THE DREAM IN ACTION

Why raise $30 million to hire an enormous, nationwide sales force if you could use the power of existing sales teams for a fraction of the cost? Recently, I’ve been thinking about how startups can leverage other, larger, companies to build out their model. After all, a startups purpose for existence is to test their model. So why wouldn’t a startup leverage every existing system possible to keep costs low and test the model?

An increasing trend in startups, for good great reason, is to use Facebook Connect to leverage the existing social graph. Look at Foursquare, HotPotato, or OMGICU, all great examples of instantly connecting via FB connect to pull in all of your friends from likely your largest existing friend network. The time and wasted money that these startups would spend developing a brand new social graph is ridiculous.

There are so many opportunities for rapid growth through this type of “existing system leveraging”. With Foursquare I’ve been working hard to get as many venues involved and offering specials in the application as possible, so why wouldn’t I take my own medicine here. I try to use, excuse me, partner with the people who already have relationships with these venues. It turns out there are marketing teams who have great relationships with large groups of bars and restaurants, working directly with these people may bring in 10-20 venues in one fell swoop rather than me pounding on each venues doors individually. Or, another example is liquor distributors? They have strong relationships with bars and can possibly influence the end price of the product to a customer who say, checks in on Foursquare…get it. There are sales teams that work with these people and have a system in place already like Coke, or Zoom media (those ads above urinals), etc. etc. etc., the list could go on.

Whether you’re building a social app, or a utility that sits on top of the ’social graph’ I’d encourage you to look at ways to use existing systems, social or otherwise, as your best distribution channels. The cost is likely lower, and the impact likely higher.

What existing system have you leveraged?