All for one and one for all…. when you hear that phrase it may make you think of The Three Musketeers, an old war movie (In Harms Way, The Bridge on the River Kwai, The Dirty Dozen) or an Our Gang/ Little Rascals episode (Alfalfa, Spanky and Buckwheat – coming together on a secret mission). Either way, the phrase is alive and well in the start-up community.
As we get to know more and more start-ups, one thing becomes very clear, we are all working hard to deliver on our passion to build a meaningful and prosperous business. As a result, we try to leverage all of our contacts for support and create opportunities in order to do so. In my earlier post, I talked about how we have been able to meet some really smart and passionate people to help us with our mission. Ironically (or — not really), we have met these folks via other start-ups. There exists in this community a strong desire for all of us to do well even if that means sharing resources.
How does this make sense? Well, learning from other start-ups helps you advance and build your business quicker. Being able to help other start-ups builds community and loyalty – and, you never know where that will take you down the road. In addition, we have discovered that just by meeting new people, start-ups or otherwise, every meeting leads to something good – whether its finding resources for your business or meeting another person who is well connected to a community you can leverage to do business.
We have met many great people through our start-up network and learned a lot about developing an online product in an efficient and timely way – on the flipside, we made a lot of mistakes (learning opportunities) along the way as well. Building relationships with the start-up community has made us smarter and more efficient than we have been in the past.
But the benefits don’t stop there:
- Instant Camaraderie – Start-ups do appreciate the stress and difficulty of building a business – especially in this economy (we often joke that we couldn’t have picked a worse time to launch a new start-up!). Having ‘lived through’ the pain creates a strong bond, even with people you have just met.
- Start-ups Want Everyone to Succeed – The people we have met in the start up community will go out of their way to help you if they can, for they have learned that helping other start-ups will benefit them greatly in the long run. At the very least, it provides an opportunity to engage with a new audience about your product to help spread the word and build awareness.
- Securing Efficient Resources – As discussed in my earlier post, most of the resources we have secured that have really worked out for us have come from start-up contact referrals.
- Learning from Others Mistakes – Just by meeting with start-ups you can learn so much about what NOT to do as well as what TO DO. And, it feels great when you can offer solid advice and support back.
- Building that Ever Important Network – Yes we all know how very important this is for most of the time it’s not what you know but who you know. Having a network that is well tied-in to VCs, other entrepreneurs and resources has proven invaluable for us and the other start-ups we have met. It’s amazing how fast your network grows as a result of meetings you have. Two degrees of separation really hits home — everyone knows someone that may be able to help evangelize your mission or product.
Getting involved in a start up and the start up community has been an extremely valuable experience – both personally and professionally. Of course there are many ups and downs, but the learning experience and the connections you build along make the hard times more than tolerable. No matter what your end goal, having the opportunity to participate in the start up community gives you the opportunity to gain exposure to well-connected, smart and powerful individuals. In some respects – please excuse the cliché — it restores your faith in humanity as well as business – for there are people out there who will give you the shirt of their back in order to help build a business that is meaningful and helps the economy overall.
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