By Mr. Aneesh Khanna.Early-Stage Entrepreneurship Consultant & Coach
Networking is a skill that does not necessarily come naturally to all of us.  We often are victims of an Imposter Syndrome, when we enter a room full of 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:
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
INVESTOR CONNECT AND PITCHING
Firstly, when you think of Entrepreneurship try and delineate that endeavour from the concept of Fundraising. Think of Funding as a way to help you scale the problem solving, once you have figured your Product Market Fit.
Delay Fundraising – The more you bootstrap, the better the valuation. Bootstrapping helps in 2 things. You get customer money, which is the greatest valuation hack. You also understand frugality of running your business, which every investor will appreciate, when you are finally ready for fundraising.
It is more important than ever to have the right outreach to Investors:
- Be Organized & Do your Research – 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.
- Referral from an Investee company – Today the volume of pitches that an Investor receives through the ‘Submit your Pitch’ type of button on their website is staggering. A referral from one of the existing investees of that VC/Angel is always very helpful. Tap into your college entrepreneur alumni network.
Pitching is a Craft and we all learn with experience, some thoughts:
- Problem & the Sufferers – Talk about this more than your Product & Solution.
- 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.
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