“Can I Borrow Your Credibility?”: The Rise of Freeloaders in the LinkedIn Economy
It’s 2025, and the bar for “business collaboration” is now somewhere between a cold pitch and a casual text from a Tinder date. We’re in the thick of the Favor Economy, where the ask is free, the upside is yours, and the risk? Well, that’s all yours too, naturally. Collaboration proposals have become the modern business equivalent of “can I borrow your car for a quick trip?” The car is your credibility, the trip is off-road, and they don't plan on refueling it.
These requests aren’t collaborations. They’re transactions dressed up in flattery. They don’t come with budgets, boundaries, or any sense of what it actually costs to earn the trust of a professional network. Instead, they arrive with the same breezy tone someone might use to ask for a Netflix password.
Let’s not romanticize it: this isn’t innovation. It’s just cheap opportunism. The Favor Economy thrives on one-sided bets — and if you’re the one with a reputation on the line, you’re not the winner. You’re the collateral.
The History of Favor Capitalism: From Tribal Trading to Transactional Takers
Once upon a time, relationships actually carried weight. When you vouched for someone, it was a personal risk, not just a polite LinkedIn endorsement. There was accountability. If someone burned a bridge, they weren’t just ghosted; they were remembered. And not in a good way.
But then came the mid-2000s, and with them, the platform gold rush. Everyone suddenly had a personal brand, whether they needed one or not. The concept of a “network” went from something sacred to something scalable. We didn’t just know people — we monetized them. Relationship building was replaced by follower counts, and the “like” button became the new trust signal. You didn’t have to be credible, just clickable.
Enter the modern mutation: Favor Capitalism. A slick, zero-cost economy where you get hit up not because someone wants to build with you, but because they want to borrow what you’ve already built. It’s the passive-aggressive cousin of crowdfunding — except they’re not asking for your money, they’re asking for something far more valuable: your reputation. All upside flows one way, and the downside? That’s on you. If things go south, your name’s the one on the intro, the post, the thread.
It’s sold as community. It’s framed as opportunity. But it’s really just risk reallocation. Today, being “well-networked” doesn’t mean you’re powerful — it means you’re a target. The irony? The more you’ve built, the more people show up asking to cash in. Except they’re not offering a partnership. They’re offering exposure to your network in exchange for exposure to risk. Yours, not theirs.
The Business Model of Moochers: Cheap, Riskless, and Proud of It
Let’s get something straight: access isn’t free. Not in real life, not in business, and certainly not when it involves years of built trust with decision-makers who don’t take cold calls (or cold introductions) lightly. A top-tier salesperson who can do what most of these “collaborators” are asking you to do will set a company back six figures. Add in commissions, onboarding, time spent earning internal buy-in, and the actual emotional stamina required to not sound like a robot in front of a CFO, and suddenly, the cost of real access looks a lot less “optional.”
And yet, here comes the pitch: “I just need a warm intro to your network. No big deal — just one email.” No mention of compensation, no clarity on the value for you, and certainly no awareness that every time you tap into your network, you're cashing in a little bit of your own credibility.
They want the results of an expensive BD hire but with none of the cost — not even a lunch. Their plan? Use your relationships to test their concept, validate their idea, and do the legwork of distribution. And if, if it turns into something, maybe they’ll break you off a percentage — that they’ll try to renegotiate later anyway.
The thing is they don’t see a problem with this. In their eyes, it’s “just a favor,” and you should be flattered they thought of you. But what they’re really doing is repackaging unpaid labor as “partnership” and gambling with chips they didn’t earn.
You’re not being asked to support something promising — you’re being recruited to subsidize someone’s go-to-market strategy. For free. And somehow, they think you should be grateful.
Network Erosion: The Hidden Cost of Saying Yes Too Often
This is where the slow bleed begins — not in your bank account, but in your reputation. Let’s walk through it. You get pitched by someone with a big idea, some sleek slides, and the confidence of someone who’s never been told “no.” They don’t want much — just an intro to that CTO you’ve spent five years building trust with. You say yes. You figure, why not? You like to be helpful. You’ve built a reputation on being a connector.
So, you connect. Maybe you even go the extra mile and send a few DMs, tee up a warm intro, post a LinkedIn comment, or lend a quote. You do your bit. The thing is — your name is now attached to the outcome.
But then Bob, ghosts. Or fumbles the call. Or turns out to be two steps deep into a pivot no one mentioned. And now your CTO friend is left wondering: What was that about? And worse — Why did you think I needed to see that?
They won’t say it. They rarely do. But the next time you message? There’s a pause. A longer gap. A read with no reply. That’s not your imagination — that’s the erosion.
Because your network doesn’t just exist on paper. It exists in perception. And if enough people start associating you with flaky intros and irrelevant pitches, your name stops carrying weight. Slowly, quietly, invisibly — you become background noise.
You’re no longer the trusted node in the network. You’re the person who’s “always pushing something.” The passive forwarding machine. The soft opt-in newsletter no one subscribed to. And once that perception sets in, it’s nearly impossible to claw back.
That’s the real cost of “just one more intro.”
The Exceptions: Cross-Pollination and Quid Pro Quo (a.k.a. Real Relationships)
Of course, not every ask is parasitic. Sometimes a request comes from the right person — the kind of person you’d gladly back without a second thought. They’re not strangers, they’re peers, collaborators, people who’ve shown up for you before. People who’ve built trust the old-fashioned way: by doing the work, following through, and offering value without a string attached.
When someone like that reaches out, it doesn’t feel like a pitch. It feels like momentum. Like possibility. That’s not "doing them a favor" — that’s two people in sync, sharing energy and opportunity across networks that have already been stress-tested. It’s not charity. It’s not unpaid labor. It’s mutual benefit.
That kind of organic cross-pollination is rare — and powerful. It can move things fast, because both parties are starting from a place of alignment and integrity. These are the only moments where the phrase “just introduce me to…” doesn’t induce a quiet internal scream.
But these people are not the norm. Most who reach out for access aren’t looking to build with you. They’re looking to trade on your name while insulating themselves from all the costs. They don’t want to collaborate — they want to borrow your face while they sell something half-finished to someone who trusts you.
And here’s the inconvenient truth: if what they were offering truly had legs, they wouldn’t be cold-DM’ing you with vague promises and back-of-napkin numbers. People with real traction don’t chase validation — they get approached.
So the rule stands: real relationships, real reciprocity. Everything else is just renting reputation on consignment.
If your go-to-market strategy starts with, “Who do you know that can help me for free?” — what you have isn’t a business, it’s a favor in pitch deck form. At best, it’s a bet on borrowed time. At worst, it’s a quiet form of exploitation.
If you're asking someone to hand over access to the thing they've spent years building — their network, their reputation, their hard-earned trust — then you need to come with more than ambition and optimism. Dreams are great. So are ideas. But they’re not currency. Show up with a plan, a clear reason why this makes sense for them, and yes — money. If you wouldn’t ask a professional you’ve never worked with to do unpaid consulting, don’t ask someone to burn their most valuable asset for free.
And for those on the receiving end: protecting your network isn’t gatekeeping. It’s smart. It’s sustainable. It’s the reason people trust you in the first place.
So next time someone tries to “just pick your network’s brain,” feel free to reply with a calm, professional:
“Happy to explore that — let’s talk commercial terms.”
It’s not rude. It’s just business.