
Ask HN: Would You Use This? - downandout
Over the last decade, I have had a string of failed startups.  The one successful business I co-founded was sold for $64 million, but my co-founder screwed me out of my $12.8 million stake.  All of this has left me financially and emotionally devastated.  I have decided that I will never again bother starting something unless I can verify that there would be actual customers for it.<p>I am thinking of creating a service where you can sell introductions to your contacts.  If I need a contact at company X, I search for people that have contacts there. I let the people that have the contacts know what it is that I want to pitch to their friend, and if they think their friend would be interested, they introduce us for a fee.  LinkedIn charges exorbitant rates for sending Inmail.  The idea here is similar, except you get a warm contact and most of the money goes to the people actually providing the valuable contacts instead of lining the pockets of LinkedIn.<p>Would any of you use this as a buyer or seller?
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tptacek
Nope. Part of the value of a personal connection is that they're not trivial
to get. I'm not particularly sold on InMail, and I'm not sure LinkedIn is
either, since they keep calling me offering to sell me access to their network
directly.

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brudgers
This reminds me of services which offer business leads. The hard part will be
creating a marketplace for casual (and inexpert) sellers and weeding out
shoddy products - I have collected about 150 connections on Linkedin. Since
the initial buzz most have been accepted connections from "friend sluts".

If I wanted to be bothered, I could sell you my connection to "real-estate
Bob" but, I don't really know him. More importantly, he doesn't really know
me. My introduction might have no more value than a cold call, but how would a
buyer know.

On the other hand, why create a casual marketplace? The sales lead model is
based on directly collecting and selling knowledge. If there are buyers for
introductions, produce the introductions directly rather than brokering them.

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ScottWhigham
This, to me, is the epitome of sleaze. I would want no part of it as either
buyer or seller.

If I'm the buyer: Pros - I get a warm intro to meet with people I otherwise
would have had to have a cold intro with

Cons - The people know that I've paid someone else for their time and thus
would feel standoffish, upset, etc.

If I'm the seller: Pros - I get to sell a contact one time. Cons - Once my
friends find out that I sold them, they will cease being my friends and will
actively avoid me

I don't see how it could be any other way for the casual person.

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jordn
As a buyer, maybe, if that was the only way to reach them.

As a seller, no. If my contact would be interested I should be introducing
them anyway (there are benefits of being the one to introduce something great
to them without a direct financial reward). If they're not going to be
interested I should not be spamming them for profit.

The startup ecosystem seems to run on goodwill. This idea might work, but I
certainly wouldn't want it to.

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mcintyre1994
This feels too risky. If a contact's worth selling connection to, you don't
want to lose them. That would be far too easy to do with a string of bad
introductions.

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prawn
No, seems dirty. Would feel like I was selling out friends.

