We are in a tech dinner bubble.
Everyday I get invited to 1-3 tech dinners with f-tier founders/investors
1 of the invites even came from one of our vendors who is doing a terrible job.
I had to literally tell him "Stop inviting me to dinner and do the thing I pay you to do"
It pissed me off so much.
To the people hosting these events, put some more thought into it besides just hosting a dinner.
3 examples I've done:
- Last week, I rented out a movie theater to watch IG reels last week and had famous influencers show up
- In 2022, I rented out a bar for Startups, VC, and Ping Pong and had 200 tech New Yorkers playing ping pong
- In 2023, I hosted a Bug Horror Story Night for Halloween where engineers at major companies told bug horror stories
Put in literally an extra 30 seconds of thought about what people might have fun doing besides just eating.
I'm telling you it will be worth it.
It doesn't have to be silly and viral like mine per se, but give people something more than food: a fun activity!!
To the people like me getting invited to events, put some more thought into deciding what to go to.
@sama is right. You can skip all of it and win. Your time is too valuable to spend at dinner with people who don't think about giving you a good time and just think about how to extract as much value in a 10-person room as possible with fondue.
You can skip all the parties, all the conferences, all the press, all the tweets. Build a great product and get users and win.