She moved to San Francisco knowing almost no one.
Three years later, she’d raised $9M and built one of the strongest operator networks in the city.
In this episode, I sit down with Vera Maslova, a partnership and fundraising specialist who moved to the Bay Area without an existing network and built one deliberately.
Since arriving, Vera has:
• Raised over $9M
• Convened dozens of curated founder dinners and small gatherings
• Built trusted relationships with CTOs, investors, and operators
• Served on nonprofit boards and developed long-term strategic partnerships
Years before she moved, Vera built a list of more than 300 people she wanted to meet. When she arrived, she started reaching out. Sometimes she followed up for two years. If someone didn’t explicitly say no, she stayed in motion.
Her dinners are curated environments: ten to twelve people, cross-disciplinary, high generosity, low performance. She sets the tone intentionally, inviting ease, curiosity, and depth.
We explore:
• Why most new relationships fade at the second touchpoint
• The difference between the market of attention and the market of trust
• Follow-up strategy
• Why consistency compounds faster than charisma
• How curated rooms outperform large ones
• What AI can amplify, and what it cannot replace
This conversation looks at trust: how it’s built, how it compounds, and how it becomes durable advantage in an automated, distracted world.
If you build products, teams, or ecosystems, the question isn’t visibility. It’s where you are intentionally designing trust.
Chapters
02:14 The Importance of Connection
10:19 Building Trust and Professional Relationships
18:57 The Power of Curated Gatherings
21:42 Follow-Up as Strategy
25:15 Consistency as Competitive Advantage
28:05 Tools for Building Relationships
29:23 The Hidden Trust Landscape
30:56 Authenticity in Professional Contexts
33:54 Cultivating Advocacy Through Relationships
36:42 Trust as Compounding Capital
39:41 Navigating Distrust in Society
43:08 Leading by Example
44:33 The Role of Mentorship
47:27 The Courage to Ask for Mentorship
52:11 Designing Memorable Experiences
56:35 When Intelligence Becomes Cheap
57:17 The Nature of Intelligence and AI
01:00:01 AI as Tool, Not Substitute
01:00:48 Listening as Leverage
01:04:22 Fundamentals of Human Connection
01:07:49 Building Relationships in a Digital Age
Links
Boardy – AI Connection Platform – https://boardy.ai
The Culture Map by Erin Meyer – https://www.amazon.com/Culture-Map-Understanding-Global-Workplace/dp/1625276522
How I Built This Podcast by Guy Raz – https://www.npr.org/sections/how-i-built-this/
Gustavo Dudamel – Conductor – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gustavo_Dudamel
Guest Profile
LinkedIn – https://www.linkedin.com/in/vera-maslova
More episodes:
http://roundabout.community/show