Since launching The Swarm last year, we’ve been lucky enough to witness firsthand how companies have benefited from the power of networks. Users on The Swarm have added over 500,000 connections to their Network Graphs, and founders, recruiters, and talent leads have shared how Network Relationship Management (NRM) is transforming their recruiting function.

Now, the questions we’re getting from founders and investors are: 

Can we use The Swarm for sales and other use cases?

Can we build an investor network and invite portfolio companies?

We’re glad you asked. This has been our vision since Day 1, and we’re excited to introduce new ways your company network can be activated to accelerate recruiting and sales, and for investors to build their own networks.

But first: why networks, and why now?

Over the last decade, companies have been built in a macro environment of “growth at all costs” — and this driving philosophy has underpinned the way companies recruit, sell, and partner with others. Record levels of funding have allowed companies to spend at scale to fuel their growth, and founders haven’t had to look too closely at the efficiency of their processes and pipelines.

What we’re seeing now, however, is a change in this macro environment. With a recession around the corner, inflation skyrocketing, and funding slowing down, founders have been forced to re-evaluate their approaches, looking for opportunities to stretch their runway while improving the efficiency of their growth.

Founders still want growth, of course, but it’s no longer about growth at any cost. For the first time in a decade, companies have to be judicious and aim for efficient, sustainable growth. They’re looking at the fundamentals of how much they’re spending, how much revenue they’re generating per employee, and how efficient their everyday processes are.

Suddenly, cold outreach en masse — the de facto model for scaling recruiting and sales for years now — no longer makes as much sense. More than ever, founders need to do more with less, and they need their growth engines to be as efficient as possible.

Here’s how we see networks assisting with just that.

Networks for recruiting

For years now, recruiters have realized the power of employee referrals. There’s a reason why tech companies will offer their employees thousands of dollars as a reward for introducing them to their next hire.

It’s because referrals are 85 times more likely to be hired than inbound candidates, over twice as fast to hire, and they stay with companies — on average — 70% longer than non-referrals.

The Swarm’s Network Graph allows founders and recruiting teams to benefit from those same outcomes, without having to ask their employees to do the heavy lifting of referrals: no more trawling through LinkedIn connections, suggesting candidates, and making introductions. Instead, employees, investors, advisors, and even friends can add their connections to a single Network Graph, and recruiters can browse a treasure trove of warm connections to add to their pipelines.

Rather than sending hundreds of cold emails to unvetted candidates, Network Relationship Management allows recruiters to fill their pipeline with warm leads that will be higher quality, faster to hire, and more likely to stay longer.

Networks for sales

We’ve all been on the receiving end of a cold pitch from someone we don’t know. In fact, at this very moment, you likely have a handful of messages sitting in your LinkedIn inbox from strangers asking for 20 minutes of your time to try and sell you something.

Most of the time, those messages are deleted immediately. Not only will you not respond to them, but you probably won't even read them. However, if the message comes from someone you know? Chances are much higher that you’ll give the person a few minutes of your time.

Research shows that warm connections are invaluable in sales. Compared to cold outreach — which only garners a response from one in 10 B2B decision-makers — warm connections are 5.2 times more likely to return calls, and starting with a personal connection can increase sales productivity by up to 243%.

When you bring the power of networks into your sales function, you’re building a pipeline based on warm connections — dramatically increasing the quality of those leads and your chances of success. 

Using a solution like The Swarm, sales leaders can:

• Identify warm connections within their target companies
• Identify net-new, high-quality leads to target
• Prioritize target companies based on your team’s existing relationships

Taking this approach allows sales teams to leverage their team’s existing relationships to create a pipeline that’s warmer, stronger, and more likely to yield results.

Investor networks

Last — but certainly not least — we’re excited to help investors build their own investor networks.

In 2022, the global venture capital investment market grew to $233.9 Billion, and it shows no signs of slowing: in just five years’ time, the IMARC Group expects the market to more than triple to $708.6 Billion.

With more VC firms out there than ever before, investors need to choose their deals wisely and differentiate themselves to startups. Using the power of networks, they can do just that.

Using The Swarm, investors can make smarter decisions by using their previously untapped network to conduct due diligence on potential founders and back-channel references. They can also provide added value to their portfolio companies by giving founders access to their network, cross-pollinating relationships across portfolio companies, and identifying sales and talent opportunities on their portfolio companies’ behalf. Capital is a commodity, but your network is your proprietary asset that can differentiate you in the market, it’s time to put it to work.

Dive deeper

Tapping into your network can help you accelerate your sales, recruiting, and partnerships efficiently and affordably. We're excited to lift the veil on these powerful use cases and for a great discussion with our panel of experts: Check it out now!

‍