Everything You Need to Know About Startup Networking Events You Can Learn from Watching the Bachelor

If you could take an anonymous poll of tech entrepreneurs to find out how many watch The Bachelor, I suspect the results would surprise you. At the very least, you’d discover plenty of people like me — people who plopped down on the couch next to a spouse watching an episode one evening and, an hour later, found themselves curiously wondering who’s getting that final rose. #DontJudgeMe

Whatever your opinion of The Bachelor, you’ll find that most tech entrepreneurs can at least relate to the show because building venture-backed startups is basically the same thing. For proof, look no further than your typical startup networking event.

The average startup networking event consists of a couple investors, lots of self-promoting service providers trying to drum up new business (e.g. lawyers and accountants), a few seasoned entrepreneurs enjoying their relative success, and dozens of hungry, young founders desperate for funding. In that sense, it’s not unlike the first episode in a new season of The Bachelor when all the contestants are introduced.

In honor of last night’s final episode of Spring 2020 (don’t pretend you didn’t know!), let’s take a look at the different types of “characters” on The Bachelor and see how they sync up…