Connections are always important. In an ideal world, ideas and startups would stand on their own merit. It wouldn't matter who you know.

In practice, it can't work that way. It's not that people are evil, it's just a question of how to be efficient. I can't spend my time listening in detail to every pitch of every person who says he has a great idea. It's jut not possible. I need filters to spend the little time I have on interesting stuff. Filters include my friends recommending me something. That gets my attention.

At the corporate level, a good filter is YCombinator: if you made it through their selection process, it tells me something. It's not a guarantee that you will succeed, but at least you passed some basic smoke check. Which in turn gives you an unfair advantage, because now you get easier access to smart employees, advisors, business partners, etc...

Alain - fairsoftware.net