Even though Atlanta-based entrepreneur Adrian Sasine met his co-founder and business partner Joe Mindak through a cold message outreach on LinkedIn, he knew there were limitations to the professional digital networking platform.
Specifically, social apps like LinkedIn make it difficult for people to really get the full value of networking. This is particularly true for companies and individuals who rely on referrals to win new business deals, Sasine explained to Hypepotamus.
“Ten percent of people out there are great connectors. They’re always looking out for people and they’re always going to [refer] people,” he added. Another ten percent of people won’t connect or ever give a referral. That leaves 80% of people who could be motivated to make connections and referrals…if they had an easier way to do it.
That’s why Sasine and Mindak launched Nolodex, a B2B ecosystem platform to help users get paid for warm referrals.
The goal of the community management software, which rolled out earlier this year, is to harness the power of communities and help them create stronger, more monetizable referral networks. In its early stages, Nolodex is targeting co-working spaces, networking groups, chambers of commerce, and alumni associations as strong customer profiles who could benefit from referrals.
Building A Better Way Network
Sasine described Nolodex as a “paradigm shift” in the way people network.
“It’s a new revenue source for communities. It’s a new revenue source for individuals,” he added.
The early-stage company has already brought on a dozen community organizations as users, with several “over 100,000 people” organizations being onboarding onto the platform. Nolodex makes money through a mix of three revenue streams: Charging a community owner a small fee to use the platform, charging individuals a yearly user fee, and taking a small transaction fee based on referrals made on the platform.
Sasine, who holds degrees from the University of Georgia and Georgia State University, told Hypepotamus that until five years ago, he said he would have probably just described himself as a “marketing guy,” having worked on the marketing teams of companies like Allstate Insurance. But he went on to found and exit several companies in the marketing and marketing agency space.
Co-founder Mindak is based in New Jersey.
“We’ve both owned and exited companies before. We know when you have to shift, stay humble, and you have to pivot and roll with the punches,” Sasine added. “What we both believe is that community is like the most powerful thing, but it’s really underutilized.”