Tag: Events

Why Networking Alone Won’t Build a Successful Career (And What You Need Instead)

Networking only works when the product being sold via it is top-class. It’s important to get this order right in any career strategy.

In my profession as a VC, I tend to cross paths with many people whose main professional superpower is networking. They tend to be visible at most events, are very active on social media, have at least a surface-level connection with most people who matter in their specific areas, and are likely to say, “You are pursuing this? Oh, I know XYZ who is also in this space really well”.

In most cases, the gigs these folks like to pursue include running communities, creating podcasts, running venture syndicates/ SPVs, GTM consulting/advisory, holding ecosystem events, and engaging with govt. bodies, think tanks & non-profits, etc.

In private, they often confide in me about their desire to take their careers to the next level, both monetarily as well as from an influence perspective. They feel like mere small cogs in the wheel, and despite doing a lot of grunt work, get only a small piece of the pie, with founders, domain operators, and investors grabbing a majority of the value created.

I have thought hard about this predicament, and one conclusion I have come to is that networking skills by themselves aren’t enough. They need to be combined as an amplifier alongside a core set of one or more of the following:

(1) Technical skills

(2) Education & work pedigree

(3) Proven track records in a domain

Without this core, a pure networker is categorized at the lower ends of the business hierarchy by various stakeholders in the ecosystem.

A few examples to illustrate this:

  • Shreyas Doshi being a great content creator, amplifies his top-tier product management career. Somebody just churning out product content without a proven product track record to back it will be considered a mere content marketer as opposed to a credible expert.
  • Fred Wilson (of Union Square Ventures) being an excellent writer, gives an extra edge to his proven skills as a VC. Somebody trying to “act” like a VC on LinkedIn & at events, trying to hustle into deals via SPVs/ syndicates without the core skills or pedigree of what it takes to become a solid venture investor, will be viewed as a venture grifter in a few years’ time by the ecosystem.
  • Ryan Hoover combined his main spike of community-building with his technical chops, both as a founder & product builder, to first create Product Hunt and then parlay it into venture investing via Weekend Fund. Somebody who is just a community creator/ curator, but without any edge-chops at a sector or operating level, will end up only as an amplifier for other companies, founders, and investors, and capture only a minute piece of the value.

I believe this is an important insight that is even more relevant in this age of social media, influencers, and communities. Especially in Tech, both companies & careers seem to be over-indexed on building “distribution” for themselves, without realizing that distribution will work only when the core “product” is top-class.

For any youngsters out there reading this, I urge you to first focus on transforming yourself into a compelling & differentiated “product”, which would typically require studying at the best quality university you can crack, working at the topmost market-leading company in your space, using both these platforms to build core technical skills of some kind, and then continuously executing & refining those skills to slowly & steadily build a track record in your field. This will realistically take at least a decade in the real world.

Only when you have made significant progress toward this goal of becoming a compelling & differentiated “product”, should you then start to focus on building various “distribution” channels for it, with networking & social media being important pillars.

If you get this order backward, there is a significant risk of ending up as a lower-end “ecosystem hustler” who ends up amplifying other companies & individuals that are more compelling products, and the latter end up capturing a lion’s share of the economic pie over you.

How to cold-pitch your startup in 30 seconds to VCs at events

Putting your strongest foot forward quickly, coherently and in an interesting way is the key to getting VCs to lean-in during a cold-pitch at an event.

It’s been a hectic couple of weeks of tech events, with SaaStr, SaaSBoomi, VC mixers, and now Dreamforce. Meeting hundreds of founders cold across these events, I have noticed that most of them struggle to quickly pitch themselves/ their startups to investors.

In fact, in most of these meetings, I was only able to figure out their unique strengths, progress, and fit with the problem statement after 3-5 mins. into the conversation. Unfortunately, most investors have short attention spans and given they meet multiple founders daily, their ability to recall is even worse.

This means as a founder, you have to achieve 2 things while cold-meeting investors at events:

1/ Leave an impression in the first 30 seconds so that the investor starts leaning into the discussion and becomes inclined to spend 3-5 minutes more.

2/ Post this initial buy-in, leave the investor with something of high recall value so you have a higher chance of a post-event follow-up discussion.

A. The 30-sec pitch

For the first 30-sec pitch, I recommend having 3 parts to it:

[The Grandmother’s Explanation]

followed by…

[Social Proof of Team]

followed by…

[Proof of Business]

a) The Grandmother’s Explanation means explaining what your startup does in the way you would explain it to your grandmother. Yes, most investors aren’t domain experts in your field. They are likely investing across sectors, and aren’t living and breathing your specific area/ problem statement. Assume they are as ignorant about your business as your grandmother.

I am literally shocked by how most founders can’t explain their startup in simple tech-layman’s terms. Barring a few, true deep tech startups coming out of research labs and universities, most enterprise software, SaaS, and consumer Internet startups should be able to explain their business in simple words. This is the bare minimum signal of clarity in thinking.

TLDR: if an investor isn’t able to understand what you do in the first 5-7 seconds, there is no way in hell that investor is going to lean in. Even if the person might appear to be listening, in reality, they are actually zoned out/ looking through you.

b) Social Proof of Team means talking about your credentials in a straight-up manner, without beating around the bush. These could be:

Education-related – undergrad and grad schools, unique course work etc.;

Work-related – past employers, roles, needle-moving projects, accelerators like YC or Techstars etc.; and

Execution-related – products shipped, content created, social following, word-of-mouth etc.

Especially for founders in the US-India corridor – we are taught to be overly humble and in most social situations, we tend to talk down our achievements. Unfortunately, you are faced with intense competition in the Bay Area from talent coming in from all over the world. You have no choice but to talk about things that make you stand out from the crowd.

c) Proof of Business means talking about the business progress of your startup in tangible terms. Things like user base, retention, engagement, number of customers, revenue, customer acquisition etc.

It’s important to remember that while providing Proof of Business, both “absolute numbers” and “growth rates” are important. So, frame statements like “we have $Xk ARR, growing y% m-o-m” or “We have Xk users, growing y% week-on-week purely by organic word-of-mouth. People are also now starting to pay”.

Most startups attending these events don’t have enough Proof of Business yet.

  • For the ones who do, make sure you talk about it as traction trumps everything, and especially at the seed stage, any traction will help you stand out.
  • For startups who don’t have much Proof of Business, you can still talk about proxies of business progress like the velocity of shipping new features, people on the waitlist, early design partners, and how they are deeply engaging with your product etc.

PS: An important recommendation for the 30-sec pitch format:

If you have compelling traction, pitch [Proof of Business] first and then [Social Proof of Team].

If you are very early and don’t have compelling traction, pitch [Social Proof of Team] first and then [Proof of Business].

The idea is simple – always lead with your strongest suit.

B. The post 30-sec-pitch part

Ok, so you delivered an amazing 30-sec pitch to Investor A. The person is now leaning in and wants to have a longer conversation for the next 5-7 mins.

In this part of the convo, your main job as a founder is to leave a high-recall impression on the investor. The person meets tens of new founders every week. Your job is to ensure that post this interaction, you go into the deal flow software for the VC firm at the minimum, and ideally, the person remembers you for some standout qualities and/or stories.

This is the “art” part of having a good conversation. There are no specific rules for how you build camaraderie and leave an impression. Everyone has their own style, and everything from body language and listening skills to storytelling and tonality has a role to play.

While I can’t offer you any specific hacks for this, here are some things I have seen work well in my experience:

a) Tell an interesting story – people don’t remember facts, but they remember stories. Instead of bombarding an investor with jargon, business numbers and technical info while having a cocktail, focus on telling an interesting story. Could be about your childhood, maybe something from your past life, or even something quirky that has happened while building the startup.

The biggest risk you have in a cold-pitch situation is to make it boring for the other person. A good story is something that brings a smile and/ or a questioning look on someone’s face. Basically, it interests them.

b) Bond on commonalities – the classic sales technique of finding commonalities to break ice always works. Humans are wired to want to belong to certain identities – A New Yorker, A Delhi-wala, A Knicks fan, a worshipper of Sachin Tendulkar, a backpacker, a wine connoisseur, a Japanese food lover etc. The moment they meet someone who belongs to the same identity, there is an instant connection that gets established, which is the first step towards building trust.

As you are chatting with the investor at a mixer, try and probe for some commonalities (where they grew up, went to school, worked, where they are living now). It will give the conversation much more substance and make it enjoyable for both sides.

c) Be genuinely curious…and listen – in my previous posts ‘Curiosity As A Networking Cheat Code‘ and ‘Networking at Events for Introverts‘, I have talked about the power of being genuinely interested in other people. It usually manifests in you asking good questions and listening more than talking.

As much as you are trying to ‘pitch’ in the conversation, don’t make it a one-way street. After the 30-sec pitch, focus on consciously giving talk-time to the investor by asking questions that spark an interesting discussion vs a founder-to-investor monologue.

C. Closing thoughts

I was feeling so frustrated listening to some awesome founders give such broken and unengaging 30-second pitches at recent events that I had to write this post.

Essentially, all the above inputs are based on 2 core ideas:

#1 Put your strongest foot forward as quickly as possible, and in a coherent structure.

#2 Make the conversation interesting. Tell stories. No one likes to be bored.

Happy pitching!

Subscribe

to my weekly newsletter where in addition to my long-form posts, I will also share a weekly recap of all my social posts & writings, what I loved to read & watch that week + other useful insights & analysis exclusively for my subscribers.

Curiosity As A Networking Cheat Code

Do you struggle with creating an instant connect with a new person during events, dinners, or warm intros? Sharing the cheat code for cracking this problem.

Whatever career you might be pursuing, there is a core aspect that never changes – every business is a people business and our success depends on being able to create an authentic connection with employees, customers, partners, and investors.

Creating this connection is the easiest when there is some sort of shared history or commonality. However, this tends to be a relatively small circle of people that can get tapped out pretty quickly. Our professional and personal growth depends on continuously expanding this circle by being able to connect with and influence a fresh set of people, perhaps each week if you are in sales or are a founder, but every few months at the minimum for most of us.

We meet these new folks at events and conferences, through warm introductions from shared networks, and in many cases now, establishing the first contact on social media. Given the noisy world we live in, each one of us barely gets a few minutes during a first meeting to establish chemistry with a complete stranger. If we fail to create a positive vibe during these initial minutes, it’s unlikely that this relationship will ever enter our professional funnel for a possible collaboration later on.

As a venture investor, I am at the mercy of this problem statement every day. Being able to quickly bond with a new set of founders, LPs, co-investors, and operators is a core part of the job. I totally concur with this thought from Semil Shah (Haystack):

Venture capital is a people-flow business.

Semil Shah (Haystack)

Personally, going to events and mixing around has given me unprecedented ROI (I previously shared my events playbook – “Networking at Events for Introverts“). I have also made some wonderful friendships by doing 1:1 meetings via warm intros.

During these conversations, I have tried various mindsets, approaches, and mental models to deconstruct interacting with strangers. I keep running experiments across mixers, dinners, and 1:1s, introspecting what worked well and what didn’t in a particular context. Essentially, I have been trying to distill it down to whether there is something fundamental that seems to work across contexts, and which, therefore, merits being incorporated as a core behavior.

One such element I have seen work really well is demonstrating a natural curiosity during the first few minutes of interaction with a new person. With each passing year, I have come to believe more and more that:

The cheat code for faster career growth is having the ability to influence strangers by demonstrating curiosity.

We live in a highly egotistical, self-absorbed world where everyone is a creator, trying to market their personal brand and posting content about themselves. Most people love to talk, and talk only about their stuff!

I have observed very few people taking a genuine interest in another person’s journey. Asking interesting questions of someone you have just met has become a lost art. The social conditioning of this era drives people towards talking more and listening less.

However, humans have a basic yearning to be heard. Have you noticed that when someone appears to be taking interest in what you have to say, you feel a natural pull towards this person? In this attention-starved society, when someone devotes that scarce currency to a first conversation, it’s extremely powerful.

I see this working in so many situations. When pitching to a potential customer, the key to closing a deal is taking the time and devoting attention to understanding their pain points and concerns, instead of mindlessly plonking your product on them.

An investor can leave even the most seasoned founders with a warm feeling during the 1st meeting if they take the time to go beyond superficial pitching theatrics and truly try and understand their journey, their backstory, and what they have painstakingly built.

The key to a successful partnership is listening to the other side to understand their goals, motivations, and what they care about, including the personal journey and incentives of the individual championing the deal.

Genuine curiosity can be incredibly disarming. It’s about putting the constant internal self-talk to the side, being in the moment, and focusing on understanding the other person. If this becomes a consistent part of your personality, you will automatically see this translating to a bunch of new meaningful relationships each year.

Subscribe

to my weekly newsletter where in addition to my long-form posts, I will also share a weekly recap of all my social posts & writings, what I loved to read & watch that week + other useful insights & analysis exclusively for my subscribers.