Networking is Every Founders Secret Sauce
18 months into my journey as a founder and this bit of advice seems so obvious now. Looking back and talking to others building a startup, it’s clear that many of us see getting out there and selling yourself too early as a risk. It’s not. You should be networking well before you are ready to ship.
I’ve written before about keeping your ideas secret. This is more about you than your idea, but of course the two go hand in hand. Networking creates opportunities you haven’t even considered, and warms people to you as someone capable of turning your idea into awesome.
Not at the build stage? Not a problem. Seeing what others are doing and how they approach getting to market is gold. You’ll find out about accelerators, what corporates are doing to attract new ideas, what potential competitors are up to and even find people who want help you out.
If you are fortunate to find clients willing to work with you as you develop your solution, a solid rapport goes a long way to helping you through those (possibly clunky) first iterations of your MVP. Early adopters are a precious resource. You’ll be taking up their time to test and provide feedback, you’ll also probably break a few things and mess up their day along the way. You need them on your side from the start.
If there’s no rapport (especially if you haven’t had the chance to impress yet) you could lose them before they’ve even installed your product. As a user, I’ve done that myself. Trialed an app to solve a problem, but during install it asks for a little too much personal data and I dump it and seek an alternative. If I don’t know the company and they don’t have a presence I trust, then I’m certainly not handing over access to my contacts list. If you’ve found early adopters through networking, they believe in your journey and will allow more slack in onboarding and early iterations.
Early stage investors especially, have to find whays to cut through the noise. They have thousands of companies cross their paths every year. How do they work out where to best spend their time? You got it, a warm introduction means you’ve been vetted by someone they trust and make it to the review list. Building your network increases your chance of getting on their radar.
Ultimately investors invest in people more than the idea. If they don’t know you then they won’t invest in you. Don’t believe me? Lets talk about unconscious bias and how than impacts funding in the startup community (and a whole other conversation that needs to be had).
Of course, you dont have to be founding a business to benefit from a solid network. A recent LinkedIn article suggests up to 85% of all jobs are filled by networking. It shouldn’t be surprising to note that the same article suggests that you don’t even have to be perferct for the role if you are found this way. The power of the warm introduction means the job is often modified to fit the candidate!
Last but not least. You can super-charge your networking through volunteering. This is also the secret for those who are nervous about meeting new people. Volunteer in the right places and people have to come to you. I consider myself lucky to be involved with Melbourne Silicon Beach and I’ve met some great people in the startup community. Through co-hosting and helping others network I’ve been given opportunities I couldn’t have found any other way. Warm introductions through meetup and community groups grows your network quickly.
So there’s no excuse. Get yourself out of your bubble, go meet some strangers and reap the benefits of having a strong network.
This article was originally posted in The Wandering Founder. Interested to know more about what I do? Join the mailing list for Shiftiez through this linkand feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn
