Michelle Gonzalez, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of M12: The Secret to Networking and Meeting the Most Influential People Out There
Jan 11, 2024
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Michelle Gonzalez, Corporate VP and Global Head of M12, Microsoft's Venture Capital Fund, shares her insights on networking, taking risks, and seeking feedback. She explains the importance of genuine connections, shares experiences of meeting influential people before they became famous, and highlights the power of regular feedback in personal growth.
Networking should be authentic and based on building relationships, not just transactional exchanges.
Seeking regular feedback, even from people you've just met, is crucial for personal and professional growth.
Deep dives
Michelle Gonzalez's Varied Career Path
Michelle Gonzalez discusses her diverse career path, which includes roles at Google, Comcast Ventures, IBM Ventures, and Apple. She shares her experiences working in different industries and wearing many hats, highlighting her interest in innovation and starting new things.
The Importance of Networking and Building Relationships
Michelle emphasizes the value of networking and building relationships throughout her career. She shares her strategy of reaching out to different people, organizing dinner events, and creating networks to learn more about the technology industry and venture capital. She encourages everyone to take initiative, overcome the fear of rejection, and make authentic connections.
The Power of Asking for Feedback
Michelle reflects on a pivotal moment in her career when she received direct and constructive feedback from a manager at Apple. She emphasizes the importance of seeking and accepting feedback, viewing it as a gift that helps in personal and professional growth. Michelle encourages individuals to embrace feedback, be open to improvement, and work on areas that may be holding them back.
Overcoming Plateaus and Seeking Sponsorship
Michelle shares how receiving feedback helped her overcome career plateaus and propelled her towards growth opportunities. She highlights the significance of having mentors, sponsors, and advocates who can provide guidance, support, and opportunities for advancement. Michelle advises individuals to actively seek out these relationships outside of their direct management chain to expand their network and access more career opportunities.
Michelle Gonzalez, Corporate Vice President and Global Head of M12, Microsoft's Venture Capital Fund
Michelle explains how to really network and why most people think it's so artificial, transactional, or even cringe-inducing. She tells us about the cold emails she would send to entrepreneurs, investors, professors and other notable figures and what it was like to have dinner with Sam Altman and the founders of Lyft before they became household names.
Michelle then teaches us the importance of taking risks to develop professionally. She shares how to get on the radar of some of the busiest and most influential people and how building relationships and seeking regular feedback, even from people you've just met, can pay off.