You're about to make a critical hire. Maybe it's your first Head of Talent. Or a CMO, CTO, founding recruiting partner. Someone whose network will determine how fast you can build.

You look at their resume. Impressive pedigree—they worked at top companies, placed senior roles, have 8,000+ LinkedIn connections. On paper, they look perfect.

But here's the question that actually matters: Can their network move when you need it to?

Most founders evaluate talent leaders and recruiters by the wrong metrics. They look at tenure, company logos, network size. And while pedigree and work history matter, they tell you almost nothing about whether someone's network is actually invested and curated in a way that helps you hire in fast-moving markets.

You can work at incredible companies for years and still have shallow relationships that don't activate when it counts. You can have an impressive resume and a network full of names that won't pick up the phone. In crypto and AI—where entire categories emerge in months and talent gets snapped up in days—what matters isn't who someone worked with, but how quickly they can leverage those relationships for real impact.

That's why I'm introducing a framework I call Network Velocity.

Network Velocity = Activation Speed + Cross Functional Reach+ Ecosystem Integration

Network velocity measures how quickly someone can activate the right parts of their network to deliver real outcomes. It's physics applied to relationships: velocity = speed + direction.

Think about two recruiters you're considering for a founding recruiting partner role:

Recruiter A has 10,000 LinkedIn connections. Spent five years at a top firm placing senior engineers at FAANG companies—and they're exceptional at it. Impressive resume, proven track record. But when you ask them to find you a Head of Design outside their core network, they need to start from scratch. They'll get there, but it takes time to build those relationships.

Recruiter B has 900 connections. Spent three years moving between crypto infrastructure companies, a fintech startup, and a gaming studio—recruiting across engineering, product, design, and growth. When you ask for a Head of Design, they text four people that afternoon. By the next day, you have two warm intros to designers who've shipped products at scale and are genuinely curious about what you're building.

Both are good at what they do. But they have fundamentally different network velocity. That's the distinction that matters when you're building fast.

Activation Speed
How fast does your network respond when you need it?

If they reached out to 10 people right now, how many respond within 24 hours? High-velocity networks are built on real relationships, not transactional LinkedIn connections. The test is simple: response rate plus response quality.

• Lower Velocity: "I'll post this role and start reaching out"

• High Velocity: "Let me text three people right now—I should have intros by tomorrow"

Cross-Functional Reach
Can your network move beyond its core domain?

The best networks aren't siloed—they span engineering, product, design, GTM, and ops. In crypto and AI, this matters even more. Your best Rust engineer might come from gaming, your growth lead from fintech, your first designer from a B2B SaaS company. Can they reach outside their specialty effectively?

• Specialized (high depth, lower breadth): Deep expertise in one vertical—invaluable for scale hiring in that area

• High Velocity (depth + breadth): Deep expertise in one area PLUS relationships across functions and industries

Ecosystem Integration
Are they transactional, or truly embedded in their community?

Do they show up, give value consistently, and operate on reciprocity? High-velocity people don't just have networks—they are part of the network. Who knows them beyond transactional recruiting relationships?

• Lower Velocity: Only reaches out when they need something

• High Velocity: Active in community for years—hackathons, events, intros, contributions

Here's the trap: founders evaluate talent leaders through proxies that don't predict performance. Someone has 8,000 LinkedIn connections? Great—but how many would actually take their call with urgency? They spent five years at a prestigious company becoming the best in their vertical? Valuable—but if you need to hire outside that vertical, you're starting from scratch together.

Why this matters acutely in crypto and AI:

These markets move at a fundamentally different pace. In crypto, entire categories—DeFi, NFTs, L2s, restaking—emerge, mature, and evolve in 12-18 months. In AI, breakthroughs happen quarterly, reshaping what's possible and who you need to build it.

Traditional hiring timelines don't work. If it takes you three months to fill a critical role, the market has already shifted. Your competitors have shipped. The opportunity window has narrowed. You need people who can move now. And that requires network velocity.

The hidden cost of low velocity:

I've seen this repeatedly. A founder hires a "connected" recruiter—great pedigree, strong resume, 6,000+ connections. Three months in, they've filled one role. Maybe two.

Why? Because when they needed to activate their network, nothing moved. Their relationships were shallow. Their reach was narrow. They knew a lot of names, but couldn't actually get anyone on the phone.

Meanwhile, a founder working with someone who has high network velocity fills four roles in the same timeframe—across engineering, product, design, and ops—because that person can reach into different parts of the ecosystem and get real humans engaged quickly.

In fast markets, that's the difference between building momentum and stalling out.

To be clear: Specialized recruiters are incredibly valuable. If you're scaling a function and need to hire 20 engineers or 15 sales reps, someone with deep vertical expertise will outperform a generalist every time. The issue isn't specialization—it's context.

For early-stage companies with evolving needs, or companies moving into new categories, network velocity across multiple domains becomes critical. You're not hiring for one function—you're building an entire company. That requires a different kind of network.

You can't outsource this entirely. Your network velocity as a founder is as critical as anyone you hire.

Be T-Shaped

The most effective founders aren't just deep in their domain—they're broad across the ecosystem. You need depth (technical expertise, domain knowledge, hard-won insights from building) and breadth (relationships with operators who've scaled companies, investors who open doors, talent across engineering, product, design, marketing, and ops).

When you hit a wall—whether it's a key hire, a strategic question, or navigating a market shift—you need to activate different parts of your network quickly. That's what velocity enables.

Invest in Reciprocity

High-velocity networks aren't built by taking. They're built by giving, consistently, over time.

What this looks like in practice: Make intros without being asked. Share opportunities that aren't yours. Offer help before it's needed—tactical advice, feedback, connections. Show up to community events, hackathons, dinners. Contribute publicly through writing, speaking, open-sourcing knowledge.

The founders who do this find that when they need something critical—a tough hire, a crucial piece of advice, an important intro—their network responds immediately.

Curate Ruthlessly

Not every connection deserves ongoing attention. Your network should be filled with people who actually build things (operators, investors who ship, founders executing), have strong track records and pedigrees, and will pick up when you call.

Quality over quantity. Always.

When bringing on a founding recruiting partner or talent leader, resumes only tell you so much. You need to evaluate network velocity directly.

Questions That Reveal Velocity:

"Can you reach someone in a function you've never recruited for?"
This tests cross-functional reach. If they've only done engineering recruiting, can they still get you a world-class marketer or operator through their network? If the answer is "I'd need to source for that," their network lacks breadth.

"Who would vouch for you outside of candidates you've placed?"
High-velocity recruiters have relationships with operators, founders, and investors—not just people they've helped get jobs. If only candidates would vouch for them, that's a signal their network is transactional, not embedded.

"If you reached out to five key people in your network right now, how many do you think would respond by end of day?"
This is a hypothetical but revealing question. You're testing their honest self-assessment of relationship strength. High-velocity people will confidently say "all five" or "four of five" and can tell you exactly who those people are and why they'd respond. Low-velocity people will hedge or give vague answers. It reveals whether they truly understand the quality of their relationships.

"Walk me through how you'd find me a [role they've never recruited for]."
Listen carefully. Are they describing reaching into their existing cross-functional network, leveraging relationships across industries? Or defaulting to "I'd post on LinkedIn and start sourcing cold"? The former is velocity. The latter is just hustle.

"Tell me about a time you filled a role in under four weeks. How did you do it?"
This reveals process. High-velocity recruiters describe activating specific relationships and moving candidates through trust. Low-velocity recruiters talk about volume and outreach.

The Non-Negotiable: T-Shaped Expertise

A founding recruiting partner must be T-shaped. You need someone with vertical depth (exceptional at one thing—maybe engineering recruiting, or building entire GTM teams from scratch) and horizontal breadth (relationships across functions, industries, and contexts).

Your needs will evolve. In six months, you'll need someone they've never recruited for before. In a year, you might pivot and need an entirely different type of talent. If their network can't flex with you, they're a vendor filling roles—not a partner building your company.

This doesn't mean specialized recruiters aren't valuable—they absolutely are when scaling a specific function. But at the founding stage, or when building in fast-moving markets like crypto and AI where your needs shift rapidly, you need someone whose network can flex with you.

The pace of company-building has fundamentally changed.

In crypto, entire categories emerge and mature in 12-18 months. In AI, the talent landscape shifts every quarter. When markets move this fast, you can't afford three-month hiring cycles. You need networks that activate in days, not weeks.

The shift:

• Network effects measure scale

• Network velocity measures execution

Stop asking "who has the biggest network?" Start asking "who can move fastest when it counts?"

The companies that win hire for velocity, not pedigree. Who build relationships that activate when it matters. Who understand that your network isn't just an asset—it's a tool that either works or doesn't.

Network velocity is the new competitive advantage. Measure it. Hire for it. Build it.

You're about to make a critical hire. Maybe it's your first Head of Talent. Or a CMO, CTO, founding recruiting partner. Someone whose network will determine how fast you can build.

You look at their resume. Impressive pedigree—they worked at top companies, placed senior roles, have 8,000+ LinkedIn connections. On paper, they look perfect.

But here's the question that actually matters: Can their network move when you need it to?

Most founders evaluate talent leaders and recruiters by the wrong metrics. They look at tenure, company logos, network size. And while pedigree and work history matter, they tell you almost nothing about whether someone's network is actually invested and curated in a way that helps you hire in fast-moving markets.

You can work at incredible companies for years and still have shallow relationships that don't activate when it counts. You can have an impressive resume and a network full of names that won't pick up the phone. In crypto and AI—where entire categories emerge in months and talent gets snapped up in days—what matters isn't who someone worked with, but how quickly they can leverage those relationships for real impact.

That's why I'm introducing a framework I call Network Velocity.

Network Velocity = Activation Speed + Cross Functional Reach+ Ecosystem Integration

Network velocity measures how quickly someone can activate the right parts of their network to deliver real outcomes. It's physics applied to relationships: velocity = speed + direction.

Think about two recruiters you're considering for a founding recruiting partner role:

Recruiter A has 10,000 LinkedIn connections. Spent five years at a top firm placing senior engineers at FAANG companies—and they're exceptional at it. Impressive resume, proven track record. But when you ask them to find you a Head of Design outside their core network, they need to start from scratch. They'll get there, but it takes time to build those relationships.

Recruiter B has 900 connections. Spent three years moving between crypto infrastructure companies, a fintech startup, and a gaming studio—recruiting across engineering, product, design, and growth. When you ask for a Head of Design, they text four people that afternoon. By the next day, you have two warm intros to designers who've shipped products at scale and are genuinely curious about what you're building.

Both are good at what they do. But they have fundamentally different network velocity. That's the distinction that matters when you're building fast.

Activation Speed
How fast does your network respond when you need it?

If they reached out to 10 people right now, how many respond within 24 hours? High-velocity networks are built on real relationships, not transactional LinkedIn connections. The test is simple: response rate plus response quality.

• Lower Velocity: "I'll post this role and start reaching out"

• High Velocity: "Let me text three people right now—I should have intros by tomorrow"

Cross-Functional Reach
Can your network move beyond its core domain?

The best networks aren't siloed—they span engineering, product, design, GTM, and ops. In crypto and AI, this matters even more. Your best Rust engineer might come from gaming, your growth lead from fintech, your first designer from a B2B SaaS company. Can they reach outside their specialty effectively?

• Specialized (high depth, lower breadth): Deep expertise in one vertical—invaluable for scale hiring in that area

• High Velocity (depth + breadth): Deep expertise in one area PLUS relationships across functions and industries

Ecosystem Integration
Are they transactional, or truly embedded in their community?

Do they show up, give value consistently, and operate on reciprocity? High-velocity people don't just have networks—they are part of the network. Who knows them beyond transactional recruiting relationships?

• Lower Velocity: Only reaches out when they need something

• High Velocity: Active in community for years—hackathons, events, intros, contributions

Here's the trap: founders evaluate talent leaders through proxies that don't predict performance. Someone has 8,000 LinkedIn connections? Great—but how many would actually take their call with urgency? They spent five years at a prestigious company becoming the best in their vertical? Valuable—but if you need to hire outside that vertical, you're starting from scratch together.

Why this matters acutely in crypto and AI:

These markets move at a fundamentally different pace. In crypto, entire categories—DeFi, NFTs, L2s, restaking—emerge, mature, and evolve in 12-18 months. In AI, breakthroughs happen quarterly, reshaping what's possible and who you need to build it.

Traditional hiring timelines don't work. If it takes you three months to fill a critical role, the market has already shifted. Your competitors have shipped. The opportunity window has narrowed. You need people who can move now. And that requires network velocity.

The hidden cost of low velocity:

I've seen this repeatedly. A founder hires a "connected" recruiter—great pedigree, strong resume, 6,000+ connections. Three months in, they've filled one role. Maybe two.

Why? Because when they needed to activate their network, nothing moved. Their relationships were shallow. Their reach was narrow. They knew a lot of names, but couldn't actually get anyone on the phone.

Meanwhile, a founder working with someone who has high network velocity fills four roles in the same timeframe—across engineering, product, design, and ops—because that person can reach into different parts of the ecosystem and get real humans engaged quickly.

In fast markets, that's the difference between building momentum and stalling out.

To be clear: Specialized recruiters are incredibly valuable. If you're scaling a function and need to hire 20 engineers or 15 sales reps, someone with deep vertical expertise will outperform a generalist every time. The issue isn't specialization—it's context.

For early-stage companies with evolving needs, or companies moving into new categories, network velocity across multiple domains becomes critical. You're not hiring for one function—you're building an entire company. That requires a different kind of network.

You can't outsource this entirely. Your network velocity as a founder is as critical as anyone you hire.

Be T-Shaped

The most effective founders aren't just deep in their domain—they're broad across the ecosystem. You need depth (technical expertise, domain knowledge, hard-won insights from building) and breadth (relationships with operators who've scaled companies, investors who open doors, talent across engineering, product, design, marketing, and ops).

When you hit a wall—whether it's a key hire, a strategic question, or navigating a market shift—you need to activate different parts of your network quickly. That's what velocity enables.

Invest in Reciprocity

High-velocity networks aren't built by taking. They're built by giving, consistently, over time.

What this looks like in practice: Make intros without being asked. Share opportunities that aren't yours. Offer help before it's needed—tactical advice, feedback, connections. Show up to community events, hackathons, dinners. Contribute publicly through writing, speaking, open-sourcing knowledge.

The founders who do this find that when they need something critical—a tough hire, a crucial piece of advice, an important intro—their network responds immediately.

Curate Ruthlessly

Not every connection deserves ongoing attention. Your network should be filled with people who actually build things (operators, investors who ship, founders executing), have strong track records and pedigrees, and will pick up when you call.

Quality over quantity. Always.

When bringing on a founding recruiting partner or talent leader, resumes only tell you so much. You need to evaluate network velocity directly.

Questions That Reveal Velocity:

"Can you reach someone in a function you've never recruited for?"
This tests cross-functional reach. If they've only done engineering recruiting, can they still get you a world-class marketer or operator through their network? If the answer is "I'd need to source for that," their network lacks breadth.

"Who would vouch for you outside of candidates you've placed?"
High-velocity recruiters have relationships with operators, founders, and investors—not just people they've helped get jobs. If only candidates would vouch for them, that's a signal their network is transactional, not embedded.

"If you reached out to five key people in your network right now, how many do you think would respond by end of day?"
This is a hypothetical but revealing question. You're testing their honest self-assessment of relationship strength. High-velocity people will confidently say "all five" or "four of five" and can tell you exactly who those people are and why they'd respond. Low-velocity people will hedge or give vague answers. It reveals whether they truly understand the quality of their relationships.

"Walk me through how you'd find me a [role they've never recruited for]."
Listen carefully. Are they describing reaching into their existing cross-functional network, leveraging relationships across industries? Or defaulting to "I'd post on LinkedIn and start sourcing cold"? The former is velocity. The latter is just hustle.

"Tell me about a time you filled a role in under four weeks. How did you do it?"
This reveals process. High-velocity recruiters describe activating specific relationships and moving candidates through trust. Low-velocity recruiters talk about volume and outreach.

The Non-Negotiable: T-Shaped Expertise

A founding recruiting partner must be T-shaped. You need someone with vertical depth (exceptional at one thing—maybe engineering recruiting, or building entire GTM teams from scratch) and horizontal breadth (relationships across functions, industries, and contexts).

Your needs will evolve. In six months, you'll need someone they've never recruited for before. In a year, you might pivot and need an entirely different type of talent. If their network can't flex with you, they're a vendor filling roles—not a partner building your company.

This doesn't mean specialized recruiters aren't valuable—they absolutely are when scaling a specific function. But at the founding stage, or when building in fast-moving markets like crypto and AI where your needs shift rapidly, you need someone whose network can flex with you.

The pace of company-building has fundamentally changed.

In crypto, entire categories emerge and mature in 12-18 months. In AI, the talent landscape shifts every quarter. When markets move this fast, you can't afford three-month hiring cycles. You need networks that activate in days, not weeks.

The shift:

• Network effects measure scale

• Network velocity measures execution

Stop asking "who has the biggest network?" Start asking "who can move fastest when it counts?"

The companies that win hire for velocity, not pedigree. Who build relationships that activate when it matters. Who understand that your network isn't just an asset—it's a tool that either works or doesn't.

Network velocity is the new competitive advantage. Measure it. Hire for it. Build it.