Cultivating river guides

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September 03, 2020

by a searcher from Cornell University - College of Business in New Haven, CT, USA

Hi - Thinking on how to best approach a few industry leaders I have identified. I wonder if anyone could offer advice on cultivating river guides. If folks could speak about their experiences this type of network and leveraging it, I will greatly appreciate it.

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Reply by a searcher
from Yale University in New York, NY, USA
Nothing you have not thoughts about, but when I need to cold-email someone (if that's the case and the leaders are not already in your network), I opt for a succinct and short message, on LinkedIn (they have a face which makes the outreach warmer), getting straight to the point in the first line. I ask for them to consider sharing advice via email or get on a 10 minutes onetime call. I make sure to let them know the impact of the call on me and how it is "cheap to them and valuable to me" as my negotiations professor used to say.

Something like:

Jon - I am writing to get your perspective on XXX given your well known expertise in the field. We've never met, but I've been following you for a while. I am young and ambitious, and your input is critical for my success.

Would you be willing to share some thoughts via email or a one-time 10 minutes call? This means a lot to me. Best, _______
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Reply by an investor
from University of Pennsylvania in Washington, DC, USA
As someone who has been asked to be river guide by many looking at gov't-related businesses based on my experience with GovTech businesses, here are my tips on working with river guides:
-Make scheduling easy for them on first call
-Make sure you've done your research - anything you should be able to find on Google, you should have found before.
-Give insight. While they may be river guide, you are in market and may have interest nuggets of current trends, who is in market, etc. Everybody wants the latest news/gossip.
-If want to schedule a 2nd or 3rd or 4th call, show a path to making it worth their time. Could be discussion of potential board role if deal closes. Could be small 1-time consulting fee. Could be deal referral / deal close fee.
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