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by crawdad1313 5552 days ago
It actually is "a thing" now...or at least it is for us (Project Skyway).

We definitely questioned ourselves as to why we might want to include something like this. In the end, we feel it is a proxy for one's dedication to develop one's network. Certainly it is not the only measure by which one could reasonably judge someone's ability to have become involved in a community and it may not even be the right one, but social networking is a valuable asset and is a tool upon which many of us rely as part of an overall strategy to forward our business' goals.

Plus, because we don't have a crystal ball into which we can peer to ascertain the kinds of networks and organizations our founders have chosen to become involved with, this gives us some information that we might otherwise not be able to get. In the end though, this is just one small piece of a bigger puzzle that we are trying to construct which will ultimately tell us a lot about the people that we will be working with and giving money to.

Project Skyway is about the people, more than just the idea, because people run companies; people succeed or fail; and people are the most valuable asset (or the greatest liability) in any early stage company. We are looking for kick-ass PEOPLE with kick-ass ideas because without one, the other doesn't matter.

1 comments

With all due respect, consider that I am a tech guy with business sense, trying to get seed level funding solo in the Midwest.

LinkedIn represents all the bullshit I wish I could skip in the startup scene. LinkedIn is all the corporate politics and multi-tiered organizational madness I am trying to escape from by launching a startup.

So on the one hand, I feel like I am the prime demographic you should be trying to attract and recruit, but that LinkedIn requirement, combined with the "you don't need a tech guy" stance; it smells like a bullshit factory.

I don't know the roots of your strong emotional reaction against Linkedin but at the end of the day we all have our own opinions. Project Skyway can't be everything to everyone. Wish you the best. And I mean it.
You're saying that you are a "tech accelerator" who values social networking more highly than technical skills. I'm just kind of baffled by the implications of that.