When I Can't Help, I Make the Introduction

There are plenty of conversations where I realize pretty quickly that I am not the right person to solve the problem.

Maybe the customer needs something my company does not provide. Maybe a founder is looking for a capability that sits outside what I know well. Or maybe I understand the problem but know someone else who is much closer to the answer.

When that happens, I usually try to make the introduction.

It sounds simple, and it is. But over time I have realized that being able to connect people is one of the most useful things I can do, both professionally and in the communities I am part of.

My line is pretty simple: is it in my wheelhouse or not?

I always try to help a customer as much as I can. If the problem is something my company can support directly, then I keep asking questions, involve the right people internally and try to move the project forward.

If it is not in our wheelhouse, I do not see the point in pretending it is.

That is usually when I start thinking about the people around me. Do I know somebody who works on this? Have I met a company that could be relevant? Is there someone in the local hardware or startup community who has dealt with the same challenge?

Sometimes I already know exactly who I want to connect. Other times I may reach out to the community first and see who can help.

I ask both sides before I introduce them

I do not really have a complicated gut check before making an introduction. The main thing I do is contact both parties first.

I will explain briefly why I think the connection could make sense and ask if they are comfortable with me introducing them. If both say yes, I proceed.

That can be by email, LinkedIn or sometimes text depending on the relationship.

I like doing it that way because the introduction does not arrive completely cold. Both people already know why I am connecting them and both have agreed that the conversation could be useful.

It is a small detail, but I think it makes the handoff feel more intentional.

I usually do not know what happens next

This is one of the interesting parts about introductions: most of the time I have no idea whether they end up mattering.

I may connect two people and then not hear anything about it for months. Sometimes years. Unless they eventually do business together and it becomes public, I may never know exactly what came from that first conversation.

And I am okay with that.

I do not think the value of making an introduction should depend on being involved in whatever happens afterward. If I think two people should know each other, that is enough of a reason to connect them.

The network becomes more useful when you know what people actually do

This is probably where going to events, visiting companies and spending time in different professional circles starts to compound.

You meet an acoustic engineer at one event. A hardware founder somewhere else. A manufacturing person through work. An investor at a mixer. A product development company at a trade show.

At the time, those conversations may have nothing to do with each other.

Then months later someone explains a problem and you suddenly remember another person who might be relevant.

The introduction only takes a few minutes, but being able to make it comes from all the conversations before it.

This is also part of how I think about community

When I started hosting and co-organizing events in San Diego, my original goal was mostly to meet people and build the community I felt I was missing after moving here.

As that network grew, I started seeing another side of it. The value is not only getting people into the same room. It is remembering enough about them to make useful connections later.

A founder may need an engineer. Someone may be looking for a manufacturing partner. A person new to the city may be trying to understand which event or group makes sense for them. Sometimes I can help directly. Sometimes I can connect them to somebody who can.

For me, that is a much more interesting way to think about networking than collecting contacts.

There is no need to force every relationship into a transaction

This also connects to something I have written about before. Not every professional relationship needs to start with a business objective.

The same is true when helping someone. I do not need every conversation to turn into an opportunity for my company or for me personally.

Actually, I think trust builds faster when people realize that.

If I tell a customer, ‘We are probably not the right fit for this, but I know someone you should speak with,’ I am still helping solve the original problem. That matters more to me than trying to keep a conversation alive that is going nowhere.

What I take from this

I think one of the useful roles you can play in an ecosystem is simply being someone who knows enough people to point others in the right direction.

You do not need to have every answer yourself.

You just need to listen closely enough to understand what the person needs, be honest about whether you can help and remember who else might be relevant.

One last thought

I may never know whether most of the introductions I make become meaningful.

But I do know that when someone asks me for help, I would rather leave them with a good next conversation than with a polite dead end.