Precursor VenturesA classic pre-seed and seed stage venture capital firm

Can You Build Real Relationships Without a Hidden Agenda?

28 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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0:40

A short conversational excerpt from a Precursor Ventures YouTube video advising founders on building genuine, non-transactional relationships with people inside large tech organizations (examples: OpenAI, Google, Meta). Key advice: start early, prioritize small recurring touchpoints (e.g., brief meetings at conferences), avoid rushing or turning outreach into sales; authentic familiarity makes future collaboration possible.

Chapters

And they're like, okay, and it's important, but it's not urgent. And urgent things crowded out. And then a year later, they're like, what we had in a relationship with OpenAI or Google or Meta. I'm like, well, the time to start building that was a little bit. I'm like, guys, it's little things getting to know people in the Org. If you're going to a conference where they're going to be there, finding 15. This isn't. This doesn't have to be a sale. This is getting to know them, building touchpoint, having them get to know you. You get to know them so that if there is something to be done, there's a relationship, right?
And they don't have to be along a journey while the software is being made the entire time. It's really just establishing a relationship. It doesn't have to be anything transactional. What doesn't work or what doesn't feel natural is when you're rushing to do it. And then it becomes sales and uncomfortable for everyone involved.