LinkOut: Business Networking Made Easy

You know the problem. You exchange details with someone, add them on LinkedIn… ‘we should have lunch and talk about x and y…’. 3 months later and while you’ve both had ~90 lunches, none of them have been together and have definitely not involved ‘x and y’.

This may be because secretly you thought that (let’s call him Andrew) was actually a bit of a tosser… and that’s fine. We all lie aboutfuture meetings for the immediate release from the presence of a tosser. But, it may also be because short of both getting calendars out and pencilling in a date and time there and then, there’s very little in the way of Framework that exists to ensure that ‘x and y’ get the time and attention they deserve over lunch.

Solutions:

• Hire a secretary. Or PA. Whatever we’re calling them these days… ‘Sandra (or Paul), can you find time and arrange a lunch with Andrew in the next couple weeks…?’. Done!

Pros: easy, also helps with other tasks which probably can’t be solved by LinkOut

Cons: Pretty expensive assuming you don’t otherwise have a need for their services!

LinkOut

Connect on LinkedIn and then allow LinkOut to suggest and schedule a time for you to meet. It will also find new people for you to meet through your network.
Pros: Just as easy. Saves you £24k-£45k p.a.

Cons: You have to walk to Starbucks yourself.

LinkOut has launched exclusively in London as of yesterday so if you regularly network, then this is definitely a tool for you! Traction will be the thing that makes it most useful, so get more people on it and your extended network of LinkOuters grows!

Providing they gain this traction, one city at a time, this could be one to watch!