Why most founder networking fails before anyone speaks
MixersCommunity
Most startup networking events optimise for the wrong number. Headcount is easy to sell to a sponsor and easy to post about afterwards. It is also the reason founders leave with a pocket of business cards and nothing else.
We went the other way. Every EA mixer is screened before entry, and the room is deliberately small.
What screening actually changes
When you know the other 40 people in the room were vetted on the same terms you were, the first two minutes of every conversation disappear. Nobody has to establish that they belong there.
- Founders stop pitching defensively
- Investors stop bracing for a cold pitch
- CXOs will actually come, because it isn't a pitch marathon
The number we watch instead
Not attendance. We track how many introductions made in the room turn into a second conversation in the following fortnight. That figure is what a mixer is for.
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