It's an extroverts world. What are the best channels for introverts? How many potential start ups have never been funded because the founder(s) didn't have the networking skills that are natural to extroverts?
Personally, I'm not a person who can be successful doing "cold networking" or "never have lunch alone" strategies. Some people consider cycling to be the new great way to network, and many introverts seem to use it well. Probably not going to work for me either.
Lean on your strengths, interests, and natural inclinations rather than force yourself to be someone who you are not and play in a field unfit for you.
Also, don't frame it as a "networking" effort, as that mindset imo will make you transactional, and it will show. Instead focus on building relationships that truly resonate with you. Don't meet a person with the desire to get something from them. Be genuinely interested in who they are, not what they do or what they have.
Lean towards quality rather than quantity of relationships if you don't enjoy meeting and keeping in touch with a hundred people.
>How many potential start ups have never been funded because the founder(s) didn't have the networking skills that are natural to extroverts?
Probably a lot. But the number of would-have-been-extremely-successful startups that didn't get funded because of a lack of networking skills when they started? Probably very very few, because if they didn't have the determination to figure out a skill they sucked at but was essential to the success of their venture, then at some point in the future they would have hit another difficult wall and have given up.
If you're going to be CEO, either of a startup or a large co, you're probably broadly competent or hyper-competent in a handful of areas. Seems reasonable that at that level your ex/introvert tendencies are far from determinant.
Any particular reasoning behind this? Why would this particular specialty (abstract people management and capital allocation) be more likely to attract competent people than any other job specialty?
However, with a high-touch product (as mentioned above), you really need to have a lifetime of extroverted experiences which leads you to all the other extroverted (sales people) that will close those deals.