How To Build A Founder Network From Scratch

Most advice on building a network assumes you already have one. Start from zero and the advice is useless. A real founder network is built in stages, and each stage has a different job. Here is the path from no network to one that produces opportunities on its own.

The first 10 relationships

The first ten are about depth, not reach. The goal is not to be known widely. It is to build ten real relationships with founders you genuinely want to know.

The first 50 relationships

The next forty are about range. Once the core ten exist, the network needs variety to become useful, because different people give a founder different things.

The first 100 relationships

At a hundred relationships, something changes. The network starts working without constant effort from the founder.

Maintaining relationships

A network is built once and maintained forever. The founders who lose their network are the ones who only appear when they need something.

Compound effects

A founder network is the clearest example of compounding in business. The relationships built in year one are producing introductions in year three that a founder starting late cannot replicate by trying harder.