1) Adam Neumann is an Israeli businessman who founded and owns the company WeWork. Born in Tel Aviv, now living in New York, Adam and I have similar backgrounds to connect on since I am a first generation American coming from Israeli parents. WeWork is an American real estate company providing workspaces for start up companies. Adam moved on to buy the company meetup. He is the domain expert since he is an entrepreneur interested in upcoming prospects and he also now owns a company very similar to the service I am providing. I happened to find his name when I googled a description of services similar to mine. Once I found meetup, the owner was Adam. After clicking on his name and seeing his connections which were broader than the founder of the company I found his email. I proceeded to email him explaining my idea and asking for any possible advice to improve my business making it more realistic. Although I got no reply, he is a great person to form ties with because he has many different connections.
2) Scott Heiferman is the founder of the company meetup. His company connects online interest groups with real world in person groups allowing people with similar interests to 'meet up'. Scott fulfills my market expert. Since he founded a company extremely similar to my service he has worked through necessary kinks the market may have. After googling a description of my service I found his company. I then typed in his name and added contact info after where I then found his linkedin profile. However, I could not find an email for Scott. I did find his twitter profile where I direct messaged him. Including him in my network gives me a strong tie for my direct market where I can learn from any mistakes Scott encountered.
3) There were many different suppliers for my industry. One specifically was an event happening near me at The Retreat Silver Springs. This is a meetup group for paper crafters held in a nearby venue in Gainesville. I found this event by going on the meetup website and looking at any nearby events I could attend. After I clicked on one I found the location and time of the event. The director of the retreat is a woman named Mary Beth Harper. I was able to contact them directly through the retreat's website. Forming a connection with this specific supplier provides me with a possible venue to host one of my activities.
After doing this assignment I realized how easy it is to network on small scale if needed. I can go through that internet rabbit hole and find so many people to network with who can fulfill so many different areas I perhaps didn't even think of in the first place. It has definitely changed how I view networking and am excited to continue on my endeavor.
Hi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteIt is great that you found multiple contacts who have shared similar experiences with you and also people who have successful companies with the same concept you are offering. After following along with your posts, I never would have thought of meetup groups when considering similarly offered products, but having that connection could be a great way to further develop your concept!