You've touched on a challenging question. Daniel and I spent some time trying to figure that out. Studying additional startups would help. Our guesses:
- The connections are able to and do make a large number of intros. The distribution was starkly bimodal - connectors with less than 3 intros yielded nothing, and those with over 10 intros yielded 940K. Will this hold across other startups? Not sure, but it's an interesting thing to think about.
- Several relationship characteristics influenced the downstream result: previous relationship, mode of contact, etc.
- There are many intangibles that founders can sense when they're meeting with people. Sensing their capacity and interest in a skill.
I don't think it's possible to know it exactly in the midst of the process, but focusing time and energy on the high potential connections is a good strategy.
As an aside, there's nothing wrong with post-hoc understanding that can help the next round/others in the same situation.
- The connections are able to and do make a large number of intros. The distribution was starkly bimodal - connectors with less than 3 intros yielded nothing, and those with over 10 intros yielded 940K. Will this hold across other startups? Not sure, but it's an interesting thing to think about.
- Several relationship characteristics influenced the downstream result: previous relationship, mode of contact, etc.
- There are many intangibles that founders can sense when they're meeting with people. Sensing their capacity and interest in a skill.
I don't think it's possible to know it exactly in the midst of the process, but focusing time and energy on the high potential connections is a good strategy.
As an aside, there's nothing wrong with post-hoc understanding that can help the next round/others in the same situation.
Good question, B