Editor’s Note: This post was originally published on Seattle 2.0, and imported to GeekWire as part of our acquisition of Seattle 2.0 and its archival content. For more background, see this post.
By Nathan Parcells
Why is networking so important? The main reason is that people like to do business with people they can trust. Often, in fact incredibly often, people will opt to work with a friend over a stranger even if that stranger has a superior business opportunity. (As a side note this may frequently be a rational decision because working with friends you can generally, cut to the chase more quickly, communicate more clearly, and believe that the other person won’t lie or mistreat you). So networking is big, but for the busy founder, the question is usually how do you grow your network in a time efficient manner and how do you leverage your network without being selfish or annoying?
Well, one of the most critical ways to achieve both these goals is by getting useful email introductions. Most startup founders will tell you a great deal of their success comes from being able to elicit meaningful introductions and to make the most of those introductions after they have been made.
However, not all introductions are equal. A lot of variables go into those e-intros that determine how effective they are from getting you from email to a rewarding business relationship. Two of the biggest variables are how sincere/excited the person is making the introduction and how respected/important is the person making the intro. Having had now a lot of introductions made on my behalf (which I can only hope to one day repay) I wanted to run through a general list of how different people can elicit dramatically different responses based on their status, in relation to you and to the business community.
I have below a list from 1 (least impactful intros) to 10 (most impactful intros) based on experience and my own thoughts. Introductions from people earlier in the scale may be easier to get off the bat, but generally require more time and convincing to take from that first hello to a sit down or meaningful conversation. At the other end of the spectrum are people whose emails are usually returned with immediate attention. This goes to say if you can develop meaningful relationships with people at the upper end of this spectrum the impact for your company can be tremendous – however, it also raises the bar on how you deliver after the connection has been made as those near the top, stay there because people expect mutually beneficial relationships.
Less Impactful Intros to Most Impactful Intros
- Anyone under the age of 20 (Justin Beiber is the exception)
- Person you just met at a networking event (again Beiber is the exception)
- Friend of a friend
- Friend from college
- Friend from business school
- Co-worker from a largely successful company (extra points if the company is considered a startup mafia)
- Advisor who was just brought on board as a name for fundraising, but who is no longer is excited about your company.
- Advisor with deep interest in the company (even if considered less of a hot shot then advisor from number 7).
- Angels, super angels, VCs, anyone with a lot of money and respect in the community.
- CEO of a company with over $200 million in revenue.
