By Aneesh Khanna
“Your Network is your Net Worth” is what we hear often. But as a young professional or Entrepreneur, building your network can many times feel very intimidating and out of your reach.
We get the Imposter Syndrome, when we enter a room full for Senior Management or Venture Capitalists or A grade Entrepreneurs. I have been there as well; let’s look at some ways to make Networking more effective:
- Networking at Events – When you attend founder mixers or large-scale events, for example Techsparks or TiE city meetings for entrepreneurs, try to make at least 4-5 meaningful connections at the event, which you can build on in the days post the event. This is much better than collecting 25 visiting cards at the end of the event. Do your homework before the event, let’s say that your agenda to attend the meeting is to meet a specific person from the investor community or a successful entrepreneur from your industry. When you get the 1-2 minutes with them, engage with them in a meaningful conversation, about what you read/know about them and build the chat from there.
- Online Networking – Linkedin is a wonderful way to build your network online. Some tips for Linkedin networking:
- Set your goals – Decide on what you want to achieve from Linkedin, for example: Networking with angel investors for a fundraise, or to be seen as an expert or to showcase your startup or build your personal brand.
- The Right Following – Follow those people, whose content you genuinely like and also those who don’t post very often, but are intrinsically linked to your objectives.
- No Cold inmails – Yes, I know there are romantic entrepreneurial stories of how a cold email worked for someone. But let’s face it, cold inmails are difficult to be discovered, with an even low probability of a response. Always send a short note with a Linkedin request connection, for the other person to evaluate if they would like to be associated with you. Then move forward with an inmail.
- Power of Commenting – Let’s say, you follow a few people, don’t only press the like button, add value in the comments. Share you own experience, or talk about having used their product/service, or congratulate them with genuine wishes of good luck for their future endeavors.
- Give before you take – We live in a world, where ‘Quid Pro Quo’ is accepted and ‘What’s in it for me!’ is seen as being smart and ‘jugaadu’ and being a ‘smart cookie’. When it comes to networking, there is no equal give and take, unlike what the world will tell you. If you can help someone genuinely, with expecting nothing in return, you will be surprised how that can reward you in beautiful ways in the days or months to come. You build trust within your network and are seen as authentic and helpful.
INVESTOR CONNECT AND PITCHING
Early-stage fundraising in the country has become more difficult than ever. This is despite the exuberant entrepreneurship environment coupled with the Shark Tank phenomenon. One reason is the usage of the same yardstick of User Traction and Profitability, for the 1st cheque as for a Series A/B fundraise.
Thus, it is even more important to have the right outreach to Investors:
- Be Organized – Create a list of potential investors in an excel sheet. Create columns for contact details, past investments, name of investee companies, typical investment ticket size & status of your connect with them.
- Investor – Entrepreneur Fit – Don’t pitch to any random individual angel or angel group or Early-stage VC. Do your homework. Go through their Fund Thesis, portfolio companies, background of the General Partners. A good fit, will help you get better receptivity and a quicker turnaround, during the pitching process. For example, if you are in sustainability space, look for those VCs who have put money in recycling, plant protein, organic products etc.
- Use Multiple Channels – Go to fundraising events, founder mixers, technology events, Pitch competitions, Incubator organized networking. Use Linkedin for reaching out with an appropriate note in the connection request. Reach out to your alumni network for learnings from funded entrepreneurs.
- Fundraising in not Entrepreneurship – In the end remember, that your clarity of thought of your WHY for your Idea/Startup, combined with your sales traction will always make it easier when you sit across with the Investor. Don’t make fundraising the only goal of your startup, it is a means to the end.
Pitching is a Craft and we all learn with experience, some thoughts:
- Problem & the Sufferers – Talk about this more than your Product & Solution.
- Bring every ounce of energy, optimism and good vibes to your Pitch. Think of every pitch as your last pitch.
- Talk about your WHY – The cause, belief and purpose, because of which you thought of this IDEA and this Problem to solve.
- Focus on understanding the Consumer Persona/s, where you see some early semblance of a Product Market Fit coming from.
- Metrics – Be Strong on metrics across users, repeat rates, CAC (Cost of Acquisition), revenue, unit economics, profitability etc.
(The author is Aneesh Khanna, Early Stage Start-up Coach & Consultant, and the views expressed in this article are his own)
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