SDForum Marketing SIG: Leveraging Networks for Startup Success March 14, 2011

Presenter: Konstantin Guericke
Topic: Leveraging Networks for Startup Success

When you start your company you don't have a large brand behind you and your resources are typically quite limited, so leveraging the brand of people who know your work is essential to help you stand out. Learn how to leverage your existing contacts and online networks to research your opportunity, recruit and do due diligence on your early team members, find charter customers and make the most out of meetings with potential investors. While luck is an essential ingredient to startup success, a lot can be done to enable luck to be able to find you. Konstantin will cover how to manage social capital, become a thought leader and get the attention of the media when you launch. However, having good contacts is not enough-there is an art to contacting people, getting their attention and getting access to information, which your competitors don't have.
Konstantin Guericke is an entrepreneur who was most recently CEO of jaxtr, a social communications start-up with over ten million registered users that was purchased by SabSe Technologies in June 2009. In addition to serving on the boards of several startups and working on his next project, Konstantin continues to advise LinkedIn on the company's activities in the German market. Before jaxtr, Konstantin co-founded LinkedIn and as vice president of marketing led the company's marketing activities from launch to first six million members and profitability. Prior to LinkedIn, Konstantin served as vice president of marketing at Presenter.com and as vice president of sales and marketing for Black Sun Interactive, a pioneer in 3-D social software at the dawn of the web. Konstantin graduated from Stanford University with a B.S. and M.S. in engineering. Konstantin has lived, studied and worked in Asia as well as the United States and Europe. To learn more, view his profile at http://www.linkedin.com/in/konstantin.

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