Loading...
Answers
MenuWas wondering what if we had a professional networking space focusing on young talents?
I am working to create an interactive youth professional networking app that aims to help the local young buds maintain their career folio and search career opportunities like a game, while delivering the finest of candidates to recruiters in a fast & organized system. It aims to change the conventional way of seeking job and searching talents. By focusing only on youth, its establishing a platform for our country's future leaders i.e. our youth.
Answers
Love the thought process behind this! Very much into the idea of gamifying the career opportunity hunt. I would be curious to know what you define as "youth"? Are they still in school looking for professional internships? Or are these people ready to jump into the job market? Jumping off of your original thought, it could be interesting to have a networking platform specifically for youths looking for virtual/remote internships. To jump start this, it would be great to hold a virtual event of some sort to introduce the platform and kickstart networking sessions. Happy to brainstorm this further and work with you on bringing this idea to reality.
It sounds like a wonderful idea. I would highlight a mentoring aspect within the app. It would be great if a young person can also get advice from an experienced professional. Otherwise it becomes an app like any other job portal where you just search, search and search and then just apply to the next best job offer.
Networks are important in this technological era. Without proper networks we cannot successfully implement any business project. Networks are everywhere these days, be it online or offline you can feel their presence everywhere. The networks need to be built first.
To build networks and to network:
• The process begins with discovering the benefits in a good and effective network.
• Next step is to learn the tools that make the effective networker. This means learning competencies such as the right attitude, to be a good communicator and to send a clear message.
• Being a good networker includes practicing and building experiences for the rest of the life
• Most of us know something about how, in theory, we should act in networks, but the crux of the matter is to implement it as an actual and natural part of our daily life. Most people struggle with this!
However, in my experience as an IT guy is that concrete guidance can bring energy and enthusiasm, which creates positive changes relatively quickly.
Professionally and socially we meet an average of 200 to 1000 new people every year, so the process of meeting people is not complicated by lack of opportunities, but rather the fact that we don’t know how to manage and develop the network contacts. There is a big difference in the networks we create. Some people have big networks with a lot of people but only a few close relations. Others have smaller networks with great profoundness depth. The new research study “The Strength of Strong Ties in Business Referral Networks” by Dr. Ivan Misner & Max Steén has shown that vague connections (not close relations) give 0.4 contacts or references a year, whereas strong connections on average give 7.4 contacts or references a year. There is no definitive truth about the perfect mix of networks, but the above research study may help qualify your goals on how many face-to-face contacts and how many social media contacts are suitable for your personal challenges and needs.
It can be difficult to define a close relation and how you technically build it. But a simple and good guiding principle can be this VCP composition:
1. Visibility. You must be visible. People need to know who you are.
2. Credibility. Next step is to ensure credibility. Who are you, what are you good at?
3. Profitability. Then a mutual connection is established. You help each other and make a close/strong network relation.
It sounds so simple: you are building up visibility and credibility and then you can profit. Even though it sounds cynical, is must be taken in the right spirit. The strange part is that even though most people can recognize the process, I see people forgetting it repeatedly. A lot of people think they can just bump into people and then expect them to try for them. That is rarely the case. That is why networking requires a lot of patience, involvement, and time. This is also one of the reasons why you should not wait to create a network until you need help or constructive discussion. If you haven’t already started, then start now - it pays off! Remember the opening line “How can I help you”. In this way you will quickly build up trust and a close relation that makes people want to help you when you need help.
There is a personal and often overlooked side benefit by helping others. The moment you help another person or do him a favor, your brain releases the substance dopamine. A substance released when you perform an action connected to the experience of well-being. This means that the brain releases the transmitter substance when you do other people a favour or make them happy. Therefore, to help others is a win-win situation to both you and the person who will get a positive experience or feeling.
I meet a lot of people in India who want to build a good network and say “I would like to get started but I have to read a few more books about networking and body language, get better at small talking and lose a few pounds”. Honestly – the right time will never come. Networking is learned from experience. It must be tried, experienced, and tried and experienced again, and over time you will learn what works for you. So get started, it is the only way you will be good at the discipline of networking, a discipline consisting of a lot of factors you cannot master at once, a discipline where you will learn and experience all the time.
I have always believed in the principle of digital minimalism when I worked in Indian companies. Digital minimalism is a philosophy of technology use in which we focus our online time on small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support the things we value, and then happily miss out everything else.
Networking app should focus on activities that youth of your country prefers, in the current scenario there is a lot of unemployment around the globe. For instance, if you do build an app focusing on young talent it will be profitable venture. Major economies of the world are suffering due to pandemic. The U.S. economy shrank at a dizzying 32.9% annual rate in the April-June quarter - by far the worst quarterly plunge ever - when the viral outbreak shut down businesses, throwing tens of millions out of work and sending unemployment surging to 14.7%. So dizzying was the economic fall last quarter that most analysts expect the economy to produce a sharp bounce-back in the current July-September period, perhaps of as much as 17% or higher on an annual basis. Yet with the rate of confirmed coronavirus cases having surged in a majority of states, more businesses being forced to pull back on re-openings and the Republican Senate proposing to scale back government aid to the unemployed, the economy could worsen in the months ahead.
Now let us focus on building a network. There are two types of strategies when it comes to building a network:
1) A short-term strategy
2) A long-term strategy
1. Short-term strategy – your strategy here and now: You will need this strategy to define the needs of your network within a limited time period.
Ask yourself these questions:
1. What is my vision for the next year?
2. What do I need help with?
3. Who do I know that can help me get there or who do I need to meet to get there?
Re 1: What is your project for the next year? What do you want to achieve? It could be e.g. education, a new job, starting a business, expanding your business. The vision you choose has to be as concrete as possible. The more concrete, the more functional your vision is in relation to the network mind-set.
Re 2: When the vision is defined, you can move on by finding out what you need help for in completing your vision. Here you will also increase the success rate by being concrete about the jobs you need help with.
Re 3: Here you name the persons or companies that can lead the way or maybe even lead directly to the goal regarding your vision. But remember; only rarely can we go directly. Often, we need to go through several steps before we get to the crux of what we want to accomplish. Also remember often the process is easier if you have prepared the ground by offering your help or if you can have someone recommending you to a contact.
2. Long-term strategy (nodes): This strategy is a result of the fact that TIME is short for most of us. You may be spending a lot of hours on cultivating a big network and that is why the node mind-set is brilliant. To explain nodes, I will use a map with flight routes. Replace the destinations on the map with a person’s network. It is quite clear that the person replacing the airports of Frankfurt or Nairobi has a lot of both ingoing and outgoing contacts. I call such a person a “NODE”. That person reaches out to a lot of different connections and opportunities in the whole world. The advantage of having one or more nodes in your network portfolio is that through these contacts you can reach far in your search. This structure means that you “only” must cultivate your 3-4 nodes instead of cultivating 100-230 contacts.
Apart from these strategies you must keep in mind the following points as well:
1. Use your old contacts: In the hunt for exciting new contacts, a lot of people totally overlook the fact that they have a past. Like-minded people from when they were studying who are now working for different companies. These former fellow students and former colleagues can be an immediate goldmine worth researching. Don’t expect your former colleagues or fellow students to have a new job for you, but references, introductions and professional discussion are also very valuable in these and a lot of other situations.
2. Links to influence: Personal relationships foster trust and fidelity. If you are buying a product where there are no significant differences in quality or price, you will naturally prefer to buy from the person you know. And even if there are significant differences, you will still want to buy from the person you know. Personal recommendations outweigh other considerations when it comes to looking for a new job, marketing, or sales. The fact is that if you need a lawyer, an engineering firm, a web firm, or a partner, you will naturally think of people you know and have good chemistry with, or you will think of someone who has been recommended to you. If you are looking for a job, it is financially worthwhile for you to spend your time seeking out relevant networks and networking, than spending your time writing applications. More than 60 per cent of all jobs are filled through networking and recommendations, so clearly it is pointless to expect to secure a job interview in the conventional way.
3. Look for what you want: It is a good idea to ask yourself whom you admire and whom you associate with.
1) Is it people who possess what you want?
2) Or, is it people who want what you possess?
It makes a big difference whether you answered “yes” to the first or to the second question. If you answered yes to the second question – you have a problem. Sociologically, we human beings tend to seek out and be around people who are like ourselves or who have the same issues as we have. Here we find sympathy and endorsement; but, as businesspeople, we cannot live on that. We must be around people who can inspire us, give good advice, help us progress, and so forth. Consequently, we also need to discover role models and observe their attitudes, manners, and mindset. If you want to succeed with your business or make a career, then find people who have run profitable businesses or have made rapid career progress. Talk to them and learn about their money or their career. You may find that you are the only one who is self-conscious about these things. Financially strong people and people with successful careers are used to talking about both money and career advancement, so these are not taboo conversation topics for them. The fact that you are brave enough to ask about these things can sometimes lead the way to a valuable contact. It can be quite instructive to hear how they handle ideas, money, and investments when these are natural parts of their lives and not just a dream. The beginning of a new mindset could be to read about people who have had fantastic careers or made huge fortunes.
4. Net weaving: Often we think about networking in terms of “What do I get in return?” What do I get in return for all my efforts in creating a network and putting time into it? But this is not the way you should look at networks. If you turn the question “What do I get in return?” round and change it to “How can I help you?”, you have immediately created a different context, and your opposite number will be committed and positive in his attitude.
The American Bob Littell has defined the technique of “Net Weaving”, which focuses on seeing opportunities and making connections with people you meet in your networks.
Instead of asking what you can achieve by contacting a certain person, you can think about pursuing four opportunities:
1) How can I help this person?
2) Do I know someone in my network that might be able to give him or her a push forward?
3) Could this person be beneficial to someone in my network?
4) This person is remarkably interesting – how can I integrate him into my network?
By turning your way of thinking towards networking and helping rather than receiving, you signal energy and social competence. The technique is constructive in making long-term relationships, and it is amazingly effective at network meetings or during breaks at conferences and the like. The process can be guided by a facilitator – thereby ensuring that you are all working based on the same principles. The switch from focusing on “me” to focusing on “you” almost always produces an unselfish attitude in your counterparts, and the unselfish attitude which tends to be the norm at conventional network meetings anyway will morph into enthusiasm and intensive intimacy.
I believe your idea is fabulous one, and if you keep these things that I have mentioned above it you can surely make huge profits.
Besides if you do have any questions give me a call: https://clarity.fm/joy-brotonath
Related Questions
-
Business partner I want to bring on will invest more money than me, but will be less involved in operations, how do I split the company?
Cash money should be treated separately than sweat equity. There are practical reasons for this namely that sweat equity should always be granted in conjunction with a vesting agreement (standard in tech is 4 year but in other sectors, 3 is often the standard) but that cash money should not be subjected to vesting. Typically, if you're at the idea stage, the valuation of the actual cash going in (again for software) is anywhere between $300,000 and $1m (pre-money). If you're operating in any other type of industry, valuations would be much lower at the earliest stage. The best way to calculate sweat equity (in my experience) is to use this calculator as a guide: http://foundrs.com/. If you message me privately (via Clarity) with some more info on what the business is, I can tell you whether I would be helpful to you in a call.TW
-
How much equity should I ask as a CMO in a startup?
Greater risk = greater equity. How likely is this to fail or just break even? If you aren't receiving salary yet are among 4-6 non-founders with equivalent sweat investment, all of whom are lower on the totem pole than the two founders, figure out: 1) Taking into account all likely outcomes, what is the most likely outcome in terms of exit? (ex: $10MM.) Keep in mind that 90%+ of all tech startups fail (Allmand Law study), and of those that succeed 88% of M&A deals are under $100MM. Startups that exit at $1B+ are so rare they are called "unicorns"... so don't count on that, no matter how exciting it feels right now. 2) Figure out what 1% equity would give you in terms of payout for the most likely exit. For example, a $10MM exit would give you $100k for every 1% you own. 3) Decide what the chance is that the startup will fail / go bankrupt / get stuck at a $1MM business with no exit in sight. (According to Allman Law's study, 10% stay in business - and far fewer than that actually exit). 4) Multiply the % chance of success by the likely outcome if successful. Now each 1% of equity is worth $10k. You could get lucky and have it be worth millions, or it could be worth nothing. (With the hypothetical numbers I'm giving here, including the odds, you are working for $10k per 1% equity received if the most likely exit is $10MM and the % chance of failure is 90%.) 5) Come up with a vesting path. Commit to one year, get X equity at the end. If you were salaried, the path would be more like 4 years, but since it's free you deserve instant equity as long as you follow through for a reasonable period of time. 6) Assuming you get agreement in writing from the founders, what amount of $ would you take in exchange for 12 months of free work? Now multiply that by 2 to factor in the fact that the payout would be far down the road, and that there is risk. 7) What percentage share of equity would you need in order to equal that payout on exit? 8) Multiply that number by 2-3x to account for likely dilution over time. 9) If the founders aren't willing to give you that much equity in writing, then it's time to move on! If they are, then decide whether you're willing to take the risk in exchange for potentially big rewards (and of course, potentially empty pockets). It's a fascinating topic with a lot of speculation involved, so if you want to discuss in depth, set up a call with me on Clarity. Hope that helps!RD
-
I have this social media idea,but no coding skills. How do I get someone to do the coding (cant afford to pay them) and not give away half of my idea?
Dilip was very kind in his response. My answer might be a bit on the "tough love" side. But that's for you to decide. My intention, just for the record, is to help you (and those like you) on your path to success. And that starts with having a viable philosophy about entrepreneurial-ism and business. And I'm going to answer this because I get asked some form / version of this question very frequently from newcomers to entrepreneurial-ism. The scenario goes something like this: "I have a great idea. It's amazing, I love it, and I just KNOW it's gonna make me a ton of money. But I have no money right now so I can't afford to (fill in the blank with things like "to build it / create it / market it / etc" or "to hire the required staff needed to work in my business to sell it / develop it / etc"). And I don't want to tell anyone about my great idea because I'm worried someone will steal it and make MY million / billion dollars. But I can't afford to legally protect it either... So how do I launch without the skills to personally create the product AND no money to hire anyone else to do that either??" The answer is ... You don't. Look - let's be honest. All you have is an idea. Big deal. Really. I'm not saying it's not a good idea. I'm not saying that if properly executed it couldn't make you a million / billion dollars... But an idea is NOT a business. Nor is it an asset. Until you do some (very important) initial work - like creating a business model, doing customer development, creating a MVP, etc - all you really have is a dream. Right now your choices are: 1. Find someone with the skills or the money to develop your idea and sell them on WHY they should invest in you. And yes, this will mean giving up either a portion of the "ownership" or of future income or equity. And the more risk they have to take - the more equity they will want (and quite frankly be entitled to). 2. Learn how to code and build it yourself. MANY entrepreneurs without financial resources are still resourceful. They develop the skills needed to create what they don't have the money to pay someone else to do. 3. Get some cash so you can pay someone to do the coding. You'll probably have to have some knowledge of coding to direct the architecture of your idea. So you will likely still have to become knowledgeable even if its not you personally doing the coding. (This is not meant to be a comprehensive list of options... And I'm sure some of the other experts here on Clarity have others to add - and I hope they do) To wrap up - Here's my final tip to you that I hope you "get"... It's FAR more valuable to have an idea that a very specific hungry crowd is clamoring for right now - One that THEY would love and pay you for right now - Maybe even one they'd pre-order because they just have to have it - Versus YOU being in love with your own idea. [Notice I didn't say "an idea that some as-of-yet-undetermined market would probably love"] I wish you the best of luck moving forward.DB
-
What is a good/average conversion rate % for an e-commerce (marketplace model) for customers who add to cart through to purchase order.
There is quite a bit of information available online about eCommerce conversions rates. According to a ton of sources, average visitor-to-sale conversion rates vary from 1-3%. This does not mean the Furniture conversions will be the same. The bigger problem is that visitor-to-sale conversions are not a good data point to use to measure or tune your eCommerce business. All business have some unique friction factors that will affect your final conversion rate. It's very important to understand each of these factors and how to overcome them. The best way to measure and optimize is to take a conversion funnel approach. Once you have defined your funnel you can optimize each conversion rate to better the total effect. For example: Top of the funnel: - All web site visitors, 100,000 / month First conversion: View a product page, 50% of all visitors Second Conversion: Add to Cart, 10% of people who view products Final Conversion: Complete Checkout, 80% of people who put items in a cart In this example we see that only 10% of people who actually view products put them in to a cart, but 80% of those people purchase. If you can figure out why visitors are not adding items to their cart and fix the issue to increase the conversion rate, revenue should increase significantly because of the high checkout rate. You can use free tools like Google Analytics to give you a wealth of information about your site visitor and their behavior or there are some great paid tools as well.DM
-
What is a better title for a startup head....Founder or CEO? Are there any pros/cons to certain titles?
The previous answers given here are great, but I've copied a trick from legendary investor Monish Pabrai that I've used in previous startups that seems to work wonders -- especially if your company does direct B2B sales. Many Founders/ CEOs are hung up on having the Founder/ CEO/ President title. As others have mentioned, those titles have become somewhat devalued in today's world -- especially if you are in a sales meeting with a large organization. Many purchasing agents at large organizations are bombarded by Founders/ CEOs/ Presidents visiting them all day. This conveys the image that a) your company is relatively small (the CEO of GM never personally sells you a car) and b) you are probably the most knowledgeable person in the organization about your product, but once you land the account the client company will mostly be dealing with newly hired second level staff. Monish recommends that Founder/ CEOs hand out a business card that has the title "Head of Sales" or "VP of Sales". By working in the Head of Sales role, and by your ability to speak knowledgeably about the product, you will convey the message that a) every person in the organization is very knowledgeable about the ins and outs of the product (even the sales guys) and b) you will personally be available to answer the client's questions over the long run. I've used this effectively many times myself.VR
the startups.com platform
Copyright © 2025 Startups.com. All rights reserved.