B2B Wins #48: The Founder Network Effect
It’s always about who you know. Always.
Founders often fall into a solitary trap. Head down, grinding away at product development, chasing customers, and pitching investors. It's easy to convince yourself that every minute not spent on these activities is wasted time. But this monk-like devotion to the grind might be holding you back from one of your most valuable resources: other founders.
I speak with several founders each week. I’ll tell you how in a moment. I consider this a fundamental component of my founder’s journey. We’re getting ready to build product and I’m interested to hear how folks in adjacent swim lanes are solving technical problems and deciding on a problem space.
Earlier this week I talked to a founder who solved a privacy issue in their app by running it locally on the customer’s laptop. That was an interesting architectural decision that gave me food for thought related to our app.
Would I have gotten there eventually on my own? Maybe. But this founder helped me consider this idea much sooner than I otherwise would have. Building your own founder network will yield dividends long into the future.
The Practical Obvious Benefits
Let's start with the pragmatic stuff. The stuff that directly impacts your bottom line and forward progress. These are the benefits that should get even the most network-averse founder out of their cave.
The Technical Fast Track
Other founders are a goldmine of technical insights:
They've already evaluated tools you're just discovering
They know which vendors actually deliver and which just have great sales decks
They can tell you what scaling problems you'll hit before you hit them
They've got workarounds for common integration headaches
One founder I work with saved a ton of build time because another founder showed them how to use a low-code solution for their MVP instead of building from scratch. Of course, some engineering team hate NOT building from scratch, that’s a whole ‘nother problem. This is the kind of insight you can't get from a Google search.
The Customer Connection
Your fellow founders are building complementary products, selling to similar customers, or have already sold to your target market. If you’re in B2B SaaS, so are a bazillion other founders. Make sure you have some of them in your network. Having these founders in your network creates three immediate benefits:
Direct referrals to potential customers
Intel on what's working (and what's not) in similar markets. Go-to-market motions are the hardest for founders to build, so any insight is money.
Warm introductions to decision makers
This week I spoke with a CPQ (Configure Price Quote) technology company and was immediately thinking about who I could introduce them to. My initial thought was helping them find POC customers. But I’m also thinking about what sales tech startups I know who might be able to partner with them.
The Investor Inside Track
Do you know where “warm introductions” to investors come from? From portfolio founders. The best way to get the mythical warm introductions is to have a founder say to one of their investors, “Hey, you should talk to these guys.”
If you want the real scoop on investors you need to talk to founders who've pitched them. You'll learn:
Which investors are actually writing checks right now
What they're really like to work with post-investment
Their hidden preferences and red flags
How to structure your pitch for specific firms
But I’ve found that the true value of a good founder network goes way beyond the practical benefits.
Beyond the Obvious Benefits
Yes, other founders can help you find customers and investors. That's the obvious stuff. But the real value of founder relationships goes much deeper.
Pattern Recognition at Scale
Every founder is solving problems. While their domain might be different from yours, the patterns of problem-solving are often surprisingly similar. A founder building developer tools might have insights that help you think differently about your FinTech product.
I have two clients. One is a freelancer marketplace. One is an SMB business platform. They both struggle with very similar challenges in GTM, retention, and product management even though they’re in different verticals. I need to introduce these folks to one another.
Technology Cross-Pollination
Your head is in your tech stack. You know it cold. But are you missing opportunities? Other founders, especially those slightly ahead of you in their journey, can open your eyes to technologies you hadn't considered.
Sometime in 2023, I spoke with a senior engineer at a B2C company that was building language models to help with customer service. They had cracked the code on how to increase the context window by creating an agent framework. While this has become a common framework for models today, it was new and insightful at the time.
The Emotional Support System
Let's be honest - being a founder is brutally hard. The constant pressure, the loneliness of leadership, the weight of responsibility. It's not something that your spouse, friends, or family can truly understand.
The Reality Check
Other founders get it. They understand the gut punch of losing a key customer, the exhilaration of closing a round, and the endless anxiety about runway. More importantly, they can help you distinguish between normal startup challenges and genuine red flags.
I remember being in a sales slump. It felt like all of a sudden I wasn’t progressing any B2B deals. Heck, we weren’t getting any good leads. Talking to other founders helped me figure out if it was us (it wasn’t all us) or if there was a bigger trends playing out that I didn’t see.
The Safe Space
You can't show weakness to your team. You can't voice all your doubts to your investors. Your family is tired of hearing about your startup. But other founders? They're your safe space. They’re going through everything that you’re going through. You’re not alone.
Building Your Founder Network
Okay, you're convinced. How do you build this network when you're already overwhelmed?
Start Small but Strategic
Don't try to become a super-connector overnight. Start with a manageable goal: meet one new founder each month. Quality over quantity. Look for founders who are:
One step ahead of you in their journey
In adjacent spaces to your market
Facing similar technical or business challenges
There are two ways to find these folks.
Build a tech stack that automates things.
Do personal outreach where you feel a connection.
What tools will help?
There are three tools in my stack for networking.
LinkedIn Sales Navigator helps me find founders. The more powerful search tools in Sales Navigator can allow you to get very specific.
Dripify is a LinkedIn prospecting tool that allows you to create campaigns based on the folks you discover on LinkedIn.
Calendly helps me manage the velocity of meetings. I set-up a unique calendar for networking meetings that limits the number I take and the time periods that I’m available.
Once you’ve mastered this process, you’ve also mastered the process for B2B sales prospecting. I told you networking would be good for you. 😀
Finding Your People the Old Fashioned Way
Going to where your people gather naturally is the tried and true method of networking. There are numerous places to look.
Accelerator programs (even if you're not in one, their events are often open)
Industry-specific Slacks, Discords, and Reddits are great places to find your people. DMs connect you with individuals with similar problems.
Local startup meetups if you happen to be in a location where there’s a good startup ecosystem
LinkedIn groups (yes, some are actually valuable)
Another way is to reach out to folks you see in whatever media you’re tracking. Did an interesting founder just get money? Ping them on LinkedIn. Did a CTO just talk about an interesting tech breakthrough at a conference? Ping them on LinkedIn. Did a founder just land a big deal with a company you want to do business with? Ping them on LinkedIn.
Notice a trend? LinkedIn is a great places to get other founder’s attention.
Give Before You Take
The strongest founder relationships are built on reciprocity. Share your learnings, make introductions, offer feedback. The karma will come back around.
Making Time for Connection
"I don't have time" is the battle cry of the isolated founder. Here's the reality: you don't have time not to build these relationships.
Calendar Discipline
Block time for founder connections just like you block time for investor meetings or customer calls. Even one hour a week can be transformative if you use it consistently. A calendar scheduling app can help automate this.
The One Question
You're already doing customer discovery and investor outreach. Add one question to these conversations: "Do you know any other founders I should talk to?" You'll be surprised how quickly your network grows.
The startup journey doesn't have to be a solo expedition. The most successful founders I know have built strong networks of peer relationships. These connections don't just help them build better businesses - they help them become better founders.
In the end, your success will be determined not just by what you build, but by who you know and who knows you. The founder who thinks they can go it alone is missing one of the most powerful tools in the startup arsenal: the collective wisdom and support of their peers.