Alumni Networks: Knotting the School Tie

(page 2 of 2)

Hernandez built the management team for $193 million Liberty Power largely through his alumni network

Story Tools

• post a comment
• e-mail this story
• print this story
• order a reprint
• digg this
• save to del.icio.us

Loughlin says users trust content they get through Affinity Circles because each network is a "walled garden" centered around one school, rather than an open social network. "Unlike LinkedIn or Facebook, which require you to build out an individual network, you can go in to this exclusive network," he says. The Palo Alto company, which recruits heavily out of Stanford, uses its own product to find new hires.

Mario Spanicciati, a 2002 graduate of Cornell University, has put his alumni network to work for Blackline Systems, a six-year-old financial software company based in Los Angeles. As Blackline's vice-president for operations, Spanicciati has found four key employees through his Cornell network, either graduates or people referred by other alumni. The 20-person company also found a financial advisory firm and a public relations firm through Cornell connections.

Connections Can't Hurt

"Anytime that we need to hire or we're looking for advice or we're considering something, I am constantly going out to that network to look for people who've done it before and getting the right advice," Spanicciati says. One particularly useful tool is the Cornell Silicon Valley network, a group of about 2,000 active alumni he can tap into through an e-mail list and events. Now that Blackline, which is self-funded and profitable, is considering seeking venture funding (BusinessWeek.com, 2/1/08), Spanicciati is turning to alumni again.

He even credits a college connection with helping to land a customer who was considering going with a competitor. Through a mutual friend from school, "I managed to speak with an executive at the company, who then spoke to the head of purchasing," he says. "I can't say that's why we got the contract, but I can say it didn't hurt."

The Relationship Smooths the Way

But while alumni networks can provide a wealth of key connections to entrepreneurs, there's a fine line between tapping the network and abusing it. Spanicciati says entrepreneurs shouldn't count on alumni for direct sales. "You don't want to go into somewhere and say buy this because you're an alum," he says. And Darling warns entrepreneurs against going to alumni only when they need something. "The No. 1 thing with networking is you want to build relationships before you need them," she says.

Still, sharing an alma mater can provide a base level of trust for entrepreneurs to start a conversation with someone who might become a business partner, an investor, or a key employee. Many small companies could not succeed without those connections. As Hernandez says, "When you're first starting out in any endeavor, trust is incredibly pivotal. Just having that relationship makes everything smoother."

Tozzi covers small business for BusinessWeek Online.