Entrepreneurs: stop networking and showing off and get back to work | Hacker News Reader

Entrepreneurs: stop networking and showing off and get back to work

thenextweb.com

114 pointsBorisBomega25 comments

It's not necessarily bad advice to some people, but the majority of people I know that are focused on a new project are spending way too much time on code.

"Just one more javascript function to add..." and so on keeps them from ever meeting with anyone - potential customers, local like-minded entrepreneurs who could offer support and introductions to others, etc.

If someone recognizes themselves in this piece as the person who is always networking/pitching/schmoozing and never working on the product/project/service at all (tech or customer development), then yes, heed the advice. Otherwise, simply strive for a balance. But... don't fall for the "it's gotta be perfect in my eyes before I show anyone" (or even "it's gotta be or look really nice before anyone can see it"). Just... show it around.

While it's true first impressions count, after you show someone, there's millions or billions of others to make a new first impression on later with an improved system/service/product. But you won't know how best to improve it without getting the feedback from initial showings.

I think the point is that networking events aren't usually chock-full of potential customers. They're often an early-adopter circle-jerk and unless your customers are early adopters, you get diminishing returns on such things.

You need to build up a network, and so getting out and pitching to folks is a necessity early on, but remember that networking events are mostly just practice for pitching to the people who actually matter.

I'd suggest also that a lot of people are convinced that their target customers are early adopters because it's easier to imagine that their customers are like themselves. This is often wrong, sometimes dangerously so. Do some soul-searching (Are these really the people that are most likely to give us money? Do they even have any money? How much?) if you find yourself in that spot.

There are a lot of "entrepreneurs" that get caught up in the social aspects of being an entrepreneur without actually going out and getting traction on their business. It turns into an ugly form of cargo-cultism quickly.

TNW probably encounters a lot of people who do more pitching than working. They hardly ever hear from people who do too much working and not enough pitching. It's my impression that HN has more of the latter. This article is terrible advice for them.

More generally applicable advice is the "rule of thirds" described in the middle of Chris Brogan's blog post that I just submitted: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2359099

True, the author, as a target of the over-schmoozers, inevitably has a big sampling bias.

Not going to criticize the advice, since I think there's a point to it. I will take issue with this, though:

> The three hours spent at a networking event could also be invested in emailing your customers

Please, no, entrepreneurs. Don't consider e-mail a magic customer builder. I dropped Twilio like a bad habit after their community manager e-mailed me three templates in as many weeks, reminding me that I had signed up for an account; I was developing something using their service, and instantly shelved the project once these started to roll in:

I’d like to introduce myself, I'm Danielle, Twilio's Community Manager, and I'm here to help out with any questions you may have

I wanted to drop a note to see how your experience with Twilio has been going.

Danielle here, I wanted to share a few more Twilio tips and tricks with you.

I'm all for an occasional e-mail or two, but when your company is in my inbox once a week, that's too much. That's not developing a relationship with me, that's trying desperately to keep me interested in your service. Find better ways to develop relationships with your customers aside from e-mail.

I think reasoning like this assumes that our potential customers are like us. I look at my inbox vs. my wife's and realize that not everyone dislikes getting tips, newsletters, promos and every other piece of junk mail under the sun. She loves getting that stuff. It's just bytes on the hard drive, and she doesn't care about that. I know I'm leaving money on the table my not having an email campaign, so it's one thing I'm vowing to change. Sure, you might lose a few people, but in the long run you'll gain more.

Good point. Putting aside the tech persona and wearing the shoes of the less-technical is a challenge.

You could have made this post without including the person's name.

From a generic, non-specific, automatic mail on behalf of the company? Which everybody gets? If it was private between me and her you'd have a point.

She included her name, I didn't, and I don't see harm in repeating the mail verbatim.

The thing that struck me about the emails in question was that by including the name, it makes it more personal, which makes it seem as though they are trying to presume a closer relationship than they actually have, which makes it seem scammy.

You can make a rule to send Twilio's emails to spamn or trash, and still forge ahead with project. Can't let small stuff scuttle your goals or your in for big trouble.

How many companies have this problem? The most common problem in projects I've worked on has been the lack of someone getting the word out. As a developer, a number one thing I'd be looking for in a cofounder would be someone who can network and publicize - and make a good impression while doing so!

It's tempting to say that you can ignore within-tech-industry networking and only talk to customers, but ... it's pretty important in a lot of situations (funding, partnerships, serendipity, hiring) that the tech community has heard of your company. And they can be some of your first customers, too, in a lot of cases, since they're interested in trying new things for their own sake. And you can get advice. And find employees.

I bet most tech companies need to network more in addition to talking to customers more. Coding is what comes naturally...

The job is solitary enough already. The breaks fromt he work keep me from breaking entirely.

> "So stop networking, showing off and prancing around and start attracting customers and make some money."

> "The pitching, networking and attention from the press is all nice and can help your business. But be careful not to lose yourself in it."

It WILL help your business. The title of this article is a bit harsh and doesn't match the overall point: "But be careful not to lose yourself in it."

I spent a year or so networking heavily. I was a freelance developer hoping to meet businesses to work with.

I did not get the results I hope for. The networking events were parties not business events. People just stood around, drank and aired out.

My current conclusion, especially for freelancers, is to invest your earnings back into raising your profile. Write a blog, travel to customer sites.

Networking does not mean that you have coffee with someone, connect with them on linkedin and forget about it. Networking is when you meet with people who can generate value for you. In exchange you generate value for them.

Value in terms of advise from folks who have done "it" before or meeting with people who you think would make a good team member. Someone has to do this and in my views it is a must. There is a ton a knowledge, support, learning that you can get from these folks. In the end any company or product is a reflection of people who worked on it so why not start early.

As a founder, IMO, networking is crucial and it is a good learning exercise to manage hundreds of things in limited time, which will become crucial when you start seeing traction.

In my experience as a solo developer, I have found that talking to others keeps me motivated and makes me work harder on my projects. I also get access to a different perspective which is always valuable.

To each their own. Some people love the social aspect of their profession, and possibly earn less than if they spent more time in sales than in shmoozing with peers, but isn't that the point of working for yourself, doing what you want/having fun/earning a living?

Every profession has people who profess to be successful w/o a track record, and sell themselves more than they sell anything of value. This certainly is annoying, but its their life.

Scouting matters and so does pitching.

I have received great advice and mentoring that I never would have found if I had not spent some time driving under the "great white circle that burns us" to meet with the public. I also found great contacts who will develop art and other specialties I could not easily create myself. That is unless stick figures become chic in site design.

With SXSW and YC Demo Days just over, it's high season for startup marketing. For those YC companies who manage to get some financing out of their Demo Day presentation, I'd say they'll be back to work (and harder than ever) pretty soon.

He missed one important thing: networking can be extremely important when it comes time to start hiring employees. Not EVERYTHING is directly about the customer.

I'm really astounded by some of the comments here, almost as if I was browsing the TechCrunch echo chamber. This is certainly not bad advice.

The ratio of "we just got funded" to "we actually developed a valuable product" stories I see in the tech press is getting to astronomical levels. I view this piece as being in response to this trend that really ought to be clear to anybody.

When the bubble pops, having a working, profitable product will be far nicer than having a contact list stuffed full of VC contacts that are now( post-bubble ) scared shitless of doing any deals for any valuation whatsoever.

Then again, pg says there's no bubble, so disregard this and party on. It's different this time.

Comments critical of this article acknowledge the existence of people for whom this is good advice. The comment I see failing to acknowledge the other side is yours. "This is certainly not bad advice.". For whom?

"The ratio of "we just got funded" to "we actually developed a valuable product" stories I see in the tech press is getting to astronomical levels."

In the tech press. But amongst all enterpreneurs it is still quite low. For example no one would fund me, the noname hacker without a working product I can tell you that for sure. As I've browsed angel's profiles I saw that a working product with some customer/user traction seemed to be the absolute minimum for most of them to consider funding a startup. (I've seen something like 'social proof' in those angel-application forms, which may change things for some people, but not for me.)

I'm really new to this game, but it just cannot image how going around talking about an idea could be remotely productive. I've got a lot of ideas - so what? It seems to me that if you fall into that category, then this is probably good advice. On the other hand, it's probably not a bad idea to set out some sort of target for a prototype or whatever so you don't spend all of your time and resources in development. It just seems like a better conversation starter to say something like "Look at this!" rather than "I've got this great idea!"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com