Bridge: 10x your introductions, and build a better professional network
I’ve written extensively on this blog about the etiquette for business and venture introductions.
An introduction is a first step in making a connection, and connections in business and venture are magical.
Over time individual connections accumulate and form your professional network, and that network, when constructed with attention and care, can be incredibly powerful.
This is the thing that I’ve always found frustrating about LinkedIn. Surprisingly, despite a claim of being a professional network, LinkedIn doesn’t care about being great at introductions and professional networking. Introductions aren’t built into LinkedIn at all, instead it is something that we all have to do manually. LinkedIn is not even a great professional CRM - connections are hard to search, impossible to tag, and difficult to export.
Bridge - a better way to do introductions
For the last 5 years I’ve held a deep belief that there is a much better product to be built for introductions and professional networking.
About a year ago I reconnected with my friend, and a former Techstars colleague, Connor Murphy, who was working on this problem. The first few minutes into this conversation, I knew that Connor had an incredible vision that was completely aligned with what I believed the next generation of professional networking should look like.
Today, I am a proud investor in Connor’s startup called Bridge - an indispensable tool for connecting people and creating a true professional network.
Unlike LinkedIn, Bridge is connection and network first. The app is obsessed with making YOU a better networker and making YOUR network grow and get stronger every day.
Bridge re-thinks and fully automates the concept of a forwardable introduction in a simple and elegant way.
Instead of starting with a forwardable email, Bridge introduction starts with the ask for the forwardable email.
With Bridge, I, as a connector, start the introduction. I select who I want to introduce to whom and Bridge uses email to do the rest - automatically. Here is a quick video of how it works:
Bridge supports both double-opt-in (or so called forwardable introduction) and a immediate introduction.
With a direct introduction, the two parties are connected immediately. With a double-opt-in flow, Bridge will ask for an introduction that I can forward.
Regardless of what type of introduction I choose, once I trigger the introduction, Bridge takes care of the rest.
5 Things I LOVE about Bridge
I am a power user of Bridge, and it has made my life so much easier, here are things that I really love about this app.
1. Getting Feedback and Closing the loop
My number one favorite thing about Bridge is that it helps close the loop on each introduction. This does not always happen with a traditional introduction using just email, because we all get too busy to close the loop.
Bridge has a default option to automatically email people that I introduced and ask each of them of what they thought of the introduction. I easily get over 70% response rate on these and it is eye opening.
I can tell what investors thought of founders, I can tell of how founders felt about investors, I can tell if the business introduction was relevant or not - this feedback is magic because it helps me keep track and actually know what happened!
2. Having all my introductions in one place
When you use email manually for introductions it is really hard to know who you introduced to whom. You can use labels but it is clunky.
With Bridge every single introduction is tracked and you can tell exactly what is happening to it. You can search for a specific introduction. You can filter introductions by status. You can also see all latest introductions per person. Super useful.
3. Automatic, real-time CRM
Another magic of Bridge is that it is an automatic CRM, and I don’t even need to think about it. As I send introductions, Bridge stores information about all my business contacts.
Conveniently, Bridge also attaches all introductions I made to each contact so it is super easy to see.
I love that Bridge automatically re-ranks my contacts in order of recent interactions/introductions. It makes my network feel alive and dynamic, much like it is in real-life.
4. Deliberately sharing my Network through Links and Groups
Not only Bridge makes it easy for me to build my network, it makes it easy to SHARE my network. This is another simple, elegant, and powerful idea behind Bridge.
Each of my contacts in Bridge has a magic link. This link can be published on the web, and when you click it, it triggers the introduction flow.
This effectively inverts the idea of an introduction on its head - with Bridge, I can tell you WHO I can, and would be happy to introduce you to.
Think about how annoying it is, when we find someone on LinkedIn, then ask people in our network to provide an introduction, only to get - Sorry, I don’t really know them. This happens all the time. Why? Because we all have way too many connections on LinkedIn, but more importantly, because LinkedIn does not understand the strength of our relationship and doesn’t understand who I can actually introduce people to.
Bridge is the OPPOSITE. With Bridge, I can offer an introductions.
Here is an example of how we use this feature on 2048.vc portfolio page.
In addition to these awesome magic links, Bridge also has Groups feature. This recent addition to Bridge app is also very handy. Groups can be shared just like magic links, and are perfect for when I want to share my network in a specific way.
For example, I can create a group called My Techstars Investments and include all CEOs from Techstars companies I backed. Or I can create a group called Seed Investors and list all VCs who I work with around seed deals. I can share Seed Investors group with a founder who is planning to raise capital and that makes it really easy for her to request introductions.
5. Templates and Shortcuts
Bridge is increasingly more customizable and understands the way I work and do introductions. The app comes with handy templates that I can tweak to really personalize the content of the emails that go out.
The home screen remembers my recent introductions and saves me time. Similarly, it is a breathe to run through and send or receive several introductions because of the way Bridge flows are setup.
I love using the app on my Desktop, it is usually one of the tabs I have open, and I also love Bridge iPhone app, which works exactly the same way.
The Future of Professional Networking
Bridge really paves a way to a new future of professional networking. Once you start using it and start thinking about it, you will realize that it comes back to one thing — YOUR NETWORK.
Somehow, LinkedIn managed to build a giant business by telling us that it is all about the network, while it actually is not.
Think about it — how amazing, beautiful and powerful our professional lives are and it is all about the PEOPLE we work and worked with.
The apps of tomorrow should put all of us in control of our professional relationship, and help us get the most out of our professional network. We need a smart, real-time, personalized and intelligent apps that get what we are doing and why.
This is exactly what Connor and his team are building at Bridge and exactly why I am so excited about being part of this visionary startup.
If you would like to get an invite to Bridge, please drop me an email alex@2048.vc
