Networking Is Like Online Dating? New Startup Valor Connect Thinks So.

BOSTON, Sept. 20, 2016 /PRNewswire/ -- Professional networking doesn't need to be an awkward, buttoned up, hyper-formal event. Professional networking can be as easy as swiping right. Valor Connect is a new mobile app applying the same principles of the most successful dating apps -- the swipe feature from Tinder, the compatibility algorithms from eHarmony -- to make finding and connecting with professionals you don't yet know, but probably should, easier and more efficient than ever before.

Valor Connect is the ideal networking solution for whatever your goals are:

• Consultants looking for business,
• Recruiters looking for candidates,
• Job seekers looking for opportunities,
• Students looking for mentors,
• Entrepreneurs looking for partners.
• Professionals looking to find industry experts
• Individuals trying to expand their horizons

Who you know often matters more than what you know -- it's true. That's precisely why networking is so crucial in building a career. But there's an inherent problem with this system: the traditional networking process is awkward, time-consuming, and inefficient. People often fall short of their full potential because they can't find the RIGHT people to connect with to locate the RIGHT opportunities for them. Networking at events is particularly challenging, and meeting interesting people is often a crapshoot.

This is particularly true for recent college graduates where underemployment is a widespread problem -- over 50% of college graduates are underemployed in their first job out of school. This is one of Valor Connects' primary target: university career centers looking to help their student and alumni leverage the school's network. Students know that alumni are a great source of opportunity, but they don't naturally know how to network with them, and the process is daunting. The Valor Connect app removes most of the effort and presents networking in a way students are very familiar with: dating apps.

In addition to general networking users and students, another primary market for Valor Connect is event planners connecting people before, during and after events. Valor Connect provides an enhanced way for attendees to make valuable connections while they are there, while also helping event organizers obtain potent metrics to really understand and know their attendees goals and interests.

Whether you are trying to identify the right people at an event, find an alumni mentor, or network with people in your organization, Valor Connect has made the process of finding inspiring people incredibly simple:

1. Log in with your LinkedIn or Facebook account.
2. Tap your professional and personal interests from a wall of tags.
3. Sit back and let our algorithm do all the work for you
4. Review your new curated stack of profile cards each day -- swipe right if you agree that they'd be a good person to meet, left if not.
5. Once both parties swipe yes, start messaging your new connection in-app.

At first glance, it may seem like Valor Connect is going head-to-head against LinkedIn, but the two actually form a symbiotic relationship. Valor Connect is not a competitor to LinkedIn; Valor Connect is a precursor to LinkedIn. LinkedIn is useful for storing your existing professional connections. The process is typically: meet someone in person at an event, through a connection, etc., and then connect on LinkedIn. The process on Valor is the opposite: meet on Valor, then connect in person at an event, conference, over the phone, email etc., and ultimately connect on LinkedIn. Meet on Valor, then connect on LinkedIn.

Valor Connect was developed by Andy Fine, a young power-networker out of Goldman Sachs. At a networking event in the fall of 2014, he found himself in a room with 250 people. Out of all those potential game-changing connections, he ended up running into 5 attorneys in a row. Great people, but just not what he needed at the moment. Those conversations ended up being wasted time for both parties.

Later on that night, he thought back on this frustrating experience and started to draw connections to the dating industry, which has made it so easy to not only meet new people, but the RIGHT people.

"Valor Connect is all about connecting with people you don't know but you probably should," Fine said. "With Valor Connect, you can go on and swipe, and you can connect and be talking to someone in an instant. We're all busy people -- and Valor is designed to minimize effort while maximizing results."

Andy is a lifelong entrepreneur. He started his first company when he was 14 and grew it to include several employees over the next four years. He sold the company to a competitor before leaving for college at Bucknell where he studied management, economics, and philosophy.

To learn more about Valor Connect and to download the iOS or Android app, visit valorapp.com.

For more information about this story, contact:

Jake Howe, VP of Partnerships
Valor App
[email protected]
(857) 244-0278

SOURCE Valor App

Related Links

http://www.valorapp.com