The Boston Globe has an article today about a local startup called VShake: Website charges to arrange contact with major honchos

The premise is interesting: Because it is hard to get that influential person, even the one that is your friend's friend, to respond to your queries, a website where that influential person can put a price on their time could just get you that essential one-on-one conversation. If you want that meeting badly enough, you can arrange it by simply paying the entry fee. For example, if you want to chat with this yogi in a suit, you would pay $100:

The Globe article quotes one of the founders as saying:

“You might never get a reply or there is a middleman between you and the person you'd like to reach or your queries are not answered in a timely fashion,” said Richberg. “The reason? People are reluctant to sacrifice their private information.”

I disagree with this reason. I'm willing to hand out my email address and phone number to strangers. It is getting me to reply that will be a challenge.

The real objects of value here are personal referrals. The reason that individuals don't hand over contact information for all of their colleagues is because they have a relationship with these people built upon mutual trust and regard. If you funnel all contact requests through to your “major honcho” contacts, these contacts will no longer have the same trust and regard for you. And because they are “major honchos,” you particularly want to keep these contacts sacred.

The most interesting feature of the VShake application is the visualization of the social networks. But I'm not exactly clear on how social networks tie in to the system, because it seems the business is all about subverting existing social ties and making it a fee-for-contact service. VShake does have some discussion on the website of social network referrals, stating that if “Leslie” knows “Bill Gates,” you can pay Leslie $100 to introduce you. Or you could pay Bill $10,000 directly, to meet with him. I have to say though, wouldn't Bill Gates get irritated at Leslie for doing this? And, also, do you think richest man in the world would have a one-on-one conversation with you just because you paid him $10,000? What if you paid him $1 million? I don't think there is a dollar amount you could pay. But if you could get a personal introduction……

Update: If you want to read more about why VShake might not be such a great idea, check out Stoked Brands