Question of the Day: Reaching beyond tech's 'bubble'

Kejal Shah — Thu, 30 Aug 2007 18:13:31 GMT

Editor’s Note: we’re posting this Question of the Day because we think it raises an obstacle that many promising tech entrepreneurs will face—networking outside the insular practice/industry to get their businesses off the ground. This isn’t always easy for developers who’ve “grown up” in engineering specialities and, therfore, often won’t have experience outside their niche. But so many business models today are predicated on a founder’s idea or technology innovation being applied to an old-guard industry that is entrenched and hard to break into—like the auto industry in Detroit. While Kejal’s business idea is not totally original (it is an application of a proven model: a resource aggregator/lead director that gets revenue share; like Kayak for rental cars), the problem that he raises is an important one that we’d all benefit from addressing.

From Kejal: I haved an idea for a broker website for car rentals.
Detail: Car rental companies will register with our site. Customers wanting a car [to] rent can use our site to find the best deal. We’d get a share of revenues from each deal.
My problem: My cofounders and I are tech guys with no [auto] industry experience. So how can we approach, or start approaching car companies to get them to hook up with us?

Question of the Day:
Years of establishing yourself in an area of expertise can leave you without a broad base of relationships in other industries. This is necessary, but, once you’ve got your expertise, and your business idea, how do you break out of your bubble to do the networking that is required to make your business successful?

Found+READ: Stories by Kejal Shah

Question of the Day: Reaching beyond tech's 'bubble'