+ PartnerUp's Steve Nielsen

Sharing a common goal or interest is an essential element to communities. Struggling to grow his own small business, Steve Nielsen created PartnerUp to help fellow entrepreneurs network and communicate. We talked to Steve to learn more about how to get the most out of our social and professional networks.

Please tell our readers a little bit more about PartnerUp and how it works.

PartnerUp is the first online social network that focuses solely on bringing together and helping small business owners and entrepreneurs. We help entrepreneurs and small businesses find the co-founders, executives and board members they need to help make their business ventures a success. We help our members network with other entrepreneurs and small-business owners and find commercial real estate and small-business friendly service providers. And we also allow our members to ask for and offer up advice.

What inspired you to create this site?

I had an idea for a radio-frequency identification (RFID) company a few years ago. All I needed was to find the right electrical engineer to design and engineer the product. After I spent months exhausting my search for this person, I decided to scrap the whole idea. Some time later I found the man I had been looking for, but by that time it was too late. Then it occurred to me, "There has to be a better way for entrepreneurs to find the right business partners and co-founders." That is where the idea for PartnerUp came from.

The Greener Grass is studying communities. Have you seen shifts in how people collaborate and form relationships online?

Yes, dramatically. I think that the biggest shift has been from offline to online, and it's only going to continue to shift more and more toward online as time goes on. Offline networking doesn't allow you access to the people that you really need. Even if you are at a general networking event with more than 500 people, the chances of the exact right people being there and you stumbling across them are slim. This type of networking is non-targeted and requires a great deal of effort. The advantage of online, however, is that you can network with exactly the people you need, minus the clutter. So more and more people are opting for online networking because of its efficiency. The same principles apply to collaboration. There is a lot of noise and clutter with offline collaboration. Online collaboration allows you to focus in only the areas that you are concerned with.

What are the most important aspects to managing your social networking? Are there differences between managing a virtual group of people as opposed to a physical one?

Making yourself available to your members is first and foremost. You must be available to provide relevant advice to these people. You also must be available to be a facilitator and a gatekeeper for members of your network. Beyond that you also have to be willing to seek advice from people who have the experience you are looking for. You then, in turn, need to be willing to return the favor and offer advice of your own when asked for it.

Focus on quality over quantity. You don't have to network with everyone and his brother. If you do, you're going to end up with a ton of mediocre contacts that will become difficult to manage. Instead focus on those who have relevant experience to you.

There are huge differences between managing a virtual group versus a physical group. When your group is online, the effort you put into it is less, but the payoff is substantially higher because the effort is concentrated on the areas that are important to you. When your group is online, you can cut right to the chase.

Can you share any specific examples of partnerships created through PartnerUp?

Andy Wilson, a San Francisco entrepreneur and longtime Web developer, had an idea for a travel Web site but had no selling or marketing experience. He spent nine months searching for a partner to compensate for the skills he lacked. Then he heard about PartnerUp and posted on the site. A few weeks later he found the exact right person for the job. Today, they're developing a new web 2.0 travel site.

What advice would you give to someone trying to get the most out of their own social network?

Focus on quality over quantity. You don't have to network with everyone and his brother. If you do, you're going to end up with a ton of mediocre contacts that will become difficult to manage. Instead focus on those who have relevant experience to you. When you find those people, then you can take the time to foster those relationships.

Thanks, Steve.
To learn more, visit PartnerUp.