Ignore the startup cliques, just get sh*t done.
Warning! This might come off as an angry rant about my thoughts on networking for entrepreneurs.
I had a bunch of back and forth tweets with Jason Evanish on the idea that startup “cliques” in Boston are preventing young startups from getting the help they need. This is crap. Why is it crap? Well, let me explain.
The most important part of getting a company off the ground is working on your product, launching it, learning from your users, and iterating on your product. Notice I didn’t say meeting with the cool startup kids in town. In the early days, you most likely aren’t hiring, and you aren’t fundraising. You just need to be working on your product. Networking, won’t get you a product vision, and it won’t help you learn from your users. There is so much work to be done so keep focused on building your product and stop going to all of these drinking events …I mean networking events or trying to get the “cool” people to tweet with you. If you believe in your vision, you don’t need to be their friend or even get their validation on your idea. You just need to believe in yourself and execute.
Sure, there are times when you should get advice from those who have been there before. Trying to get press about your startup and getting ready for a fundraising effort come to mind.
If you’re looking to get press you’ll want to network with those people in the press who write about other similar startups. You should reach out to these people via email and tell them your story or try to meet them at events that they will be at. Make sure you actually have your product available for them to use. They won’t write about an idea. Before this, you’ll want to get feedback from users and iterate on their feedback before you try to get the press to care about it. …and yes, this means you’ve already been working on your product for a while before you start “networking” with the press.
Getting advice about fundraising is another reason to network. Before you start asking every entrepreneur who has raised funding, make sure you actually have a product that is at the stage or close to the stage where financing can happen. If you don’t have any users, growth, or market validation then don’t bother spending any of your time meeting with people. They can’t help you until you have some kind of validation of your product in the form of growth or user feedback. When you do, then a seasoned entrepreneur or investor can give you advice on how to message this validation of your vision to investors. Find them on Twitter, Linkedin and email them. Your product is already launched, you already have market validation, so you will find people who will want to talk with you about it. If they do want to talk, ask for a phone call or maybe meet them at their office. Don’t ask for lunch or drinks or anything else that will take them away from them executing.
