Importance of Business Networking in a Tech Company

Everybody seems to think the opposite, but does it really matters how well you are connected with others entrepreneurs, developers or VCs when you own a tech company?

It seems obvious that it helps your way out, but if you have to choose where to put your time and energy, is it in building great product or building lots of relationships?

Maybe I am little naive, but I don't believe that taking time to find good associates/partners, taking time to connect with others business, or taking time to seek funding worth it. I believe if you build something great, we'll make money, attract talents and have the opportunity to raise money if needed. I believe that talking to co-founders is surely a lot of fun (not to be alone on the boat at least!) and it is certainly a relief to share the burden of running a company but I think is really hard to find the right people, to keep the best talents on board, to give them the fair amount of equity and not to be overflow (!) in the long term by the equity dilution.

It's not all or nothing. You could have spent your time on your business, but wrote this question instead. I'm assuming you thought it would save you some additional time of finding this answer on your own. Having a network of qualified people could help you answser many more questions that will come up.

If you ever need to hire a developer, knowing several of them is a great place to start. Maybe what you learn from other developers is you don't want to hire any, so you will decide to maintain a one man business. Same could be said for VC.

It may not be a question of taking time away from business activities, but the time could be considered personal time as well. I'd be surprised if you didn't have any friends or acquaintences in your business area. Are you going to ignore them for the rest of your life?