The Need to Network

Rewind to sophomore year of college, and I am a networking fanatic. I spent a ton of time hopping from event to event in Boston, piling up business cards in stacks across my desk. Looking back, this wasn’t the most effective strategy. Meetings lots of people and adding them on LinkedIn is a good first step but it needs to be solidified by building relationships. Instead of endless networking, consider the following approach I have since embraced:

1. Be specific

Going to networking events takes time and energy. If you are going to put off serving your customers or building your product to network, you better have a darn good strategy for who you want to meet and how you want to help each other. More specifically:

• Who can teach you something and compliment your skillset?
• What are you looking for… designer, developer, salesman, friends?
• Do you want to find customers, mentors, partners? They might be in different places.

2. Be picky with events

Especially if you are in the entrepreneurship world, you will have your pick of many fantastic events to attend. Here in Boston, Paul Hlatky at GreenhornConnect.com makes that incredibly easy with the schedule and calendar that he manages online. Sort through the options and find what you believe to be the very best events for what you are looking for. If you try one and it isn’t what you thought, leave early.

3. Follow up meaningfully

Sending a quick email saying “it was nice to meet you” is a start but does not go nearly far enough. You must research each person you want to follow up with and share with them something meaningful - like feedback on their business or a recommendation of someone else to connect with. This is the start of building a relationship with them.

4. Build the relationship

Find reasons to talk to a person more. Maybe it is to ask their advice or opinion and offer your own for whatever they are working on. You don’t have to become best friends, but you should make an effort to keep up to date on what they are doing.

5. Be clear and abrupt

If you are courting a client through networking, don’t beat around the bush. Say, “It was awesome meeting you, I think your product is awesome, here is how I can help.” Now list precisely what value you would add.  

Remember, it should be fun and exciting to be meeting all of these new people. Enjoy it!

Why I Take Every Meeting

I meet with a lot of people. It’s kind of ridiculous - in a given week I might have the privilege of sitting down with dozens of talented, passionate people in the community and learning more about what they do, how I can help them, how they can help me and how we might be able to work together in the future

This is the essence of networking. Networking is not just exchanging business cards, that is the worst way to do it. Instead, you need to form meaningful connections with people. Take a genuine interest in what they are doing and be a good listener. Let them talk about themselves and not the other way around. 

To foster this mentality, I generally take almost every meeting that comes my way. Some I have a feeling might not be so productive, and others I am incredibly excited about. But as a college senior, I can afford to spend a good amount of time meeting new people and learning new things. The big idea behind my policy is that you never knew who you might meet. Sure, a meeting could be a dud, or you could be talking to future business partner, best friend, spouse or mentor. 

A mentor of mine that epitomizes this philosophy is Ryan Durkin, the COO of CampusLive. As an executive, Ryan is willing to meet with people, give them advice, make connections, and share his wealth of experience. He is a role model for the entire community.

Remember, your network is one of your greatest assets. The relationships you have can provide tons of unknown opportunities, so it is a worthy investment to foster them. Here are the action items:

• Get some business cards. They are still important to have to share contact information.
• Get on LinkedIn. That site should be your best friend. It is a virtual rolodex and it’s free. 
• Get out and talk to people. Go to some startup events or just find people on their company websites and send them an email to set up a meeting. 

College Kids as Venture Capitalists? You bet!

Over the past 2 years, I have been a part of a Fellowship program at .406 Ventures, a $170M early stage technology venture capital firm based in Boston, MA. The program is designed to introduce highly entrepreneurial college students to the venture capital process and ultimately grow their entrepreneurial skills so they can start awesome technology companies. 

The 13 Student Fellows represent campuses all along the east, from Harvard to Carnegie Mellon. Each Fellow is responsible for identifying exciting high growth technology start-ups founded by students in their school, collaborating with the other Fellows and .406 investment professionals to evaluate the opportunities and then connect their classmates to the vast resources of one of the highest regarded venture firms in the Boston tech scene. This past year, the group introduced over 250 start-ups to .406. 

There were a ton of learning opportunities throughout the program:

• Networking - I got to meet so many cool people through deal sourcing for .406. In fact, one of them is now my business partner.
• Learning - I got to observe pitches and participate in the deliberation process after. Now when it’s my turn to pitch, I know exactly what to do.
• Internships - the partnership knows everybody, and connects the fellows with great internships. I just finished one at a .406 portfolio company.
• The Fellows - the group consists of incredible students doing amazing things at their schools. As the program grows, so does the network.

For any current students considering the Fellowship, it has been a cornerstone of my college experience, and I passionately recommend it.