I was talking to one of Singularity University’s Graduate Studies Program participants the other day, who mentioned that she will move to the Bay Area soon and asked for advice on how to build and grow her network.
As someone who has lived in a couple of places and had to build up a network from the ground up in all those locations, I definitely can relate. It’s scary — as it sounds hard and a lot of work.
Here’s my battle-tested exponential networking hack:
Every time you meet someone (for example for coffee, lunch or dinner) and the two of you connected — ask them for two other people you should connect to and if they can make an intro.
Firstly you grow your network in a truly exponential fashion (from your first meeting you gain two new connections, which turn into four more and then eight… you get the idea). Secondly I regularly meet people through this hack which I would have never connected to otherwise — either because I had no idea who they were or because I had no other in-road to them.
Try it out!