn the click. Open with the reader's problem, a sharp claim, or a surprising result — something that makes the interested visitor need to read the rest. Save "I'm the founder of…" for later; they can already see that.
It's written to one person, in first person. Pick your ideal reader — the specific founder or buyer you help — and write as if the About is a message to them. "If you're a B2B founder getting likes but no leads, here's what's going on." First person, plain language, the way you'd actually say it. One real reader beats a bio that waves at everyone.
It leads with their problem and your outcome, not your history. Open on the problem you solve and what changes once you do. Credibility comes after, in support — not as the headline act. Nobody was ever converted by a chronological list; they're converted by recognizing their own problem in your words.
It offers one concrete proof point. A single specific, verifiable signal of credibility does more than a paragraph of adjectives. "I've helped 40+ founders build a LinkedIn pipeline" or "ex-HubSpot, now doing this for myself" beats "seasoned, passionate, results-driven." Show one real thing; drop the self-description.
It breathes. Short paragraphs. Line breaks. White space. A wall of text in a mobile-sized box doesn't get read, no matter how good the words are. Make it scannable and people actually scan it.
It ends with one clear call-to-action. Tell the warm reader exactly what to do next: DM you a word, book a call, grab the free thing, visit the link. One ask, not five. The About is the bottom of your profile's funnel — don't leave the exit unmarked.
A simple structure that works
You don't need to be a copywriter. Most strong founder Abouts follow roughly this shape:
- Hook — the reader's problem or a sharp result, in the first two lines (before "…see more").
- Who you help and what changes — a line or two naming your person and the outcome.
- Proof — one concrete result, number, or credential that backs it up.
- A little story or point of view — why you do this, or what you believe that others don't. This is where your voice lives.
- One clear call-to-action — the single next step you want them to take.
Five parts. Written to one person. In your own voice. That's an About that converts the visit your headline worked to earn.
The 20-second self-check
Before you rewrite yours from scratch, run the current one against this:
- Do the first two lines hook the reader — or do they start with "I am a…"?
- Is it written in first person, to one specific reader?
- Does it lead with their problem and your outcome, or with your job history?
- Is there one concrete proof point, not just adjectives?
- Can you actually scan it, or is it a wall of text?
- Does it end with one clear call-to-action?
If you'd rather not judge it by eye, run it through our free LinkedIn profile analyzer — it scores your About section (and your headline) against exactly these checks and tells you what to fix, in seconds, with no signup.
The warmest reader you'll get
Your posts do the work of earning attention. Your headline earns the scroll. And your About — the one people reach only when they're already interested — is where that whole chain either pays off or quietly doesn't.
That's the loop FounderSkies is built around: it helps you write the posts that earn the visits, and turns your profile into something that actually converts them — captured leads tied back to the posts that drove them, so you can see what's working instead of guessing. But the conversion happens on the page, in the words a warm reader meets when they scroll down.
Go read your About section right now. Ask the only question that matters: if the most interested person in your audience read this, would they know what to do next?