@rick's firm can tap a network of over 80,000 people for advice on demand. It started as a Google Groups experiment with a couple hundred people in his portfolio. Rick Heitzmann, Founder and Managing Director of @FirstMarkCap, on why relationships have compounded harder than capital or brand across his 20-plus year career. "I think that DoubleClick alumni network has produced something like 40 CEOs." "There's now over 80,000 people which we're able to touch, but actually as importantly, they're able to touch other people in those networks for advice, for know how, or just to build a relationship." When First Mark started in 2005, New York was the 7th biggest venture market in the country and everyone who mattered fit in one small office. Those same people are still sending Heitzmann deals two decades later. He calls the current version guilds: micro networks by function and sector, deep enough that a head of finance at a random software company can get a real answer from a real peer in minutes instead of guessing. Capital returns once. A relationship compounds for a career.