"We started with a few contacts we knew—like three or four. And then at the end of each of those conversations, we would ask them to introduce us to three other people. We flew around the United States and just talked to people. Literally, each one of our days was filled in with conversations. And we would we keep a spreadsheet with all of our notes: last time we spoke to them, what our next steps, etc.—we built a mini-CRM."