I Hate Networking

Sometimes when I go to events, I feel like I am carpet-bombing the place – meeting everyone and making no real relationships. Going to networking events for the sake of networking is pointless. I actually hate the word "networking" so much that I changed up the strategy. At an event, I look to make a few lifelong relationships.

Next Gen Summit is a conference held by young entrepreneurs for young entrepreneurs. Founders from all over the world came to empower the next generation of movers and shakers. Over 400 people were in attendance, and it took place in New York City from June 3-5th, 2016.

I built a survey to better understand the Next Gen entrepreneurial community, and why people chose to be there that weekend.  Throughout the weekend, I got 135 survey responses and took away three key insights.

1. Surround yourself with creators

As you guessed, most attendees at the Next Gen Summit were interested in entrepreneurship. The unique aspect about this group of people was each and every person understood the value of bringing people together.

My curiosity led me to ask specifically what people were interested in, as an open ended question. I compiled all of the answers and constructed the graph below.

Surrounding yourself with a diverse group of people is critical for disruptive innovation. Even though the conference was about entrepreneurship, attendees were interested in many sectors. Going to entrepreneurship events gives founders a chance to find evangelists, co-founders, mentors, and many opportunities to pitch.

This past school year, a couple friends and I launched a social good crowdfunding campaign. By talking about our initiatives to other people at Next Gen, we were invited to speak on a panel at The University of Pennsylvania. Seriously, being around so many movers and shakers has opened many doors.

2. Millennials Take Initiative

Crazy to think that about a 1/3 of the audience made a conscious decision to come within a few weeks. Each person also found transportation and a place to stay within that time. The high school students that attended were all working on something. Students had started companies, were featured on Shark Tank, and even had successful exits.

About 15% dropped out of school and were working on a startup. Some the startups raised money from angels investors or venture funds like Rough Draft Ventures, Dorm Room Fund, 1517 Fund, and Binary Capital. These venture capital firms actively support the next generation, as they realize that young entrepreneurs are hungry to change the world.

3. Never stay in a hotel

A big question for graduating seniors is, “Where should I work after college?” Internships during one’s college years provide the best opportunity to answer this question. I would encourage students to find internships in the big startup hubs, as well as, up-and-coming communities.

The cool thing about growing communities is that everyone will actively look out for you. The people I met from Austin, TX at Next Gen invited me to come to SXSW, and offered me a place to stay for the week of the festival.  

Inviting and offering others a place to stay was unanimous amongst this community because each person understood the idea of scrappy living. When launching a startup, traveling is inevitable, and it’s always not so feasible to book a hotel.  Just by having meaningful conversations, I now have places to stay in Austin, Connecticut, SF, Costa Rica, Peru, Spain, and China.

This entrepreneurial community has not only become my family, but also a sounding board for future endeavors.

Taking initiative to solve a problem is the ignition to a startup ecosystem. Connecting people is the fuel to that ecosystem. Seeing the fruits of your labor change the lives of other people is like the awakening to a revolution.

Akin to bringing people together for entrepreneurship events, we can all strive to connect people over something as simple as dinner. In Boston, my friends and I call these dinners—Baller Dinners. Our first Baller Dinner happened in August of 2014, where each person had to bring an entrepreneurial minded friend. There was just so much energy that our conversation lasted 3 hours longer than expected.

The word “networking” should be butchered from the dictionary. Going to conferences to network is an utter waste of time. One should go to events to develop meaningful relationships that will last a lifetime. Telling someone you will email them and actually emailing them are two different things. Only through the follow-up is where it all starts, and one day that relationship may blossom into something incredible.

From now on I hope you attend every event with a purpose.

Sathya Peri is a serial conference crasher. He is a sales/operations strategy intern for Splash this summer in NYC. Previously, he worked with Lovepop Cards as a product marketer. You can tweet him or email him directly at gosathya@gmail.com.