Grow

The people ahead of you, and the people you are ahead of.

Your record already says which problems you have solved, and where you are heading next. As the network grows, Cream will use both to connect you with people who have already been there.

It works in both directions, because you have as much to give as you have to gain.

Every introduction will carry its reason. If we cannot say why two people should talk, we will not introduce them.

Your networkAn example

What you are working on: taking a platform organization through its first enterprise year.

People who have been where you are going

Ahead of you on the thing you are working on, with the evidence to show for it.

Director of Product, business software

Took a single product platform through its first enterprise security reviews.

signed by a reference who was in the room

People you could help

Working toward something a reference has already confirmed you can do.

Senior Product Manager, health technology

Leading discovery on a new product line for the first time.

where your own Discovery page is signed

People in the middle of it right now

Living a change you have already lived through.

Head of Product, logistics software

Moving from founder led decisions to a product organization.

a journey on your record

An example. Nobody's name is shared until you both say yes.

Introductions open as the network grows. See the roadmap

What connects you

A problem in common, not a keyword in common.

Every member's record says which problems they have actually solved, and who watched them do it. An introduction is made on the problem, not on a job title.

A directory makes you guess

Search any network and you are picking people by job title and employer, because that is all you can see. You guess who might be useful, then guess again whether they will reply.

Cream connects on what people have done

Your record says where you are heading. Theirs says, in plain words, what they have already delivered, and who confirmed it. The introduction is made between those two facts, and it arrives with its reason attached.

The offer comes first, then the introduction

We don't find someone who needs help and then go looking for a willing expert. Nobody is introduced to anybody until both people have said yes, and either of you can decline without the other being told why.

Which is why an introduction is worth taking

An introduction only reaches you when the person on the other side has already agreed to be there, about the specific thing they have already done. That is the difference between a network and an inbox.

You are never the answer to a question you didn't agree to be asked.

Earned perspective

Somebody has already solved the thing stopping you.

Ahead of you

Members who have already walked the path you are on, at the scale you are working toward.

Behind you

Members walking a path you have already traveled, facing challenges you understand firsthand.

Ahead of you

They share what they learned, what they would do differently, and what helped them move forward.

Behind you

You share the lessons you learned, the judgment you built, and the support you once needed yourself.

Nobody is only a mentor here, and nobody is only a mentee.

The introduction, by agreement

You are anonymous until you say yes.

This is the one rule everything else at Cream hangs from.

It is enforced by the system, not by anyone's good manners.

Introductions open as the network grows. The rule is set now, before the first one. See the roadmap

The rule holds for every introduction between members. The home page has a card you can work yourself, in the chapter called The rule.

Who decides, and when Every step
  • Cream Finds the person and writes down why, using only what is already on both records.
  • They ask A peer asks to be introduced. They see your strengths and your direction. They don't see your name.
  • You decide Nothing has happened yet. Declining costs you nothing and tells them nothing.
  • Both released Names appear together, never one before the other.

There is no step in that sequence where somebody else decides on your behalf.

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Membership

The people worth knowing are the hardest ones to find.

That is the whole reason membership is decided on evidence rather than on who somebody happens to know. Everyone who joins clears the same bar, which is what makes an introduction worth taking.

Cream is in beta with a founding cohort. Your record works from your first day, and Grow gets stronger every time somebody joins. That is the honest reason to be early rather than a reason to wait.

Members never pay, at any stage.