Startup ecosystems are vast, chaotic, fuzzy. There are many stakeholders that make the world of startups spin. Impossible for any individual to see through the entire picture.
However, at its core, any value created is based on a connection being made between two people. A startup founder who is introduced to an investor, a founder who is introduced to an acceleration program, a person with an idea introduced to a potential co-founder, a techie introduced to a hackathon.
These connections make innovation work. They are the foundation for success or failure. If you have made any of these introductions in the past, you are what we call a “connector”. You connect opportunities with the right people, you create win-win situations, you help others.
We differentiate at Founders Lair between an “individual” and an “organizational” connector. However, both are using the referral system of Founders Lair in the same way to connect startups to projects.
Basics of a Connector
Any user who joins Founders Lair can actually act as a connector and refer startups to projects.
- Go to “Explore Projects”
- Click on any project that you would like to refer to a startup
- Copy the referral link or QR-code.
- Share this link or QR-code with startups directly, or share it as a marketing message on your social media and get a wider audience.
- Check your impact under “My Referrals”
Individual Connectors:
An individual connector is someone who refers personally and would like to keep data, earnings, and impact linked to their own name. Your profile should be in this regard your full name, your personal email, as well as your personal profile picture.
Organizational Connectors:
An organizational connector is a company or organization, usually with access to a larger portfolio of startups. These startups can be your own batches, your network, or portfolio companies. If you want to be an organizational connecter, put under “First Name” your company name, and under “Last Name” you write (Organization). You can encourage your employees to share projects and resources with the referral link of your organization now and trace the data.
Under “My Referrals”, you can check the efficiency and impact of your referrals. You can measure
- Views. How many people clicked on your referral links
- Total Referrals. How many applications you have generated from your referrals.
- Pending. The applications that were neither rejected nor accepted by project owners.
- Rejected. The project owner received your application referral, but it did not meet the quality requirements of the project.
- Successful. The project owner was satisfied with the application referral and decided to move forward with the startup.
