Growing My Social Capital

1)

• AT&T high ranking employee. 
• Fills in the domain expert slot. He fills in this slot by being involved in the same kind of company I would like to own, just with a different model. He knows a lot about the kind of product/service that I would like to offer. 
• This is my father's friend, I asked my father if he knew anyone in the industry within cable or streaming services. I was able to contact him through the phone. 
• The nature of the exchange was very quick as he was currently at work on his break. Through the phone I was able to ask him about what he thought about my idea. He thought it was a great idea but like I have mentioned before, he thought it would have some initial barriers to break into the business. Mainly because of the big businesses blocking out the smaller ones. 
• Including this person in my in my network will enhance my ability to exploit the opportunity because he could serve as a mentor. He could even transition into my company as an executive. 

2)

• Previous Netflix employee. 
• Fills in the expert in market slot. He fills this slot by having been involved in the streaming industry. He knows how to target the market that I am looking at. He definitely knows about conducting customer research in my area as well. 
• I found this person because my brother is friends with him. My brother works in the tech industry so he knows many people within this part of technology. I was able to contact him through the phone.
• The nature of the exchange that I had with him was very informative about what a streaming service like Netflix operates under. He told me about how a partnership would have to work and that he previously didn't know of anything that they do like what I'm proposing. He was also able to tell me that to get the attention of any executive at Netflix, I would have to bring in numbers and be desired by their specific target audience. 
• Including him in my network will enhance my ability to exploit an opportunity because first, he knows the market. Secondly, he told me that I can contact him again regarding this opportunity if I had any questions. Lastly, he will be able to let me know how the company that I want to partner with works, before I would even try to have talks with them.

3)

• Current cable company employee. 
• Fills in the supplier in my industry role. He fills this slot by currently working as the supplier of cable for people. He is involved in selling product and installing services in my industry. He works asa regional employee for a cable company. 
• I found this person because he is a family friend. I contacted him through the phone.
• The nature of the exchange that I had with him was short because it was during work hours, and I assume that he had more to get done than being interviewed by me. He definitely told me about how cable companies work and how they run on the grid. He explained to me how the suppliers of cable are able to keep the cable company system. This helps me understand how I would have to set up my cable company. 
• Including this person in my network will enhance my ability to exploit my opportunity because I could first, bring him on the company if I need help with establishing my system. Secondly, he can teach me about the grid that I didn't know much about beforehand. 

This experience shaped how I will participate in any future networking events by understanding how to talk to people about something you're venturing into. Even though I may not venture into my opportunity, it will help me understand how to talk to people about something that I may genuinely be interested in starting. It would help establish connections to bring people on board with your idea, or networking with them for ideas. It definitely differed from networking experiences in the past. My past networking experiences have all been business related or internship related. This was more of an inquiring and learning experience. It was cool to see how people in a field can teach you about it.