Friends, Family and Fools: Your network is massive and you're foolish to ignore it.

I'm not a natural "networking type" but I forced myself to learn this lesson pretty late in life.

Introverted startup founders shudder at hearing cheesy lines like "Your network is your net worth!" but even the most outgoing, salesy types haven't figured out the depth of their connections.

Whether you like it or not, the personal and professional networks of startup founders are the biggest catalyst in helping a new startup survive; from validating it's product and services to getting funding and clients, hiring people and reaching the audience they're after.

Despite knowing this and dreaming of accessing high quality circles, 92.97% of founders don't even make a list of all the people they know. They try and remember the first 15 contacts who come to mind and then just randomly think of more people as and when required.

Whether you're launching a grocery delivery that you can start from your apartment complex or selling a sophisticated B2B software, listing down your network and then asking for help is the quickest way to increase the surface area of your luck.

You'll be surprised at the number of people you actually know (and have forgotten or lost touch with) and even more shocked at the high quality intros they'll be willing to open up for you.

Your mother's second cousin in Mississauga has a daughter who now works at Google and your neighbour's chacha is actually the CTO of a large bank in Karachi where you may be able to deploy your Ai chatbot.

Here's a basic cheat sheet to get you started.

List down everyone you know and ask for help. You'll be pleasantly surprised!

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1Va_9MOYABswSMr2zy_HXsvjMR5B8P2rEDY5lihFMNVg/edit?usp=sharing

PS: ASK THEM FOR HELP!