I was a GM at Microsoft. I had an incredible compensation package. But when they blew up my business and they asked me to move to Seattle after almost 10 years, I said, no, I'm not going to do it.
Vince Menzione helped take one company from $6 million to a public exit. Then he led Microsoft's U.S. public sector partner business from $2.5 billion To $4.6 billion. 4 decades of deals. Now he has a warning about AI.
AI slop, these chatbots, these bots that are coming onto your LinkedIn posts and commenting. We're not gonna know what, what is real and what is not unless we're in a room with real people.
Do you think that with AI now, the authenticity and picking up the phone might be the most important thing that you do?
Yes. In fact, I had a meeting with Gary Vaynerchuk.
Vince, partnerships have been the most integral part of my business. If anyone ever asks me, how do you get business? The only thing that I do is partnerships. I don't even really do any other lead generation. What's the biggest partnerships deal that you've ever done?
It's a great question, Dan. The one that comes to mind, and it wasn't the biggest in terms of numbers, actually it was probably the biggest in terms of consequence. So my company was trying to build out their federal government business, and I had hired a team and we were trying to sell to each of the agencies and into the government, the Army in particular. And there was a company, it was General Dynamics, that owned the contract with the US Army. And if you wanted to sell rugged notebook computers to the US Army, you had to be on this contract called CHS. My team was getting basically blocked from their team. And I found out who the VP who ran the business was. His name is Chris Marzilli. He's actually in my book. And I called Chris. Now, this is back in the day when people actually answered a phone. This is back in the early aughts. right? And I called at 7 o'clock in the morning before his EA was there to block his phone calls. And I got Chris on the phone and I said, Chris, you need to meet with me and this is why.
And he took the meeting and I went to his offices up in Boston area and met with him. And he also had a need. He was looking to drive a specific opportunity within the government. And I had relationships with our with our local congressman. And so I brought him down to Washington, DC. We met with the congressman, we got him what he needed, and we got added to the contract. Not only that, we built a partnership with them. That partnership led to them acquiring the company because they became flush with cash during the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts, and they paid 10x what the company was valued at before that meeting. So I made a lot of people very happy and successful, and then I became part of GD, and that led to me ultimately going to Microsoft.
Why do you think that people don't talk about this? Everyone wants to talk about social media ads, SEO, AEO, GEO, but it seems like partnerships, it's like the oldest and greatest lead gen.
We get stuck in the, the techniques, the playbooks. The technology that's going to help us be more successful. And ultimately it all comes back to personal relationships and trust at the foundation of all of that and building those relationships, validating those relationships based on authenticity and success together, and then taking that forward. And that's where partnerships are successful.
Do you think that with AI now, the authenticity and picking up the phone might be the most important thing that you do?
Yes. In fact, I had a meeting with Gary Vaynerchuk a few months ago about what we do at Ultimate Partner and our event strategy. And he said, keep doing what you're doing because analog is the new digital. People are going to respect more being in the room with trusted people, having real conversations and not relying on these tools that they can't trust. And that's what we're seeing. We're going to see more and more of this. You and I were talking about this AI slop, these Chatbots, these bots that are coming onto your LinkedIn posts and commenting. And we're not going to know what is real and what is not unless we're in a room with real people.
You'd be surprised at how many people I call. If somebody sends me an email and has their phone number on it, I will just call them because I just feel that it's so hard to connect with somebody through an email.
And it's also hard in a respect we've gotten used to The mediums we're using now, like Zoom and Teams and Meet. But the truth is, until we're face-to-face really in the room, there's a— we still lack some of the components, the foundational components.
What's the biggest misconception that people have around how to create partnerships?
Boy, there's a few areas, right? You know, we talk about 7 operating principles in our book. But there are a few things that happen. You need to get both your internal organization right, and then you have, when you lock arms with another organization, you need to drive that with maniacal focus, deliver results together and outcomes together, and then learn to build that flywheel together. So you got to get your own organization right. That's your internal victory. You got to get your partnership right. And then you have to also be agile. You have to be able to understand that sometimes things are gonna change in that partnership, and you both as 2 organizations working together need to understand and pivot to that.
What's the biggest destroyer of 2 companies when they're trying to work together?
Lack of commitment. And well, I'll go back to execution. Against that, right? So the commitment and execution kind of come together in that we say great things. We meet, we, you know, back in my Microsoft days, we use PowerPoint slides, but we meet together in a room. We talk about how this can be this vision of what we're going to go drive together, how exciting this is. We high-five each other, we leave, and then nothing happens. Nothing happens because nobody executed against it. The deck went into a shared drive, nobody looked at it, or maybe they looked at it once or twice, but nobody acted upon it. You need to then drive. You need to, again, I talk about the word locking arms to see how partners get together. Once you lock arms, you then need to apply, I will use OKRs, but maniacal focus in terms of the execution. And you have to have accountability. So really underlying all of it is accountability. Do
you think it's hard for founders because we're running like 100 miles a second and thinking that we have to take the time to build a relationship with someone, build a relationship with a company? Do you think that's a big hindrance?
It's not just one person doing it. It's your whole, your whole organization. This is why I talk about the internal commitment. Literally, partnerships are not just 2 people going in and selling something together. It's your marketing team. It's your product development team, it's your delivery team, it's the entire organization. Think about that C-suite on your side and the C-suite on the partner side coming together. And each of the leaders have accountability. Each of those organizations have accountability for their component on the go-to-market and co-selling strategy with the partner.
Would you say one of the best hires I can do would be someone that's leading partnerships? And if so, what do I look for in that person?
So I would say if you are committed, if you have executive commitment to the success of hiring that person and you give them a seat at the table in your C-suite, or you give them a level of accountability in your organization and support them in the right way so that they can go across your organization and make the organizational changes. Yes. In fact, Somebody who understands it and has done it before is your best bet.
What do you think is a trait of someone that you don't want in that position?
That's a good question. You can hire people that are in direct sales roles that have no partner experience. Sometimes they're your best hires, but they have to understand what it takes to work and influence the organization all up. So they need to understand all of the components. of successfully partnering. Partnerships is a tough job. It's not this narrow focus. It really is working across your entire organization, almost like an overlay CEO, if you think about it that way, like being like the CEO's eyes and ears across the entire organization, and then executing across to those partners or that particular partner to drive the execution on both sides.
Do you think a lot of salespeople are almost too self-centered I remember I had this salesperson. He was amazing. Not a great team player, but the best salesperson. And I would think he would make the worst person for partnerships where I know someone who's not really the best salesperson, but their business development ability was amazing. They just couldn't really sell.
So the person you described, the first person you described is what we would call the heroic salesperson. The heroic sales culture. And it exists in a lot of organizations and it's why a lot of organizations struggle and fail at partnering because they put that person on a pedestal, right? That's the best. And that person only wants to take full credit for the deal. They want the trip to Hawaii. They want the big statue or trophy that they get along with that. And they want to push everybody out of the deal because it's their deal. They have ownership of it, right? It's full accountability to them only. They have a scarcity mentality underlying their thought process. I win, you lose. You win, I lose. So that's the, that's the mindset. That other person you described has the abundance mentality. They understand that I can't do it all alone, that I need to work with you, and together we'll drive greater results. That's successful partnering.
Did you ever almost win an award, or was there just this award in corporate life that you could never get, although you probably deserved it?
I carried a bag in the beginning as a direct sales person. And I was like a rookie of the year, but I worked in an organization with a lot of very senior people. I left that company and I went to this startup company. That's the one that really was the first big company that I wound up part of. We went public and I was the top salesperson for 3 straight years. But it was because I built a methodology around selling that product that the others hadn't figured out yet. And we were startup, right? So it wasn't like I was the greatest salesperson in the world, but I had figured out like this, if I do these 5 things in a row, we'll get the deal. And I took that and they went up in management. I never was the person watching from the other side in those roles. Maybe at Microsoft I was, maybe at Microsoft we had a lot of people and honestly, I always felt that those were the people that knew how to game the system. That would get the award and they'd be up on stage. They were the favorite person of the VP or whoever was leading the organization at the time.
But I was never quite that person that you were.
What helped you grow in corporate America or corporate life? What was something that you felt you did that allowed you to keep expanding on your role?
Yeah, that's a good question. I believe I've always been an entrepreneur. We'll talk a little bit about my grandfather who came to the United States with nothing, $20 in his pocket, built businesses. I always looked at him and wanted to be like him. So I was an intrapreneur, as they call it now, but I didn't know what that was at the time. And I would treat, I remember having this meeting, I met the CEO of the company, they flew me up to Canada and I told them, I said, I'm going to treat this business as if it's my own business. And that I think was my ingredient for success. And I took that forward in the startup, in the turnaround that we built the organization that General Dynamics acquired, and I took it into Microsoft. My biggest challenge, and I was in, I was a GM at Microsoft. I had an incredible compensation package, stock. Stock back in those days was, they were very generous with stock back in those days. And I just, I couldn't play the corporate game the way other people played it. It wasn't my nature. My nature was to be the entrepreneur.
And when I had opportunities to do things entrepreneurially at Microsoft, which I did, that's where I was the most successful. Like I built a new program that became the predecessor to one of the biggest programs they have right now. I helped build the co-selling strategy because Microsoft was figuring it out. Like we need to have partners that were taking their solutions, ISVs, independent software vendors, and putting them on Azure, which is Microsoft's cloud. At that time, AWS was the largest vendor. So I got our team to organize around getting those partners to want to work with us because we had a bigger sales force than AWS did in those days. And so those are the things that I did at Microsoft that were the most entrepreneurial and the most I enjoyed the most. But when they blew up, my business and they asked me to move to Seattle after almost 10 years. Actually, my 10-year anniversary just passed. I said, no, I'm not going to do it. And that's when I had a business coach who said, you have incredible skills. You can go show others how to be successful. You should do a podcast.
You should do events. You have a lot to offer to the world. And I decided to take that leap. And that's when, that's when I left Microsoft.
Let's talk about your grandfather who came to America with $20 and no English.
No English.
And he built everything on his word.
Yes.
How much of what you believe in comes from learning from him?
Everything. My, between my grandfather and my father. So my grandfather was just about ready to retire when I was like a young child. So I didn't get to see him As much in the workforce, but I got to hear all these stories about him. I got to see people show up at the door and paying him respect all the time. And so I observed what he was all about. And he talked about like, your handshake is your word. You build relationships. And he would tell me all the old stories about coming here with $20 in his pocket. His brother was here. They became icemen. They literally would carry these huge blocks of ice on their backs. up flights of tenement stairs and delivered them to people's iceboxes back in the day before refrigerators. And then he built on that. He built an oil business and a coal business. And then when Prohibition ended, he went into the tavern business and he built taverns. And so he built a very sick— he was the first person of his group or whatever, people from Italy, who drove a Cadillac back in those, back in the day when Cadillacs were the luxury, you know, that was the status symbol.
And so he had, but he was always a person, he was high integrity at a time when people were taking shortcuts even back in those days. And I admire him. I watched him from the table, basically from being in the room with him quite a bit. I was raised around him quite a bit. And so I got to hear all the old stories and I got to see that. My father went to World War II, came back and built a family, and I was the baby of the family. And it was also based on integrity. Like, your word is your bond. Integrity is the most— these are the most important things were trust and integrity growing up.
Do you think people can even do handshake deals anymore, or are we so caught on this contracts and agreements and
I think you can. I think you can. I still operate in a world as an entrepreneur where, yeah, we have lawyers involved with cap tables and things like that, but it is all about that handshake. It is all about me looking across from you and trusting you and having that conversation about what we can go do together. And then also being able to know, like I always talk about the hair on the back of the neck, right? People that you can't trust, that are not trustworthy. You can, your gut tells you, you could read through that. Like we, our gut and our brains are, as you know, biologically very closely tied from the time of inception. And people feel it. People feel it.
You know, it's interesting when you do business with people from different parts of the world. For example, what I find in Asia, they really need to sit across from you. You have to meet them multiple times. You have to give them multiple handshakes. Before there's a trust. Where in the US, we could do business over a phone in Audible, or you could do visual. I don't even have to physically meet a lot of people.
Very true. And in fact, I'll reference Microsoft here. Microsoft has a tremendous market share in Japan. And I think a lot of it was built by just really that local relationship, those local relationships and hiring people of the right ethnicity to be in the room and at the table with those customers.
When it comes to sales, what is something that you always do because it is 100% of the time going to win?
Well, there's, that's a, so I would say foundationally, I have a, again, this comes back to my parents and my grandparents, both my father and my grandfather in this regard. I treat the person that has the least to gain as part of whatever that opera, whatever's going on in the room. I treat them with the same level of trust and respect that I keep, that I do for the CEO and the decision makers. Foundationally, that's important. I also am very much a person that believes that treating people with kindness and respect, like I use Facebook primarily to send people happy birthday greetings because the couple thousand people that I know. To me, that's like, that's a sincere showing of respect for other people. And I do that. I don't see some of these people. I don't see, I might, I might've known them 30 years ago, but I still do that for them.
Did you ever have to do something to create a partnership where you had to go extremely out of your way? Sometimes you have to do extreme measures, nothing bad, but you have to, Do something very unique to stand out.
Yeah. Well, I use the example of the person that I reached out to at 7 o'clock in the morning, but I did things like that quite a few times in my career. Like after 9/11 happened, we rushed down to Washington, DC. I was living up north at the time and we got involved. I got involved with some, I got to meet some congressmen and senators. I got to sit across the table from people that were really trying to solve this issue that we were seeing in the world at that point. If you remember, the world— we just had the 25th anniversary of 9/11, but the world was a very different place politically. We all got together, we all rallied together. This was such a horrible thing for our country at the time that we all rallied together to go solve for it. Now, we've never fully solved for it, but at the time we all thought if we put our heads together, we can do it. And there were a lot of things I did around that time that to me still come, like, you know, just the engagement and the going forward and having the meetings with Rudy Giuliani, who was the mayor at the time, with his staff, or they're going down to Washington, DC and meeting with members of Congress.
Like, this was like things that I'd never done before, but I did them because I knew it was not just because of the financial gain of it, But because we were trying to do good, we were— we had a mission to solve for and a vision for what we wanted to go do together.
Is never saying no to a meeting still relevant?
You know, it's so hard. I regret when I have to do it, but my schedule gets compromised so many times. But I do feel bad afterwards. Like, I feel like, geez, I should have taken that meeting. And I feel that people still, and I use the word feel, people still feel that they're slighted that you didn't take that meeting with them.
What do you normally say no to now in order to protect yourself and your space?
There's some rote work that goes on in the business. Some of the social posts, some of the emails, some of the prep calls for, we host these, we have a conference coming up in 27 days. There's a lot of prep calls where my team is getting on the phone with the people that are going to be on stage and talking through the talking points and kind of going through and making sure that everything is tailored to make the event the best event it can be, because it's also going to be recorded and it's going to be turned into podcast episodes. And so some of those calls I skip. I just can't be on every single one of them.
People don't realize how much work it is to put on an event. And to make people happy also at an event is a lot, but how do you really have a successful event?
So it is a lot of work and we've been very fortunate. Maybe we found a path early and people, like we got some of, you know, it's like when you go down a path that's maybe unpaved and okay, this can get me to the end result. So maybe that was us in the beginning. We're doing our 13th 13th event. So we basically have taken like this work, these things worked and we kind of built them into an operating system for how we do events. There's still always going to be 1 or 2 people at my last event, which was our biggest event in Seattle. In fact, in Bellevue, Washington, there was like 1 sponsor that I didn't realize kind of got slighted and was very upset. So I picked up the phone and I called that person because I, and I said, listen, For this next event, I'm going to make it right for you. So that's what I try to do. And to your point, you can't keep, you know, it's the old Abe Lincoln analogy, right? You can't, what is it? You can't please all the people all the time, or some of the people some of the time, whatever that phrase is.
But you can't, you just can't please every single person in the room.
You said that AI is a faster way to fail If there's no trust.
Yeah.
What is the playbook era getting backwards around that?
The playbook era is, is starting to build tools and integrations into the Anthropics and OpenAIs of the world and these neo-clouds that we're starting to hear evolve. And it's just relying on the technology with the outcome of revenue generation. What it's missing is what we talk about at Ultimate Partner, all of the human aspects of it. The fact that I've got to get my own organization lined up correctly. Yeah, I could have the CEO say, yeah, we're all in on partnerships, but do they really mean it? Are they really going to make the commitment that they need to make in order to be, to make sure every function within the company is operating in unison? driving this partnership? And then with the partners you're working with, are you doing all the other things right? And those are the human elements. You have to get in front of a customer at some point, right? So there is still a buyer at the end of the day, at least now, that is making some decision. They might be using tools like marketplace tools and technologies in order to capture the solution, the technology, but there's still humans, human elements in there, and you need to engage with them.
And they need to feel that there's value in the decision to move forward with you.
Do you have the book with you? There it is. Ultimate Partner. You say your book came from your worst job. Why?
Oh, so I had built a, I've called, called my career 4 successful business transformations. I did that startup carrying a bag and that was the one I was the top salesperson in. It was, we had partnerships, but they weren't formalized. I then went over and did this turnaround where they asked me to go build a channel, and that was the one that led me to Washington, D.C. into General Dynamics. And then I went to Microsoft and it was institutionalized. Like we had half a million organizations that would partner with Microsoft to sell technology, and it was the biggest ecosystem out there. So partnership was like built into our DNA, even though we didn't do everything right. And then I left, I started the podcast and I got cold feet. I started doing a little consulting work and one of the companies I was consulting with asked me to come join them and they made me an offer I couldn't refuse. And I'm like, doesn't seem like a bad situation. So I did. And I went inside and the CEO and everyone else was so like, we're into partnerships. We're hiring this guy from Microsoft. He's going to take us over the finish line.
You're going to be, you know, and this is a publicly traded company. Salience is how we refer to them in the book. And I found out, I got, one of the people said like flippantly to me, you know, you're the 7th partnership leader we've had in like 7 or 8 years. And I was like, what? And so that person calls me up and said, the last partnership leader called me up and said, kind of gave me the rundown. And I had already moved. I bought a house in this city where they were located. And what I found is I would go, I'd present to the C-suite, I'd go into the big boardroom and I'd get them all lined up and they would say, we're going to support it. We're going to put marketing at it. We're going to put sales on it. We're going to do all these things. And I would leave the room and nothing would change. Nothing would happen. We still had 500 direct sellers. We still had a huge marketing organization. We had a huge delivery organization, thousands of people in this company, and none of it was aimed at partnerships.
And so I did that for close to 2 years, and then I left during COVID And I realized at that point that there were other organizations like that company that needed my help. And that's when I started and I wrote The 7 Principles, and that's how we got down this road with Ultimate Partner.
Sometimes you got to take the job that ends up being the worst job, then that leads into your business even more.
That compelled me to write the 7 Principles. And then I had a personal accident a little over 18 months ago. I was hit by a car riding my bicycle.
Oh my gosh.
On, on, on US 1. I was crossing US 1 at a green light and an 88-year-old man hit me, knocked me out. Literally was unconscious, and that became like, oh my God! I'm aside, right? I broke some ribs. I broke my orbital bone. I broke my ankle in a couple places. I went on to lead my conference. I did. I walked my daughter down the aisle 2 months later. But I was like, now I need to put it in writing. Now I need to take what's been up here, and maybe in some of my presentations and my coaching for organizations. and write the book. So that's, that's how we got started down this path.
I'm glad you're okay now.
Thank you.
At least you look okay.
I'm doing great. I am incredibly happy.
You look great. You're always positive. Whenever I've talked to you, you're always positive. One of the most positive people I think I've ever spoken to, which I don't know if it's the sun. If you were in Seattle, I don't think you'd be the same way.
No, no, no. I go to Seattle occasionally and it's like, No, I think your perspective—
Bellevue is nice though. I do have to say Bellevue is, I mean, the weather's not great, but I do, I've enjoyed Bellevue a few times.
I love Bellevue. We, that's where we're hosting our conference at the Intercontinental Hotel, May 3rd through the 5th of '27. We're already locked in. Beautiful facility, beautiful town. And, but I think my attitude, listen, I had an incredible, I have had an incredible life. I'm incredibly grateful. That family I talk about meant everything and means everything to me. And I think that also the realization that I'm here now and maybe that I'm here for a greater purpose than just myself. And so, you know, that drives me.
I'm feeling that there's a huge rise in events and not just large-scale events, dinners, small events. What can I do And what can others do when you go to these events to even ensure that it's successful? Should I only look for one person? How do I follow up? I'm really unsure of what to do.
Yeah, that's a really good question. We feel that people, we say being in the right room changes everything. It's sort of our byline. And I feel that it's got to be a room, you set the tone. For that room. And maybe as the leader, I set the tone for that room for our events, but people are welcoming to one another. People go out of their way to take people under their arm and say, hey, welcome to the event. And maybe they'll introduce them to one or two people. And we go out of our way, like we'll do an introductory session for people, for first-timers to our event. But people go out of their way to help each other. And that's where you see the difference between the event where People are talking to one another on the breaks or other events you go to and people are just like looking at each other and dead silence in the room. But yeah, you have to foster the— use the term mindset. And we talk about growth mindset as the first principle, but it's coming at it and maybe it's just the way we've approached this and people know when they show up, they're going to continue the conversation they had with that person a few months ago at the last event.
So
how do you personally follow up with people?
I have a team, I have a great team, and I have my son actually works for me now, and he is an incredible person in terms of doing follow-up on things that I can't necessarily do or just multiplying my efforts there. I do use, I use some of the tools though. I use things like LinkedIn to keep up on people and I watch to see if people are posting. Or if they're commenting. And then of course there's the email exchange with folks. I make sure that I stay connected with the folks and my texts. You know, we talked about calling people. I have a kind of a long list of people that I've texted over time. I'll go through them a couple, few times a year and I'll just kind of reach out to some of them that I haven't talked to in a long time.
Simple. I like that. Keep it simple.
Keep it simple.
But Vince, ultimate partner. Got to get the book. Can't wait for the event. I'm going to go hire someone. I'm not even kidding. Right after this, I'm going to go right now and I'm going to make it my goal and mission this weekend next. I want to hire somebody who's head of partnerships because I think it is the one thing that I'm missing.
I appreciate that. That's awesome. And I could help you find them. Maybe we'll talk afterwards.
There we go. All right. Well, thank you so much for your time, Vince.
Dan, thanks.
Had a great one today.
Daniel sits down with Vince Menzione to explore why partnerships remain one of the most powerful and overlooked ways to grow a business. Vince shares how a single phone call unlocked a major government contract, eventually contributing to a company acquisition at 10 times its previous valuation.The conversation explores why most partnerships fail, what Vince learned from Microsoft's massive partner ecosystem, and why trust, accountability, and personal relationships matter more than ever in the age of AI. Vince also reflects on leaving corporate America, learning from his immigrant grandfather, surviving a serious bicycle accident, and building Ultimate Partner around one belief: being in the right room changes everything.Key Discussion PointsThe phone call that changed everything: Vince recounts calling a General Dynamics executive at 7 a.m. to bypass the usual gatekeepers. That conversation helped establish a partnership, opened access to a major U.S. Army contract, and ultimately led to an acquisition at 10 times the company's earlier valuation.Why most business partnerships fail: Vince explains that companies often announce exciting partnerships, prepare presentations, and celebrate agreements without creating the accountability needed to execute. Successful partnerships require measurable objectives, executive commitment, and alignment across sales, marketing, product, and delivery teams.What Microsoft taught him about partnerships: Vince discusses helping Microsoft develop its co-selling strategy and attract software partners to Azure. He explains why growing an ecosystem requires more than great salespeople and why the best partnership leaders must influence the entire organization.Why AI makes human relationships more valuable: Vince shares a conversation with Gary Vaynerchuk about why face-to-face interactions are becoming increasingly important as AI-generated content, automated messages, and digital interactions make authenticity harder to recognize.The worst job that inspired his book: After leaving Microsoft, Vince joined a company that claimed to prioritize partnerships but repeatedly failed to support them. Discovering he was its seventh partnership leader in roughly eight years helped him identify the organizational failures that became the foundation of his seven principles.The accident, the book, and the power of the right room: Vince reflects on being struck by a car while cycling, recovering from multiple fractures, and realizing he needed to document his experience. He also shares how Ultimate Partner's events create environments where meaningful connections turn into lasting business relationships.TakeawaysOne relationship can change the trajectory of a company. Vince's General Dynamics story demonstrates how understanding another organization's needs and creating mutual value can unlock opportunities far beyond a single sale.Partnerships are an organizational strategy, not a sales tactic. A successful partnership requires commitment across leadership, marketing, product, sales, and operations. Without internal alignment, even the most promising agreements can fail.Execution is what separates partnerships from announcements. Vince emphasizes that presentations, handshakes, and signed agreements mean little unless both organizations establish clear responsibilities and follow through.The best partnership leaders operate like entrepreneurs. Vince believes effective partnership leaders need an ownership mentality, the ability to influence multiple departments, and a willingness to create opportunities that benefit both organizations.Trust becomes more valuable as technology advances. While AI can improve efficiency, Vince argues that authentic relationships, personal conversations, and in-person experiences create the confidence that technology alone cannot provide.The right room is only the beginning. Vince explains that meaningful networking requires intentional environments, consistent follow-up, and a genuine willingness to help others. Building relationships is not simply about collecting contacts but creating opportunities to grow together.Closing ThoughtsVince Menzione's Founder’s Story episode challenges the idea that business growth must come primarily from advertising, technology, or aggressive sales tactics. From an immigrant grandfather who built businesses on his word to a career spanning General Dynamics, Microsoft, and Ultimate Partner, Vince's journey illustrates how trust, integrity, and collaboration create lasting value. His experience shows that the biggest opportunities often begin with a simple conversation, but turning those opportunities into results requires commitment, execution, and accountability. In an increasingly automated business world, Vince's message is clear: technology may accelerate business, but relationships are what make business work.Today's Sponsor: Turn live shopping into a real business with Whatnot, where sellers build relationships, move inventory in real time, and reach buyers across collectibles, electronics, luxury, beauty, and more. Search Whatnot in the App Store and start selling today.When you need a legal hand, visit LegalZoom. Go to https://www.LegalZoom.com to get started.Sponsored by Scribe: Discover how your team actually works with Scribe Optimize, an intelligence platform that identifies workflow inefficiencies and recommends fixes to save time. Visit https://www.scribe.how/founders and mention Founder’s Story for a 30-day risk-free trial. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.