We all know reputation is matters. And much of your reputation is locked up inside the heads of individuals you’ve worked with in the past.
What’s needed?
A private way to leave feedback on past business arrangements that gives you full control of which people/groups can access that. If someone I know has engaged in a deep business arrangement with company Y or been a co-founder with person X (who I am thinking about partnering with), what was their feedback? Were they good to work with? Responsive?
There are a few interesting scenarios:
- Venture Capital – which firms and venture partners are great to work with? Which ones suck? Which ones only care about money? Which partners really help their portfolion companies, versus which ones put money in and then disappear?
- Business development – which companies are a pain in the ass to deal with? Can they move things forward? Are they sticklers for always “winning” every negotiation, or do they focus on win-win deals?
- Co-Founders – how are their communication skills? Do they execute on their word? Or do they promise the world, and deliver nothing?
Most of this knowledge is being traded via email, text, and voice right now. Which, as you know, is inefficient because people find themselves answering the same questions multiple times.
TheFunded is doing some of this, but their UI/UX is sorely lacking (looking at their home page – I don’t even really know what the site is supposed to do). It seems to me Angel List has the best shot at solving this, given they are mapping business relationships within the technology industry. Adding a way to privately review an individual or company would be a fairly easy add-on for them (the UI/UX is the harder part).
[Note: I posted the basics of this idea in the comments of Seth Levine’s blog]