In a startup? You better follow-up…
Sometimes the world simply doesn’t make sense to me — I mentored a bunch of startups at both Seedcamps (‘07 and ‘08); this year talking to eight teams over the course of two days. This year - as last year - only one team reached out to me afterward to get some more advice, take advantage of my network or simply say ‘thanks’. Now - don’t get me wrong: I don’t think that my advice is so valuable or my network is so powerful that it would make a difference - but I heard the exact same story from multiple mentors at Seedcamp.
I don’t get this - you are in a startup, you have the amazing opportunity to meet some of the greatest mentors in European Internet, they all give you their business card, most of them even tell you to follow-up with them or offer some very specific help. And all these teams do is: nothing.
I guess I don’t need to rant about how unbelievable stupid this is, how important contacts and personal introductions (especially for startups) are, so instead here’s my personal 101 of following up:
Rule #1: Always follow-up. Always. This is simple courtesy - if someone spends time with you (especially if his time is limited), send him an email and thank him for his time.
Rule #2: If someone offers to make an introduction for you or help you in any other way: Follow-up. Basically simply follow rule 1, but even if you don’t think it’s necessary to follow-up with everyone who sits down with you to meet, at least (the very least) follow-up with them if they offer to help.
Rule #3: Every contact potentially opens the door to dozen of other contacts - so actively reach out to people you met, connect with them on LinkedIn and/or XING and utilize their network.
Rule #4: There is no rule 4 - simply follow rule 1 without exception!
Seriously - somehow I can’t believe that I write a post about this. But anyway - let’s just make it better in the future. 
