Boosting Your Network: 4 Learnings From Silicon Valley

This is Silicon Valley, Chapter 2 of 6

5 min readMay 31, 2017

It will take time and effort to expand your network, no matter where you are. Whether you’re new to Silicon Valley or are planning on moving here or even if you’re just coming for a visit to “expand your horizons” or meet potential investors, clients and partners -you will need a network. How do you build one from scratch without knowing anyone, quickly and efficiently?

I was in that exact situation when I moved to San Francisco in 2015. Not only did I not know anyone in the city, I didn’t know anyone on the entire continent as it was literally my first time in America. Yet here I was, set to do business development which, by definition, requires a strong network.

Here are the top 4 hacks I discovered over the past 2 years of hustling in Silicon Valley that will accelerate the growth of your professional network. Following these will save you hundreds of hours of your time, these are tried and tested strategies.

Join a co-working community

I wish I did this sooner (I was too cheap). I strongly recommend joining a co-working community — even if you’re only here for 2 weeks, buy a membership. Most co-working spaces have their own internal social networks that allow their members to connect. This will give you access to hundreds of founders within the entire community instantly. People in a given co-working community tend to have a common sense of belonging to that space. Most will be more than happy to meet you and help you connect with more people.

I’ve personally been a member at WeWork and Rocket Space. Other popular spaces are Galvanize, NextSpace or The VAULT. Most of these go for anywhere between $450 and $800 per month for a desk.

You also get free event space if you join a co-working community. This brings me to my second point.

Organize your own events

One of the fastest ways of getting to know many people quickly is by organizing events.

When I first moved to San Francisco I launched a Meetup.com group that quickly grew to over 450 members. I organized couple meetups right away.

You can easily target people you wish to meet by giving a talk on a topic that’s related to your field. You can also invite a guest speaker that your target audience is likely to be interested in. For instance if you wish to meet more product designers, invite a product designer of the Yelp Design Team to come in give a talk. If you want to know more startup founders, invite an investor from Andreessen Horowitz to give a talk.

This doesn’t cost you much time, and is a great way to be in the middle of things. Guest speakers are also easy to find as most people understand the importance of building a personal brand. If you’d like me to write a separate post on throwing events in Silicon Valley, let me know in the comments.

Roll up your sleeves and get crackin’.

Give talks

If you think organizing an event would eat up too much time, consider giving talks. This is perhaps the fastest way to build your network, no matter where you are. By giving talks, you’re (hopefully) bringing value to those that come listen to you. At the same time you’re positioning yourself as a though leader in your space.

Use you knowledge, experience and expertise to tailor a talk to the kind of audience you want to connect with. Bring them real value through your personal insights. Make it interesting.

Then, reach out to Meetup.com groups in your space and offer to give a talk at their next meetup.

Vin Clancy is the best example of how this should be done. He just concluded his 100 talk tour that expanded his network by tens of thousands of people in his field and likely landed many new clients.

Join a co-living space

Another way to quickly connect with like-minded entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley is by joining a co-living space or “hacker houses” as they call them here. It’s a bit like living in a hostel so if you have a wife, 2 kids and a dog, this may not be ideal.

a random guy with a macbook on a bunkbed

But for the rest of you happy single people, this is an excellent opportunity to get sucked into Silicon valley’s turbulent startup environment from day one. Popular hacker houses are Startup Basecamp, Blackbox Mansion and Rainbow Mansion to name a few. They go anywhere between $900–$2000 per month. Here’s a full list of hacker houses in the Bay Area.

“Is there one person from your network you think I should meet?”

Finally, don’t be shy to ask. Entrepreneurs are by definition open minded people who are willing to help. Be clear on what you want and where you’re headed and don’t be afraid to ask for help along the way.

Nobody is “self made”. We all need help from time to time.

What are some of the best tactics you came across when it comes to networking? Comment below!