"Giving First" Random Thoughts

[Andy H]

Several times the Techstars team has mentioned a "giving first" mentality and while it makes total sense, I've been trying to figure out a means of making it a consistent & repeatable practice. If we meet and talk, my give will be: 

a) I'll offer an insight. I can't guarantee that it'll be good (might totally suck), but it'll be genuine. 

b) I'll make an introduction. Might help, might not, but it has the potential to connect you with someone else who might offer an insight and make an introduction. Lather, rinse, repeat. 

Andy H

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Andy Hakes
CEO - Tech Ops Performance, AireXpert
p:	716-268-1000  m: 716-550-9098
a:	Innovation Center, 640 Ellicott St, Buffalo NY 14203
w:	eng.io  e: andy....@eng.io

[Clark Dever]

Thanks Andy!  I'm glad to see the talking points are nudging our community in the right direction and moving people towards activation.

TL;DR: Our Founders needs to lead the community. Referrals are easier if you set the referrer up for success.

Buffalo's Startup Community (BSC) needs to be Founder driven.  We can't depend on institutional and state players to organize and drive it, they either lack continuity of vision (this is a 20-year play, they have 4-year election cycles), or they end up becoming gatekeepers and rate limiting our success.  

We, the BSC, need every Founder to take a few hours a week away from their business and put it into startup community development.  It sounds silly, but if we all do that - I guarantee the results will be 10x for your business than if you had spent those 100 hours a year working directly on it.  You will see leverage and force multiplication of your efforts by becoming a leader, organizer, supporter.

By peer mentoring, event organizing, and offering mutual support - we will build more early-stage startups, which will increase access to specialized knowledge, which will attract more capital, which will allow people to grow and exit faster.  If we can increase the density of the community (The ratio of "professionals" to "founders") we will eventually see a "flywheel effect" for the community and startups. If you're surrounded by Founders in your daily life (virtual or physical) it becomes much easier to navigate the problems you face as a founder.   We are all peer mentors and therapists.

If you haven't stopped reading yet, I'd like to follow-on point 2.

How to ask for an introduction and/or make it easier to give one:

Streamline referrals by providing the following information:

1. An archetype  or a specific name that you'd like to be connected to
   
2. A brief description of your ask (targeted to the referrer)
   
3. A brief description of (you, your business, your problem)
4. Any related constraining information
5. Any supporting collateral (pitch deck, one-pager, etc)
   

"Clark,
Could you please introduce me to that woman  who you said was the best startup CFO you had ever met? I'd like to discuss the unit economics of my BSC T-Shirt Product. (Editors note: positive superlatives gain your referrer social equity through third-party validation of positive talk. They can always delete it if you take it too far.)

For reference: BSC Products Unlimited is a seed stage, blockchain driven manufacturing company that prints your wallet address on your favorite clothing and has embedded NFC chips so people can pay you by patting your back.

We plan to have our ICO in 8 weeks, so the input is time sensitive.

Thanks in advance,

Synace

Attached: Pro-Forma.xls
Attached: Pitch-Deck.pdf
"

If you ask in this way, all the referrer has to do is click the fwd button, type in their comments above your email, and hit send.

If we all ask in this way, then the BSC can create a denser network with more redundant connections faster.  This bypasses the gatekeepers and accelerates growth.  It also gives the BSC a chance to practice the #givefirst mantra through referring or responding to introductions with outstanding levels of support and commitment.

Don't forget to be awesome,

Clark Dever
Intrepid Technologist
+1 716 803 3213
clark...@gmail.com
http://www.clarkdever.com - A blog about the effective leadership of teams that develop products at early stage startup companies.

Please excuse my brevity: http://five.sentenc.es/

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[Scott Falbo]

Hey everyone, I'd be happy to help in the following ways:

1. If you are a potential founder but have a job that you enjoy and pays the bills but you're unsure about how to make 'life' work by leaving to found a company I'd be happy to share my experience with you (tangible things like figuring out how to get health insurance for your family to general concerns, etc - all fair game)

2. If you have a startup or an idea in the health insurance space I'd be happy to provide feedback, potential intros, etc.  Before cofounding LenderLogix I worked in that space for 8 years and saw many different aspects of the industry.

You can email me at sc...@lenderlogix.com if you'd like to connect.  

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