The Tipping Point: Stern Venture Fellows in Silicon Valley
Michael Gladwell’s “Tipping Point” — for those who haven’t read the book — explains that three kinds of people are responsible for turning ideas into epidemics: Connectors, Mavens, and Salesmen. Connectors are people “with an extraordinary knack of (sic) making friends and acquaintances”. They’re experts at cultivating human relationships across social, cultural, professional, and economic circles.
The social equivalent of a computer network hub, Connectors make it a habit of introducing people to each other. If everyone in the world really is linked to everyone else on some level, these special few people are the ones linking the rest of us.
David Ko embodies the Connector profile more than anyone I’ve ever met. A Stern graduate, former VP of Yahoo, President and Chief Operating Officer of Rally Health, and founder of the Stern Venture Fellowship, he opened up his San Francisco network to us and allowed us to learn from the “crème de la crème” of each vertical within a company.
As entrepreneurs, getting access to a high-quality network, and being able to learn from the successes and failures of the people who comprise it, is essential to our growth. In San Francisco, I personally got a chance to build upon my already established network in New York and tap into the Silicon Valley community. What would have normally taken me years to build, I got to experience in just a few days, thanks to David!
Here are a few highlights of the people we met and received mentorship from:
● Nanci Kauffman, Head of School at all-girls Castilleja School, has helped to raise close to $40 million dollars to advance the school’s mission to promote the development of self-confidence and the capacity for responsible risk-taking and ethical decision-making in young girls. She coached us to tweak our pitches depending on the audience (in other words, how to make our pitches more powerful to male investors)
● Zaw Thet, Partner at Signia Ventures met with us one-on-one to hear our pitches and give us feedback
● Albert Lee, Founder of MyFitnessPal, shared his story about bootstrapping his company and eventually selling it to Under Armour for close to $500 million
Let’s connect: @Liawinograd
