People You Meet at a Networking Event

They put the “work” in networking.

The Hard Seller

Did you remember to bring enough business cards? They did. In fact, they brought enough for everyone at the event to wallpaper their entire home. Instead of warming up with a little small talk or chit chat, they go right for the jugular like a puma preying on a baby deer with a broken leg. You didn’t catch their name but you know within the first few minutes that their company offers financial planning and someone at your age should consider a healthy mix of short-term and long-term investment strategies and you shouldn’t have more than six months of cash in your checking account. All you asked was “So, what do you do?”

The Startup CEO

Wearing their startup’s branded t-shirt as a suit of armor, this ruthless “visionary” scurries around the event followed by a trail of junior-level employees looking for a technical co-founder. While talking to them, you need a thesaurus just to keep up with all of the tech jargon. You continuously hear them refer to their “minimum viable product,” “key performance indicators,” and “burn rate.” They make it crystal clear their goal is to disrupt the tech industry with a new platform for geolocating preventative tools for sexual health. Wait a second…aren’t they just making an…