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Thoughts From a Networking Junkie

I really enjoyed last night’s Founder Dialogues event, where Eric Paley conducted an engaging interview with the very entertaining CEO of Communispace, Diane Hessan.  She told great stories, including how the company nearly imploded when an early salesperson created numerous fraudulent contracts, and then used voice distortion technology to pretend to be those clients on calls with her colleagues. If you weren’t at the event, be sure to check out the video when it’s available here.

The event and a great recent post from Charlie O’Donnell of First Round Capital had me thinking about networking, which I spend a significant chunk of time doing for work, and because I really enjoy meeting new people.  Here are my two cents on networking strategy:

  • When attending relatively large events, make sure they have unique content, like in depth conversations at Founder Dialogues, or new startup demos at Web Innovators Group or New York Tech Meetup. 
  • Attend small events with a focused crowd of people that are passionate about the same subject as you and happy to geek out over it.
  • Seek out attendees that you know and respect, who are talking comfortably to people that you don’t know. The majority of the time, that stranger is someone that you should know as well.
  • Find a way into exclusive events that high quality attendees are willing to attend without fear of being mobbed. If an invite is hard to come by, volunteer to help run the event to get to know the organizers and gain access. Some of my best relationships are with people who I planned events with as opposed to people I met at the events themselves.
  • Better yet, as Charlie suggests, create your own event if you have enough of a base network to do so.
  • With any new contact, offer help before asking for it. Get to know potential contacts and offer valuable introductions before asking for them.

Notes:

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