Most hiring advice is written for people who want to be a little better than average.
The problem is, if you’re trying to hire in a competitive market, especially as a startup, “a little better” just doesn’t cut it.
If you’re sourcing from the same LinkedIn searches, the same job boards, the same recruiter outreach lists, you’re you’re fighting over the exact same 10% of people who are visible.
And that’s a losing game.
The best people often aren’t visible at all. They’re heads-down inside another company. Their profiles are outdated, they don’t respond to cold InMails, or they’re not even thinking about a job switch.
That’s the paradox:
The more valuable they are, the less likely they are to be in your visible pool.
Think of talent as two overlapping circles:
Visible Talent Pool: Open to new roles, easy to find, active on professional platforms.
Hidden Talent Poo: Not looking, not broadcasting, and not reachable through standard channels.
The visible pool gets hammered with messages. This is where every recruiter, every job post, and every “top talent” sourcing hack lives.
The hidden pool moves almost entirely through trust-based networks. If you’re not part of those networks, you don’t exist to them.
Closed Networks Beat Open Marketplaces
In startup hiring, “open” usually sounds good.
Open roles, open access, open talent marketplaces. But open channels are over-optimized. Everyone has access, so competition drives the signal-to-noise ratio into the ground.
Closed networks are different.
They’re harder to join, but that’s the point. They exist where trust is already established. Alumni groups, operator circles, niche technical communities, personal referral webs.
When you get into a closed network, the rules change:
You’re not another cold recruiter; you’re a friend of a friend.
You’re not fighting for attention; you’re getting a warm, private introduction.
You’re not competing in a bidding war; you’re competing on mission fit.
You can’t brute-force your way into hidden talent pools. You can’t just send more emails, post more jobs, or automate more outreach.
You need borrowed trust. That’s credibility you get through someone the candidate already respects.
There are a few ways to build this:
Invest years in your own network. Host dinners, give without expecting, help people win.
Embed yourself in niche communities. Become a contributor before you ever recruit.
Leverage existing networks at scale. Tap into people and systems like Twill that already have the trust you need.
The first two take time. The third can start working tomorrow.
The Startup Advantage
One misconception is that big companies have the edge here. They don’t. Startups often do better in closed networks because they offer:
Access: Candidates can talk directly to the founders.
Impact: They can shape the trajectory of the company.
Story: They get to be early in something exciting.
But none of that matters if they never hear from you in the first place.
The Takeaway
If you’re only looking where everyone else looks, you’ll only find what everyone else finds. The best candidates don’t live in your LinkedIn search results.
They live in trusted circles you can’t see until someone opens the door. That door doesn’t open for volume; it opens for credibility.
Build it, borrow it, or partner with someone who already has it.