Speak to anyone in business and they’ll tell you all about the importance of networks. How they support you, accelerate your growth and can open doors to new opportunities. This is especially important to startups as they can leverage who they know to open doors that were previously firmly closed.
Silicon Valley Comes to the UK (SVC2UK) addressed the importance of networks on the first day of their week long event and spoke to three founders who’ve all found great benefits in being well networked.
Julie Grieve, founder and CEO of Criton, Khiloni Westphely, COO at Infogrid and Ranzie Anthony Founding Partner and Chief Creative Officer at Athlon were part of the panel hosted by Philip Salter the founder of The Entrepreneurs Network discussing how they have found networking helpful in accelerating the growth of their businesses.
Barriers are something that founders are all too familiar with. Whether it be how they pivot their business into new industries or how they scale and grow. Khiloni Westphely gave some great insights into how they have expanded Infogrid into other markets such as the US and leverage existing personal networks to make that journey smoother.
Julie Grieve shared her insights into the importance of networks in the hospitality industry. This is of course an industry that has been badly affected by the pandemic and Julie shared her experiences of leveraging her network to continue to grow Criton throughout this period. Ranzie Anthony also shared how he has used his networks to accelerate the growth of Athlon, the global design and innovation company.
At FieldHouse, we know the importance of networking and that is why ‘connected’ is one of our core values. Everyone is always encouraged to get out (virtually at the moment) and integrate themselves into the VC and high growth tech ecosystem – to learn, meet interesting people and live and breathe the networks that can be of huge value to our clients. For us, networking isn’t just about business development but also understanding the nuances of the market allowing us to give better client consultancy.
In the turbulent world that we are living in, being connected can help you and your business to perform better and take advantage of serendipitous opportunities that can help to grow and scale your business. LinkedIn founder, Reid Hoffman, who recently spoke at the SVC2UK event, wrote a great book on the subject, The Startup of You. The book explores how we can all grow and leverage our networks to grow our businesses and ourselves and is a must read for everyone in modern business.
Do connect with me on LinkedIn at Anthony Avrili and at FieldHouse and on Twitter @wearefieldhouse
