Editor’s Note: we’re posting this *Question of the Day* because we think it raises an obstacle that many promising tech entrepreneurs will face — *networking outside the insular practice/industry to get their businesses off the ground.* This isn’t always easy for developers who’ve “grown up” in engineering specialities and, therfore, often won’t have experience outside their niche. But so many business models today are predicated on a founder’s idea or technology innovation being applied to an old-guard industry that is entrenched and hard to break into — like the auto industry in Detroit. While Kejal’s business idea is not totally original (it is an application of a proven model: a resource aggregator/lead director that gets revenue share; like Kayak for rental cars), the problem that he raises is an important one that we’d all benefit from addressing.
*From Kejal:* I haved an idea for a broker website for car rentals.
*Detail:* Car rental companies will register with our site. Customers wanting a car [to] rent can use our site to find the best deal. We’d get a share of revenues from each deal.
*My problem:* My cofounders and I are tech guys with no [auto] industry experience. So how can we approach, or start approaching car companies to get them to hook up with us?
*Question of the Day:*
Years of establishing yourself in an area of expertise can leave you without a broad base of relationships in other industries. This is necessary, but, once you’ve got your expertise, and your business idea, how do you break out of your bubble to do the networking that is required to make your business successful?
This sure is a common problem. So many people come up with and develop great ideas, but then have a hard time selling their idea into an unfamiliar industry.
I think that there are two ways that you could approach this:
1) You could try and recruit another business partner/co-founder who has a lot of industry connections and is good at selling. My company, PartnerUp.com, was created to help people find co-founders/business partners with specific skills. Or, you could try networking offline to find someone with the skills that you’re looking for. I just posted something on FoundRead a few weeks ago about this. It’s at http://www.foundread.com/view/tips-for-finding
2) You could go into learning mode and find out absolutely everything that you can about the industry that you want to enter. Start subscribing to trade magazines in that industry, visit blogs by people in the industry and comment and build relationships with them, try attending trade shows and buying a few people lunch, and making some cold calls. When making cold calls, I would definitely start with the accounts that would be nice-to-have, but that aren’t critical. That is, try out your sales pitch of a few smaller companies before going to some of the industry giants.
Good luck with your venture! It sure sounds like you’ve got a great idea.}
can’t you just leverage the information from all rental searches, and make it useful without them approving it (?)since you can do searches on each site .. i’m guessing you can display that on your site, or a hack job enough to get the right people involved and connected to the auto people.}
Start the business. You’ll find someone. Do it for free, start the business. Find the way, start the business. See it, ask for it, do it.}
Steve,
Since we are based out of India, not sure if there are enough people registered on PartnerUp [btw, I had read ur post on the same].
With the other approach, we have something of that sort in mind.
Many thanks
Kejal}
Start simple. Go to their websites and send an email through their contact form. It’s likely to be ignored, but I’m amazed at how many wonderful connections I’ve made this way. Of course, don’t rely on this alone. Use google, facebook, linkedin, and all resources at your disposal to find contacts at these companies. Call, IM, and email them. Make enough noise and somebody will listen to you.}
Bob,
Thanks for your suggestions.
What you suggest is exactly what we are now gonna do – mail them, call them, use LinkedIn etc.
Hope our network grows the way it worked for you
Regards
Kejal}
I can’t address Kejal’s question, but I can address the question of the day. There are consultancies that work as de facto business development extensions to serve exactly this purpose. I’m not sure there are any for something as specific as rental car companies, but there are for other industry segments.
For example, our company does that on the media side. Our extensive experience with companies like MTV, National Geographic, CBS, ABC, Maxim, Electronic Arts, etc. has evolved into us bringing together new media start-ups with traditional media giants.
It’s a powerful combination and one that each side–the old boys network and the young upstarts–often need help navigating. As we work with companies in both worlds, its a position we are comfortable with and do well in.
Jim Kerr
VP/New Media
Pollack Media Group
http://www.pollackmedia.com}
i’m eric. joining a couple boards and looking
forward to participating. hehe unless i get
too distracted!
eric