How can I connect to someone who has previously held a specific position at a federal government agency?

Yes, it's foolish. People can disagree about how much value there is in a MBA, but that's not the point. You've identified two targets - being an entrepreneur and building out your network. Go straight for the jugular, not some round about way through school. Want to build your network? Take half the money you would've spent on grad school and support yourself while you explore early business opportunities and network like mad. It's quite simple. Want to build your network? Spend your time, money and energy networking in the right places. Going to school for networking only is like going grocery shopping every day hoping you'll meet your future spouse in the aisles. Taking it to the extreme... take that money and throw massive parties, sponsor relevant meetups, make a $5k investment in a startup, etc. [Source: I dropped out of school with only a few courses left to found my startup that became a VC backed Silicon Valley company.]

Absolutely. I have done this in various aspects of my business, either as a consultant for film projects or as a sponsorship consultant / referrer and in many other aspects. There's a nice quote - it escapes me who said it - but "Your network is your net-worth" - what they mean by that is there is incredible value in who you know, but not just that - it's really WHAT you know, about how to HELP them. Couple of ways you can make money by introducing: - Find out what someone (or a business) needs. It could be more sales / clients / or a service. Then figure out how to get paid for that. Let's say a business sells XXX service for $10,000. If you were able to bring them a new customer willing to spend that, do you think they'd be happy to pay you a 10% referral fee? Probably, as long as they have a healthy profit margin, and you agree this upfront. If you bring people what they need, they will usually be happy to share the proceeds with you. In my own example, event organizers for major celebrity events often ask me for help to introduce sponsors, for which they pay a commission. The equation is easy - they need sponsors to finance their event. So if I help them find a brand, or advise them on doing that, they pay me some of the proceeds for making that introduction. It helps them achieve their goal quicker. - The other way is online. Many companies run "affiliate" or "referral" schemes. Just like Uber will give $10 of free rides if you share with a friend, online companies often give fees for clicks or leads to potential customers. Just do a search for "affiliate marketing" or look up sites like Clickbank or Peerfly. If you have a good online network, social network or email list, you will be able to make money by letting your contacts know about things that interest them. The great thing about referral income is it is often a percentage, and so it has great leverage for you. The more the client spends, the more you earn, for often the same effort. So focus on referring either big clients, or a wide spread of small ones, but be careful of too much effort on one small client! Hope this helps.

Your assumption is not true. They don't care where you come from. Time is money regardless of where in the globe you come from. Ask for advice not money if you are going in cold. Don't send your deck, don't attach anything to that email and make sure the email is max four short sentences. Here is how to get a response: Subject: Seeking advice Body: Line 1. Name.. working on a product in X space that does Y. Line 2. I saw you have experience with X space and Y products. Line 3. I would like your advice on (user acquisition, scaling, blah, blah). Make sure you do your homework on what area the investor is an SME. Line 4. Ask one very specific question. Thank you for your time Name DONE! It works and if you want to talk I can explain further which VCs this has worked with. As the saying goes ask for money you get advice. Ask for advice you get money. In an ideal world you want to have a warm intro. But hey those are not always easy to come by so you do what you have to. What is the worst that can happen investor says no? Or doesn't respond? Who gives a shit you tried.

I would create an account with Manageflitter and/or Followerwonk - both integrate with Twitter. I know that many people feel negatively about Twitter but here's why it's great, especially for your quesiton: There are no privacy settings. Facebook and LinkedIn have tons of walls you run into while cruising around looking for potential buyers. And the other social networks are not conducive to time-effective/cost-effective networking for other reasons. With these tools (Manageflitter and Followerwonk), you can search the bios of Twitter accounts for DPC, TPA, and any other relevant keyword. You can search within your location, or throughout Twitter as a whole. From there, the tools allow you to classify (List) or interact (Follow) them. After that, I'd encourage you to engage them subtly, by favoriting and retweeting a few of their Tweets over several days. Then begin a conversation with them, ideally about a mutual interest or some random thing they specify in their bio. After a back-and-forth tweet or two, bring up your services tactfully. Ask them honestly if they need what you are offering. If they don't, maybe they know someone who is. At the very least, you'll have a relevant networking partner/friend! Another very valuable use of your time would be to post in LinkedIn groups. They are more professional than Facebook groups, and it's common for people to post jobs and other networking opportunities there, as well as pitch their own services. (See the lengthy URL at the bottom of this answer for an example). Hope that helps - I'd love to talk more; there are several other ways you could go about connecting with DPC's and TPA's online. Thanks, Evan http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=1783783&trk=vsrp_groups_res_name&trkInfo=VSRPsearchId%3A1618903721380231777057%2CVSRPtargetId%3A1783783%2CVSRPcmpt%3Aprimary

What your trying is one approach to finding investors. Here's another that in my experience is far more effective. I'd tap your network, and it's probably actually a lot bigger than you think! Linkedin is the perfect tool for this. Look for people you're connected to, that you trust, and that are suited to helping your business (ideally in your industry, or experienced in fundraising, etc) and that have a good network themselves (ideally they're connected to some investors you're interested in, but not required). Reach out to them, and let them know you're starting a venture, and are looking for their advice, and would love to treat them to a 30 min coffee meeting. People love to hear that others think they're awesome and they love to give advice which makes them feel awesome, and this is someone you know, so chances are they'll accept. Send this request to everyone relevant in your network. At the meeting, tell them about your venture, give them your pitch, hear their comments and heed their feedback, and ask them for 3 people in their network that would be great people to talk to. Get intros to those people, and repeat. If you do this diligently and listen well, your network will expand extremely quickly, and you'll be able to get introduced to literally anyone you want. This is how our founding team at Tachyus acquired our first customer within 1 month of starting, and having no experience or direct connections in our industry. I'm always down to chat in more detail if you're interested. Best of luck!