In tech start-ups people matter, not companies

While we were interviewing a potential candidate, Brian started on an interesting topic that made me think. He started talking about building relationships with people, not companies. He described most companies in the tech world as: "younger than his kids". When you think about it, that's an interesting phenomenon. In big business, companies build relationships with other companies irrespective of people. These intercompany relationships may have lasted for 100 years. His comment made me pause to reflect on the similarity between the start-up world and what my dad does. Ship-brokerage (I was a tanker broker for 2 years). That industry is small. In my two years there, I saw customers turn into competitors and competitors turn into customers. People were always moving around and you never knew if someone you once snubbed would end up being your potential customer.

Both industries are relationship driven. In shipbroking, it's the difference between getting the support to make deals, or not. In tech start-ups, your relationships are the difference between getting funding and not getting funding. They are the difference between getting the right people on board, and not being able to build a team. Relationships are the difference between success and failure.

Though the two industries are completely different, the importance of relationships sits above everything else in either. Thoughts?