It can be a little awkward meeting someone new. Especially when you’ve got a limited amount of time, and you feel a lot of pressure to have the meeting go well.

Founders who are great at building relationships can better acquire customers, hire team members, and fundraise. So it’s important to know how to make a great first impression with anyone you meet. 

In a recent episode of Uncapped Notes, Eric (General Partner at Hustle Fund) and Janel (our Head of Partnerships) share three things they do on calls to establish good rapport:

1. Have the partner pitch themselves and their goals
2. Pitch Hustle Fund and our goals
3. Establish baseline vulnerability and trust 

Let’s go through each section together to improve your social game.

Have the partner pitch themselves and their goals

When Janel meets someone who’s interested in partnering with Hustle Fund, she always starts the meeting the same way: have them introduce themselves first. 

This sets the tone that Janel is here to genuinely understand who they are and listen to what they desire. It also gives helpful context and clues to where there could be alignment. 

She’ll often ask follow-up questions like:

• What are they most interested in? 
• What would be a big win for them in a potential partnership? 
• What’s their personal journey? What led them to their current role in their career? 

As the conversation progresses, Janel weaves in their earlier remarks (when it makes sense) to show that she’s been actively listening.  Feeling seen and heard is a powerful thing. People notice it and appreciate the effort.  

Pitch Hustle Fund and our goals

After listening to their goals, Janel shares more details about herself and what would be a win for her.

She talks about our values and what we’re trying to achieve in the ecosystem. The thing is… we do a LOT of different things. It can be overwhelming to talk about them all.

So Janel tailors what she shares based on what she thinks the potential partner would most likely be interested in (based on their intro).

Beyond the company’s objectives, Janel also lets her own personality shine through. Why? Because good people want to partner with other good people. 

She’s ok being a little goofy and cracking a joke, which is just Janel being 100% herself. She doesn’t dominate the conversation with her personal story… but she showcases who she is throughout the conversation.

At the end of the day, the best partnerships are all about humans connecting with each other like humans. 

Establish baseline vulnerability and trust

Eric has a Buddhist phrase that he tries to live his life by: “When you bow to the mirror, the reflected image bows back.” 

To Eric, this means that the way that you treat your environment is naturally reciprocated back. So, if you lead with kindness, openness, and vulnerability, you tend to attract people mirroring back the same kinds of behaviors.

This is really important because we want to partner with good humans. We’ve found that people who are open to some level of vulnerability tend to be really high EQ, self-aware people who are great to work with.

Easy ways to establish vulnerability

Let the partner see your real background – Janel has a large and silly giraffe in her background along with trophies from her professional cycling days. 

Janel loves it when people ask about these things, especially the giraffe. It’s an opportunity for people to see a side of Janel that they haven’t before. 

Eric does something similar by taking his calls in his garage. It’s his real office and his background gives people an easy talking point to connect deeper with him. 

Talk about your personal life – Eric frequently talks about his parents and his childhood, even during his fundraising pitches. Eric has dozens of interesting, personal stories that mean a lot to him. And actually, these stories relate to the work that he does every day at Hustle Fund. 

Once Eric opens up about his own life, the person on the other end of the Zoom call ends up doing the same.

These may seem like small things but they’re crucial to establishing rapport. You don’t need to reveal your deepest, darkest secrets in the first meeting. But leading with vulnerability and openness invites the other person to do the same, which tends to lead to a better connection. 

Remember our framework for your next partnership meeting 

1. Have the partner pitch themselves and their goals
2. Pitch your company and your goals
3. Establish baseline vulnerability and trust