In today's Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur Spotlight, we're diving into the journey of Christian Durfee, co-founder and CEO of InvestLink Social, who is revolutionizing how entrepreneurs and investors connect in the fundraising ecosystem. From his early days watching his teacher parents make an impact in their community to now creating a platform that ensures no networking conversation goes to waste, Christian's story showcases how following your gut instinct and betting on yourself can lead to transformative innovation. Get ready to learn from someone who's not just building a platform, but reshaping how the entire entrepreneurial community connects, grows, and thrives.
Hi, Christian! Thanks for joining us today. Tell us about your business. Who do you serve, how do you serve them, and what's the impact that your business and work makes?
I am the co-founder and CEO of InvestLink Social, the social networking platform that connects entrepreneurs and investors to assist in the fundraising process. InvestLink Social offers tools and social communities to assist entrepreneurs in expanding their network and enhancing their business skills while acting as a vetting system for investors of all types and sizes with smart matching deal flow and verified data profiles. We believe in the strength of networking while providing a space that pairs up synergistic connections so no conversation is EVER a waste of time. Businesses connect with investors to raise their rounds and find other businesses for strategic partnerships. Investors find quality and vetted deal flow + connect with other like-minded investors to expand their investing journey.
InvestLink Social is always building and morphing from how our founders and investors are using it to ensure it's a platform built by the users for the users. A sneak peek: community building is a top priority within the entrepreneurial ecosystem but there's no good medium for community builders...until now. Calling all community builders - stay tuned for the ultimate community-building solution: grow and expand your community with highly vetted and quality users while having the full power of InvestLink Social at your fingertips.
Tell us about the moment you finally felt like you went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur.
Growing up, my parents were very hardworking and respected teachers. I saw all of the sacrifices in their daily lives time in and time out. Seeing the change they made in our local community, I knew I wanted to follow in their footsteps. With my teenage years in the digital age, I saw all the flashiness of the entrepreneurial life and knew I wanted a piece of it (aka, I was the wantrepreneur). I started my journey with making bow ties, a small novelty item to get my feet wet. Using the small successes and lessons I had from the bow ties, I rolled them up into my college startup. That felt like the first moment I went from wantrepreneur to entrepreneur, using the previous experiences I had and confidently making decisions.
Describe the moment or period in your life/career that motivated you to make the entrepreneurial leap.
I always viewed entrepreneurship as a "side hustle" in high school, college, and the few years outside of college. It felt like it was a hobby that made money and brought cool experiences. It wasn't until I started InvestLink Social that I saw the impact we were making, and realized that to help others, I needed to make the entrepreneurial leap and go all in. The timing was impeccable since I had just begun my mid-twenties and many of my classmates were fully in their careers, getting married, having kids - starting the next chapters of their lives. I was at a moment where real responsibilities were coming, and I wanted to put all my chips in to try. It was a gamble, but it was the right gamble, and has given me more than I could have expected. If your gut tells you something, best listen to it.
Describe a tool, service, or software that has been a game-changer for your business. How does it contribute to your success?
I can't go a day without my Project Management tools. There are so many tasks each day that seem urgent, with Trello and ClickUp, my team and I are able to track what tasks are mission-critical and others that can be held off until tomorrow. Being able to track progress on each ticket and have an internal dialog between task stakeholders is such a game-changer. Organization is so important to run a successful operation, without having a clean, and task-driven plan, it's like finding a needle in a haystack.
We know that success is very often a non-linear path. Tell us about a failure, pivot point, or lesson that changed your course or direction and helped to get you where you are today.
I don't think there was a specific time that changed your course or direction but a negative and positive pivot point(s) had to be: getting told no AND finding the right yes. With entrepreneurship, you are always going to be told NO, it's a favorite word from so many different people. People are going to bash your idea, tell you it's not going to work and be jealous of you when something does go your way. The key is to take all the negativity from everyone, smile, and use it as motivation. Have a chip on your shoulder to prove everyone who said no, wrong.
In the positive light, it's always a pivotal moment when someone does say YES to you. You just need to find that one person who believes in you and your idea, and will open so many doors. These are people who help you get to that next level and want nothing but the best for you. Keep them close to you - once you're successful, give them back 10x what they gave to you.
What unconventional strategy did you employ that significantly impacted your business?
Relationship building. Throughout all my entrepreneurial endeavors (or even personal ones for that matter), two things always came up when looking at where success came from: hard work and relationships. Hard work is a given, but relationship building isn't always on everyone's radars. One of the secrets to exponential business growth is "who you know". Building a rolodex (or in modern times, the contacts app), is like grabbing gold. But it's not just about getting a name and a phone number, it's about building a professional AND personal relationship with the people you network with. Business isn't B2C, B2B, D2C, etc., it's human to human. You never know how that one connection could help grow your business.
What’s something you wish you knew sooner that you’d give as advice for aspiring or newer entrepreneurs?
There's a lot of noise out there, especially about others finding success so easily or competition doing so much, and when you look at your journey, even a little amount of success takes forever. The best advice that I wish I had taken from the beginning is to block out all of the noise. The worst thing you can do is compare yourself and your entrepreneurial journey to others. You have to realize that everyone's journey and starting point is different + their future is different than yours. I've seen entrepreneurs scale fast and fail fast, I've seen others build slow and scale beyond belief. Keep building and pushing forward, good things take time just like wine, but, it will happen, I promise.
Want to dive deeper into Christian's work? Find out more in the links below!
- Join InvestLink Social for free at investlinksocial.com
- Connect with Christian on InvestLink Social
- Connect with Christian on LinkedIn: Christian Durfee
