Navigating executive relationships?
October 6, 2020 9:57 PM Subscribe
I posted previously about my startup. It got traction with some investors, but the recent Covid closings in major cities pretty much put an end to it. In the interim I managed to curate a pretty awesome network of sort of influential people, or rather I managed to find people who were good at networking who curated the list. What's the best way to pivot from help me with my company to do you know if anyone is hiring? Details inside.
What I'm looking probably is depending on the company a "Head of Engineering" and my background is in websites/web services and particularly large, scalable sites that have peaks and troughs. Recently I had an offshoot into ML.
Let me explain the background. I lead some large software projects that had serious scalability issues. I started a ML firm focusing on brick and retail firms pre-Covid. Covid hit, retailer profits were up but no one was buying and we were a startup in a traditional industry. Had a friend with no tech experience but really good connections help with networking. He got us into an invite-only angel investing club, or really he got into it -- there was a monthly fee in retrospect I should have just paid. In any case, we got connections who in turn gave us great advice and we'd setup informal weekly meetings. The connections never were paid or formal mentors. From my perspective we were invited to join a secret, private club that normally had in person meetings and formal "pitch to us and if we accept you, we'll invest and give you access." We skipped the pitch to them part. The access to people wasn't formal or anything, somehow my cofounder just started talking to people and people who knew people who could help us managed to get in touch with us.
We'd have once every two week calls with a few of them, usually half an hour to an hour that were informal and based on the product we were trying to sell. Obviously we clicked with a few but unfortunately a lot of informal "over lunch" type of small talk is lost over Zoom meetings. These are all advisor or consultant types that had companies but don't seem to have them anymore.
They got us pitches with clients and I think at this point it is important to emphasize we've had no written agreement with anyone. We were self-funded, we skipped the funding the angel club was going to provide and went right to the mentorship for reasons I'll skip for brevity. After about 3-4 months and a couple dozen meetings including some pitches to clients, not investors the startup just isn't working out.
So I have a casual sort of relationship with a really good network of smart people. If they worked for one of the big tech companies I'd be more aggressive in just saying this startup you helped us with is probably not working out, you have any openings at your place? Instead they're just angel investor types for lack of a better word who somehow managed to start several companies. When we make small talk and ask what they're doing they're always working on a consulting pitch or something. It is never entirely clear what some of these people actually do if anything for a living but they're well connected.
My cofounder, or ex-cofounder who left for a big gig in real estate and who managed to get the connections, suggested that I continue the talks with these people under the guise of the product and continue to ask for feedback and also ask them a lot of questions but skip short of asking for a job. I feel awkward doing this and also getting excited for a product I've frankly lost interest in. Trying to be as crisp as possible here but does anyone have experience with these entrepreneur types? I want to go with what my cofounder said as he's the one good at this sort of networking but also he's really not technical and I have no idea how he manages to even network as well as he does as he's a blunt, and a bit off-putting Israeli ... but he's good at it!
My best jobs have always been through people I knew. These people have seen my work, believed enough in me and my work to not only co-present sales pitches but open up their networks, that this shouldn't be a hard conversation. A purposely bad example but if they were the VP of something at MySpace I would just ask if MySpace had a position. I'm not entirely sure what they do or how they got their networks so it makes approaching this difficult. Does anyone have experience in these groups? Again, everything has been across Zoom so I think a lot of interpersonal getting-to-know-you is missing for me at least. At the end of the day I'd rather find someone through them rather than Indeed.com. Sorry for the longish-post! Hope my question came through.
What I'm looking probably is depending on the company a "Head of Engineering" and my background is in websites/web services and particularly large, scalable sites that have peaks and troughs. Recently I had an offshoot into ML.
Let me explain the background. I lead some large software projects that had serious scalability issues. I started a ML firm focusing on brick and retail firms pre-Covid. Covid hit, retailer profits were up but no one was buying and we were a startup in a traditional industry. Had a friend with no tech experience but really good connections help with networking. He got us into an invite-only angel investing club, or really he got into it -- there was a monthly fee in retrospect I should have just paid. In any case, we got connections who in turn gave us great advice and we'd setup informal weekly meetings. The connections never were paid or formal mentors. From my perspective we were invited to join a secret, private club that normally had in person meetings and formal "pitch to us and if we accept you, we'll invest and give you access." We skipped the pitch to them part. The access to people wasn't formal or anything, somehow my cofounder just started talking to people and people who knew people who could help us managed to get in touch with us.
We'd have once every two week calls with a few of them, usually half an hour to an hour that were informal and based on the product we were trying to sell. Obviously we clicked with a few but unfortunately a lot of informal "over lunch" type of small talk is lost over Zoom meetings. These are all advisor or consultant types that had companies but don't seem to have them anymore.
They got us pitches with clients and I think at this point it is important to emphasize we've had no written agreement with anyone. We were self-funded, we skipped the funding the angel club was going to provide and went right to the mentorship for reasons I'll skip for brevity. After about 3-4 months and a couple dozen meetings including some pitches to clients, not investors the startup just isn't working out.
So I have a casual sort of relationship with a really good network of smart people. If they worked for one of the big tech companies I'd be more aggressive in just saying this startup you helped us with is probably not working out, you have any openings at your place? Instead they're just angel investor types for lack of a better word who somehow managed to start several companies. When we make small talk and ask what they're doing they're always working on a consulting pitch or something. It is never entirely clear what some of these people actually do if anything for a living but they're well connected.
My cofounder, or ex-cofounder who left for a big gig in real estate and who managed to get the connections, suggested that I continue the talks with these people under the guise of the product and continue to ask for feedback and also ask them a lot of questions but skip short of asking for a job. I feel awkward doing this and also getting excited for a product I've frankly lost interest in. Trying to be as crisp as possible here but does anyone have experience with these entrepreneur types? I want to go with what my cofounder said as he's the one good at this sort of networking but also he's really not technical and I have no idea how he manages to even network as well as he does as he's a blunt, and a bit off-putting Israeli ... but he's good at it!
My best jobs have always been through people I knew. These people have seen my work, believed enough in me and my work to not only co-present sales pitches but open up their networks, that this shouldn't be a hard conversation. A purposely bad example but if they were the VP of something at MySpace I would just ask if MySpace had a position. I'm not entirely sure what they do or how they got their networks so it makes approaching this difficult. Does anyone have experience in these groups? Again, everything has been across Zoom so I think a lot of interpersonal getting-to-know-you is missing for me at least. At the end of the day I'd rather find someone through them rather than Indeed.com. Sorry for the longish-post! Hope my question came through.
Say you’re looking to get acquihired. For the low low price of a job.
It’s investor language, it might be a bit cute but it cuts to the chase.
posted by weed donkey at 8:09 AM on October 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
It’s investor language, it might be a bit cute but it cuts to the chase.
posted by weed donkey at 8:09 AM on October 7, 2020 [1 favorite]
You are “talent”. Investors invest, first and foremost, in talent. Every single investor you ever hear speak will say “I invest in people”.
So, you are there in front of them and they like you. This is a no brainer. Get aquihired.
posted by weed donkey at 8:11 AM on October 7, 2020
So, you are there in front of them and they like you. This is a no brainer. Get aquihired.
posted by weed donkey at 8:11 AM on October 7, 2020
You can be pretty direct about this. You and your cofounder have made the decision to wind down your startup due to COVID-driven changes in the market. You'll be going on the job market soon looking for another engineering lead role in such-and-such target sector/company size, do they have any suggestions on who to connect with? You don't need to keep running into the ground with a product you no longer think is viable and you don't have to dance around the question. This stuff happens all the time.
posted by 4rtemis at 10:40 AM on October 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
posted by 4rtemis at 10:40 AM on October 7, 2020 [2 favorites]
Response by poster: Sorry for the confusing question but the broad question was can I just be direct or is there some reason I shouldn't? And it looks like I have an answer.
My cofounder was a bid adamant about not being direct, and I believe that's just his style. I guess my direct question was is there some sort of unspoken faux pas of just being direct, thanks for the confidence boost!
posted by geoff. at 12:22 PM on October 7, 2020
My cofounder was a bid adamant about not being direct, and I believe that's just his style. I guess my direct question was is there some sort of unspoken faux pas of just being direct, thanks for the confidence boost!
posted by geoff. at 12:22 PM on October 7, 2020
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Your question is confusing, but to answer your broad question, literally just reach out and say "hey my startup isn't working out because pandemic, so i am looking for employment now. Do you have any leads?".
posted by misanthropicsarah at 6:51 AM on October 7, 2020 [2 favorites]