Follow the Rabbit

Trying to find a technical co-founder? Sell into a specific company? Find your next great hire? Meet your future husband/wife? Get better connected in the startup community or a specific city/community/industry?

My advice is the same; follow the rabbit down the hole. This is probably one of the most common pieces of advice I give to aspiring entrepreneurs. When someone asks me how they can "network into #StartupCincy" or find a CTO or whatever, I usually offer to make 1-2 connections (assuming I believe they have good intentions) and then challenge them to do the rest. My challenge; make a great impression on the person I'm going to introduce you to and then make sure you don't leave that meeting without at least 1-2 more connections.

But wait, aren't you well connected in the startup community; why not connect them with way more people? Because I believe there is a ton of value is following the rabbit down the hole.

The proverbial rabbit will, without doubt, lead you in directions that I had not considered (and for good reason because you're building your own story). If I tee-up a bunch of connections right away you're less inclined to really push for new introductions from each person you meet, which is a miss. It's very likely that something in your story will spark a thought about a specific connection you should meet (if you make the ask and challenge them to consider a few people who you should meet). In other words, the more direct connections I make, the less likely you are to take advantage of the potential network effect of each person.

If you're passionate about the thing you're running after, this should be fun work that you're excited about. It's fun to tell your story and learn about new people who would should hear your story. If you're not up for the hard work (the "hand to hand combat" of connecting with people), you're probably not up for the challenge you have ahead (closing a big deal, starting that company, building your network etc). Said another way, if you're not up for the challenge of following the rabbit, I probably don't want to make a bunch of connections for you (so it's a litmus test of sorts).

Folks who are accomplished and highly connected really value their network and the relationships they've built. Unless you have a really good relationship with them (i.e. they know there is 0 risk is connecting you with people), you shouldn't ask them to spend a bunch of relational capital up front. If those early connections go well, and reflect positively upon you, there's no doubt you'll be able to circle back for more support, connections, etc. Doing these follow-up checkins is also a great way to continue to build the relationship with them (vs. one meeting up front where they make endless connections and you never circle back with them).

Bonus tip: get really good at telling your story. One of the keys to making this work is that I'm going to do my best to make a great first connection; the better the first connection, the better every other downstream connection will be. But I'm not all that smart, so my ability to make great connections is dependent on you doing a really good job of articulating your what and why. This is actually another great reason not to make all the connections up front; you will inevitably get much better at telling your story over time, which may change the path the rabbit takes you down.

Ready to get connected? Don't forget to send the forward-able email to make it easier on the person who's connecting you!