Business Networking can be an asset or it can be a complete waste of time. Anybody who’s any good (or bad) at networking will agree with this. The problem is, or at least the problem I faced, was is networking really worth it?

This blog started out about business networking. I spent countless hours meeting people, simply because they seemed interesting. I met people for months and months and months, convincing myself that each one of these meetings were generating me business. They weren’t. In fact, I was loosing money. Lots of money (coffee isn’t free you know…)

On the flip side, my connections are new relationships were high – growing at a very fast rate. I became people rich. People sought me out to have a chat, hoping I might know this person or that person – and I was happy to do it. It wasn’t until I was introduced to a successful business women that I realised that networking alone wasn’t a good enough reason to meet. After some light hearted banter, she (who we’ll call Jane) got right to the point by asking ‘what do you want, Jason’, to which I relied ‘Errrmm, nothing… I just wanted to meet…. Fail. It was so embarrassing. I made sure that would never happen again. Ever.

So to answer my own question – does networking make you money? Yes – but it doesn’t happen overnight. Being well ‘networked’ is a privilege you earn, not a gift you’re given. Handing out cards won’t get you known, and neither will selling to everybody you meet. It happens from spending time connecting and being useful.

Choose wisely the people you share your time with, and if they grant you a meeting, don’t waste their time. Be straight up about why you’re meeting. There’s nothing worst that a tire kicker.

After spending the last 12 months in a variety of scenarios, I found myself at a crossroads where a decision needed to be made: I could either keep doing what I was doing (involved in lots of cool things, with little traction in each) or pull back some my commitments into only key activities. I choose the later…

Forcing myself to focus on only critical activities made it clear that I had to let go of my baby… Startup Weekend – an event I brought into New Zealand early 2011. My time is now split between two roles: Business development with Datalock – an online backup software company, and my startup Borrowed Size – an online fashion business for breastfeeding women (specialising in beautiful dresses) which is launching middle of March, 2012.

Now that I’ve removed a lot of distraction, my focus for 2012 is on being more focused. Starting with spending less time in useless meetings!

What have you got planned for 2012?

Knowing the Startup Weekend format back to front, you get to know the types of people that attend – or so I thought. When I arrived from New Zealand, I was expecting the same ‘rock n roll’ events we run in New Zealand. Fast moving, hard hitting and energy filled. That wasn’t the case. The events in Malaysia were slow, with students needing a lot of hand holding to get going.

Over the weekends we’ve had 600+ students attend. Some big thinkers, some small – most will zero to little experience in business. All the events are for students (who are used to working long, drawn out assignments – mainly theory) so this was a BIG learning curve for them. The task of pitching an idea Friday and presenting a finished concept Sunday was a huge mindset change. Of course, problems did arrise:

- Teams were built around good friends, not the right members
- Ideas that were ‘uncommon’ weren’t chosen (except for ‘Winner Lesbians’ – but that’s another story!)
- People sleept during the weekend
- We finished at set times, and
- Teamwork was taken to the next level – with 6 team members working on the same computer creating a powerpoint presentation!

FYI – I am not a VC. But I’ve felt like one over the past weeks – experiencing the people, ideas and mindset from students around the country (as seen below).

I’ve heard 150+ presentations – some great, some with potential and some that are average. Too often I heard the same ideas over and over and over again – It’s sad. That said, it’s only the start of a movement. Entrepreneurship is new with these students, so there’s lots of room for growth, but I can only imagine how VC’s and Angels feel getting pitched ‘unique’ or ‘must have’ ideas and businesses every day. It’s draining.

I’d like to send a big thank you to Warisan Global & Digi Mobile for bringing me over to support Social Entrepreneurship in Malaysia. I’ve learnt a lot, and can’t wait to come back.

I’ve always admired people who understand the power of leverage – that is, being able to utilise the skills and money of other people (OPM/OPT) to excel an opportunity.

While reading ‘How come that idiot’s rich and I’m not?’ I came across a paragraph that I wanted to share which I think explains leverage very simply. It said:

Think of life as a grocery store. You want a salad. Does that mean you have to grow the lettuce, tomatoes, and onions yourself? Press the olive oil? Bottle the vinegar? Carve the salad bowl? No, of course not. You go to the store and buy what you need. The same principle applies when you buy other peoples time for a wealth-growing enterprise. Think of the dozens of tasks you can use other people’s time to accomplish while you use your precious time to GROW your enterprise.

You cannot (and should not) do everything on your own. Business is a team sport, and the right leverage in any business can rapidly scale the growth of a business.

Looking around outside, I started thinking about business. It’s everywhere. Every single thing I looked at was someones business. The Building, the road, the paint, the trees planted, the cars, the cafe’s, the gutter, the drains – not including all the opportunity on the internet! Seriously, everything is a business. It’s amazing.

Those who think that there’s not enough opportunity in the world clearly don’t use their eyes properly.

While in Kuching, there were several things we noticed about the students, which seems to be a common occurrence in Malaysia:

1) Students need a clear roadmap for the weekend, as startup Weekend (and entrepreneurship) is unknown to them
2) Most students don’t understand social ventures (neither did I until I came to Malaysia!)
3) Market validation is not seen as important
4) Everyone makes assumptions, and neglects the facts
5) The focus is on a good looking presentation, not a working product
6) The students will stay in the building until we tell them to go home

The Startup Weekend team and I knew we needed to fix this before the event in Sabah – and we did. On Friday, pitches went smooth, the ideas were clear and useful, and 100% of the people got (Ok, more like 65%) what a social venture was.

Because a clear roadmap was needed, we provided everyone with some basic project management tips and made sure everyone had completed Ash Maurya Lean Canvas with their teams, as shown below.

We enforced like a prison guards that students spend Saturday doing market validation – calling potential customers, interviewing strangers, meeting with potential partners – anything to give them confirmation that their idea is or isn’t needed, and to smack away any assumptions they were making. This didn’t work. We took action… again. I gave teams who neglected Market Validation 30 minutes to find and call a potential customer or partner and talk about their problem, or they would be questioned (in detail) on stage about their MV. This worked, although I may have made one or two enemies.

Mentors who arrived on Saturday provided a huge amount of input as always. Ideas that were floundering, or even ideas that seemed concrete got feedback to improve their proposition – giving valuable input for their practice pitch on Saturday night.

In 6 hours it’s the finale. 120 attendees. 24 teams presenting. One winner advancing to the next round. Good luck to all the teams participating.

Today I went on a tour of KL, one that most ‘tourists’ wouldn’t normally receive. I went out on a startup tour and spent half a day with Local entrepreneur Daniel Cerventus – founder of this week in Asia, where I got the run down on the local tech scene and met several entrepreneurs in the co-working environment, Fluent Space.

Come tomorrow, at the crack of dawn I’ll be heading over to the Mandarin Oriental Hotel where I’ll be attending the 800+ person Silicon Valley Comes to Malaysia conference – a two day event where several big names from Silicon Valley will be speaking on what they do best, and working 1-on-1 with local entrepreneurs.

Sadly I won’t be attending the second day of the conference, but for good reason. I’m flying to Kota Kinabalu, Sabah for the second Startup Weekend with local university UMS. We’re expecting around 100+ again for this Startup Weekend, and with the learnings we gained from Kuching, the entrepreneurs attending are in for a much more execution fueled event.

As a generalisation, the test pitches on Saturday night were poor. They lacked thought, effort and execution – and the mentors made sure the teams knew it too. Thankfully, the feedback teams received made a HUGE difference to the final presentations. Sunday was a success.

The two winning teams who have made it through to the next round, and for a chance to win RM200,000 in prizes are A.C.E and Sonar Tribal.

A.C.E helps the rural people of Sarawak (Kuchung) generate electricity.
Sonar Tribal creates, markets and sells tribal music from Sarawak (Kuching)

These are some of the tweets I pulled from our Twitter Hashtag (#SWkuching):

I’m so thankful that I was invited to Kuching to help facilitate such a different, but equally rewarding Startup Weekend. I’ve learnt a lot from the locals and look forward to smashing out another great event at Kota Kinabalu this Friday.

Teams quickly realised that making assumptions (something the students default too) really are the mother off all F&*K ups.

Mentors threw hard questions at the teams, testing their knowledge and probing for more information about their market validation and business model. Some teams took the advice well… others not so well. When we arrived this morning to greet our participants, the room was a little emptier than expected – with four teams missing from the venue! Maybe because they’re working from home, or from a cafe… or maybe the harsh realities of their pitch got the best of them. Only time will tell.

At Startup Weekend, the aim of the game is to help teams grow and experience starting a business – so of course we made sure that the advice, although blunt, was always looking out for their best interest.

Presentations to the judges and local leaders will start at 4pm (local time). I hope all teams make it back in time and take the lessons learnt from last night and build them into tonights big finale.

Here’s what’s been developed:

1. Urban Hands – Creating smartphone applications to benefit the unprivileged people in the community.
2. ACE – Helping rural people to generate electricity
3. Crafttech – Selling local home made crafts online
4. FBTutor – Integrating educational games for facebook
5. L.vincere – Supply local rice wine (Tuak) to GAB (national liquor company)
6. Pingme – Mobile alarm security for your house
7. The very far East movement – Pua Kumbu (woven fabric) on everything
8. help. me – Counselling the local people about Stress and Depression
9. Rural wind – Wind Energy Systems for Rural users
10. Slumbuster – Raising the living standards for people in the slums
11. Agrisensor – Wireless sensor network for agriculture
12. Tribal Music – Promotion of Tribal music from rural communities
13. Single Mothers Touch – Teaching single mothers to sew & sell their clothes
14. Borneo 4 Change – Upgrade villages social and economy responsibility
15. Corporate Cupid – Matchmaking youth’s with no money with private companies