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Modern Networking: IRL > URL

Modern Networking: IRL > URL

Ted Merz
January 24, 2024

_{Sign up}_{to receive Surface Area or follow me on}_Linkedin_or_Twitter_{. Book a meeting}_here_{to talk about ghostwriting from my agency, Principals Media}.

IRL > URL.

Translation: meeting in real life is better than meeting online.

Andrew Yeung sported that message on his hat at a tech breakfast meetup yesterday in Soho.

He co-sponsored the event with Morgan Barrett, a startup lawyer by day whose side hustle is arranging events for founders and investors.

As the slogan indicates, the event was all about in-person networking.

Since leaving a corporate job almost two years ago, I’ve spent a ridiculous amount of time online. A typical day includes at least four hours on social media.

The paradox is that the more time I spend online the more people I meet in real life.

It turns out social media is not just a place to doom scroll, but a portal to connect.

That’s how I ended up at the event hosted by Morgan. He tweeted an invitation and I responded along with 370 other people. About 150 were selected to attend.

Morgan said he’s thrown an event every month since October 2022.

He said the whole idea started with zero expectations. He had just returned to New York from spending the summer in LA and decided to get a dozen friends together. It was such a success he did it again and that time 30 people showed up. His third meetup attracted 60 people.

He’s since organized Tech Breakfast Club events in Los Angeles and Boston. In March, he’s doing San Francisco.

The events now have sponsors, including Leader Bank and Fidelity and serve snacks including Planet Bake’s sugar-free, plant-based, gluten-free, soy-free, low-carb kosher almond cake donuts. (I’ve never eaten food with so many hyphenated modifiers!)

One of the great things about post-Covid New York is that the demand to connect is so great that you can put out some donuts on a frigid Tuesday morning and a small village will show up.

I connected with about ten people at the event. They ranged from an ex-JPMorgan trader who had become an angel investor to a second-time founder who was building an audio-focused startup.

One conversation that stood out was with Mark Roitbuld who is looking for a role in investor relations.

Mark goes to five events a week to build his network. Tonight, there’s one organized by NIRI for PR and IR professionals. Later in the week there’s one for Young Professionals in Energy.

He recommended starting with general meetups, which get you on lists and from there you can drill down to more specialized groups, like the one we were at.

The past two years have made me completely rethink how to network.

In the past, I was more likely to ask friends or colleagues for referrals.

Now, I reach out to strangers who write on the internet.

Or people who comment on my posts.

Or anyone who offers coffee and donuts at 9 am on a cold Tuesday in January.