LinkedIn Tracked Who You Know. Feats Shows What You’ve Done.

COPENHAGEN, Denmark — As professional platforms increasingly reward creator behaviour, a Copenhagen start-up is quietly shifting the power dynamic—by making visible what was once invisible: the work itself.

In a digital ecosystem optimised for content, not contribution, Feats is reviving a forgotten value: what someone actually did.

For two decades, LinkedIn has shaped how professionals present themselves—through connection counts, curated profiles, and algorithm-optimised updates. But the working world no longer fits that frame. Careers are fluid. Teams are temporary. Recognition still favours the loud, not necessarily the capable.

Now, from Copenhagen, a new kind of platform is emerging. A public record of collaboration—one that puts visibility back where it belongs: on the people who actually did the work.

“Feats doesn’t want you to perform your career. It wants to document it—accurately, permanently, and with the people who were there.”
- Co-Founder and CEO Michael Sherain

How Feats Works —and Who It's For

Feats is a community-built professional network designed to document what actually got done—and who did it.

Instead of curated profiles or follower counts, members add completed projects and verify each other’s roles, creating a public record of contribution that’s mapped across brands, teams, and collaborators.

Since launch, Feats has logged over 38,000 projects and 75,000 verified contributions across 17,500 brands, including work for Samsung, Nike, IKEA, McDonald’s, and Google. Its latest offering, Feats Freelance, provides tools for proposals, invoicing, and client management—without commission fees. In contrast to traditional platforms, Feats isn’t optimised for engagement. It’s built for evidence.

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I sat down with Michael Sherain, co-founder and CEO of Feats, to understand the network quietly challenging the performance theatre of professional platforms—by documenting what actually gets done.

Who knew the most disruptive thing you could do in your career... was just tell the truth?

Kelcie – Has a user story ever stopped you in your tracks?

Michael – One of my most emotional experiences was in a member interview. I asked why she had joined Feats and what she hoped to get out of it. She said that she had moved to London from her home town in Asia, leaving behind a strong reputation and network. She described the struggle of reestablishing herself. She was genuinely emotional as she expressed thanks to Feats for helping her reconnect with people in past projects and make her brand experience more visible to new contacts. It wasn’t about getting a job, it was about anchoring herself and building confidence. That was a heavy moment in a beautiful way and reminded our team of the importance of what we’re creating.

When did you realise the system was broken—and that you were going to do something about it?

The real “aha” moment came when a client’s lawyer asked us to take down a project from our own portfolio. We did the work, and suddenly we weren’t allowed to talk about it. That hit hard. Not just because it was frustrating—but because it revealed how broken the system was. Recognition wasn’t just withheld—it was structurally denied.

At the time, my business partner Mark Ronan and I were running Quadric, our positioning and brand strategy consultancy. We kept our core team small and built projects by pulling in collaborators from a trusted network. That model worked, but it exposed a problem: there was no good way to maintain, grow, or credit that network. Everyone had a CV/résumé, portfolio, and scattered mentions. But there was no shared record of what we’d actually done together.

Plenty of people warned us not to chase this idea. They said giving people public credit for work would be too risky, too messy, too disruptive. They weren’t wrong, it is disruptive. But that’s the point. Recognition is a right. Giving it should be a shared practice, not a favor granted from the top down.

My personal motivation to build this also runs deep. I grew up in California, studied at Berkeley, and lived in San Francisco through the early promise of the open internet. I watched it shift from networks of people to platforms of control. Feats is my response to that shift. It’s not just a tool to show off work. It’s an entirely new kind of professional network that’s built on proof of collaboration, not loose connections.

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Why is now the right moment for Feats?

‘Feats’ means significant accomplishments. Nobody is judging the work. We don’t give out awards. We’re just making it easy to say, “We did this.” and celebrate the work together. People are tired of me, me, me. Feats is ‘we’. Now is the time for authentic acknowledgment of shared accomplishments.

The period in our logo is a reference to ‘feat.’, the abbreviation of ‘featuring’ used by musical artists to share credit in song titles. It’s about recognizing and celebrating collaboration. It also enables a genuine reason to reach one and other’s audiences in an authentic way. This moment matters because people are rethinking how they want to be seen and how they want to work. Feats aligns with that shift toward transparency, shared recognition, and healthier expectations around professional identity.

What were the early doubts—and how did they shape what Feats became?

From day one, there was skepticism centered on whether people would genuinely embrace project-level transparency and peer verification instead of typical vanity metrics or ‘connections’. We heard doubts like, "People prefer simple status metrics; complexity won't scale." And sure, that’s how legacy platforms work. But it’s also why they feel so empty.

We didn’t buy into the idea that people are allergic to nuance. We believed that professionals are starving for context, for the real proof of what someone’s built, who they’ve worked with, and what actually happened. That became a core bet: that verified project histories and peer recognition would matter more than vanity metrics ever could.

There was another big assumption we challenged: that nobody wants to maintain yet another profile. And they’re right, people don’t. Which is why we designed Feats differently. Members aren’t expected to post to get attention. They’re in control through their actions, and the network grows through the natural rhythm of collaboration. When you work on a project, you’re part of something bigger. Feats documents that without extra effort.

In a way, that early criticism was a map of the system we wanted to replace. We didn’t want to tweak the existing model. We wanted to unbundle it, rewire it, and give people a way to be seen for the work they actually do, not how well they can market themselves.

What’s one way Feats has already disrupted how people get discovered or hired?

If you ask someone, “What’s the best way to hire?” most will say, “Through my network.” That’s why Feats works.

People in specialised or behind-the-scenes roles—editors, engineers, researchers—suddenly become visible. Not just to hiring managers, but to peers and collaborators looking for people they trust.

One example: a sound engineer verifies their role on a global brand campaign. Normally, they’d be buried in the credits. On Feats, they’re mapped to everyone on that project—creative directors, strategists, producers. That visibility leads to new opportunities, not through referrals, but through proof.

That’s the shift. Traditional networking depends on who you know. Feats makes it about what you’ve done—and who you did it with.

Who’s resisting Feats—and what does that tell you about the power it threatens?

Feats shifts power away from traditional gatekeepers—recruiters, agency leadership, even some hiring managers—by making contribution visible upfront. That creates friction. But we’re seeing a quiet negotiation: top performers inside agencies are embracing the visibility because it boosts their Feats rankings. The trade-off is control versus credibility.

On the hiring side, interviews often skip the résumé walkthrough—Feats already shows what matters. But it also exposes hiring managers. Everyone can see who they’ve worked with—and who’s doing the heavy lifting. It’s not a radical leap. Social platforms pushed us toward transparency. Feats just makes it useful.

‍How do Feats’ values shape the way you build—and how are they different from the platforms you’re challenging?

Transparency creates trust. Trust enables freedom. That’s the core logic.

Where LinkedIn optimises for visibility, Feats is built to surface credibility—over time. That shapes how we design features, allocate resources, and measure success. We think in systems, not silos. Every decision has to support the individual and the ecosystem.

That applies to AI too. We’re not using it to simulate credibility. We use it to strengthen real connections, amplify real signals, and reduce friction.

Our values don’t just differentiate us—they keep us strategically aligned.

How do you position Feats—a competitor to LinkedIn?

We’re not trying to replace LinkedIn. We’re building what comes next. LinkedIn was built for a world of linear careers and hierarchical job titles. But today, work is fluid, project-driven, and far less structured. Updating a legacy product won’t fix that.

To borrow a metaphor: the old business world was like watching sports before player stats. You saw the team win, but not who made it happen. Feats surfaces those people—accurately and early. That changes everything. Hiring gets faster. Emerging talent breaks through sooner. Teams build with more confidence.

Our bigger ambition isn’t just better careers. It’s progress—across climate, AI, healthcare. That only happens when the right people find each other. Feats makes that possible.

How is AI shaping Feats—and where do you draw the line?

AI is rewriting how work gets done, and it’s making it harder to be seen for real contributions. Our AI is member-first. It helps you clarify what you did, connect collaborators, and surface opportunities based on actual work.

We’re about to launch a feature that redefines AI’s role in professional networks. It’s not for engagement. It’s for trust—at scale.

Which partnerships have helped prove the model—and what have you learned from them?

Feats is spreading through major agency groups and global brands—but what’s most exciting is the interest from the local teams and specialists.

I’d like to see more agencies actively invite their specialist teams to Feats. They already prepare cases for awards—this increases the return. Brands should encourage their agencies to publish projects on Feats—even require it. More recognition leads to more accountability—and better work. It also builds each brand’s network, making it easier to inform colleagues, inspire teams, discover agencies, and hire faster.

What shifts do you see coming by 2030—and how is Feats getting ready for them?

The $200B market for recruiters, job ads, and freelance platforms is built on outdated hierarchy, opacity, and middlemen.

By 2030, I see networks moving away from content feeds and résumé profiles toward proof of contribution. AI will make intermediaries obsolete. Feats already has timelines for over 17,000 brands and 3,500 teams. Our 38,000+ projects represent 15,000 person-years of work. That’s the future: a public record of accomplishments that tells the story of how industries evolve.

What’s your boldest prediction for what Feats could change?

I hope Feats is recognized for making project-level transparency the norm in every industry, like it is in Hollywood. If everyone behind a feature film gets credit, why shouldn’t people behind every campaign, event, or app? Or, for that matter, every iPhone or SpaceX rocket?
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Project-level transparency will create the trust that enables freedom for individuals. We’ll all build better teams, making industries more competitive and accelerating progress on a societal level.
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Where do you go in Copenhagen to think, recharge—or just eat something great?

My favorite café is Cadence. I may be a bit biased because it was started by a colleague of mine and two of my kids had student jobs there. In any case, it’s a chilled space with excellent outdoor seating and a menu inspired by the Melbourne brunch scene that the founder missed when he moved here.

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In a world where self-promotion often passes for proof, Feats offers something Cannes can’t award: a lasting record of who actually did the work. It doesn’t aim to replace your network—it exists to remind you why you built one in the first place. The only question left is whether the industry still knows how to listen.