Networking Is Not A Dirty Word

Harvard Business School has a program each year during spring break called Westrek. The point of Westrek is to get HBS students out to the Bay Area to meet and greet folks throughout the high tech world. They go to big companies, small companies, investment banks, law firms, venture firms -- whoever will agree to shmooze. I was one of those schmoozers (or was it schmoozees) during Westrek. I spent some time with a group of students talking about the venture process.

The question that interested the students most was how to get their startup in front of a VC ("how do I become a VC?" was a close second). My answer was to know someone who knows that VC. By far the best way to get your executive summary read is to have it sent to a VC by someone that investor trusts. And the key to those introductions is networking. When I got to the Bay Area, I thought that networking was a dirty word. It suggested to me that people were creating relationships for selfish purposes. I have since seen that networking is a symbiotic activity -- good relationships in Silicon Valley benefit both parties.

I invested in a company a couple years ago as a result of some very effective networking by one of the company's founders. The founder was a Cornell grad and through his close relationship with his alma mater was able to meet virtually every influential Cornell grad in the Bay Area. He spent a lot of time nurturing those relationships and was able to translate those friendships into introductions to lots of VCs, including myself. I was introduced to the company by a Cornell grad lawyer who is a friend of my firm's. We were glad to take a look at the company because it was coming from a guy we trusted. He was happy to pass on the executive summary because he believed it was sufficiently interesting as to be potentially fundable (and, frankly, because he hoped to become company counsel when the company got funded). And, of course, the company founder was thrilled to get quality introductions into numerous venture firms -- particularly when one ultimately resulted in the company getting funded. The founders networking proved advantageous to everyone involved.

There is no question that great entrepreneurs are successful networkers. They know large numbers of influential people throughout their industry and have deep enough relationships with those people to solicit help in building their business. So don't think of networking as a dirty word. Think of it as a valuable tool. And don't be shy about making connections that can help you grow your business.