Read a study that said over half of founders meet their first investor at a casual meetup, not a formal pitch event

I was looking at some old research from a university business school, and it said 52% of startup founders connected with their first angel investor at informal networking things like coffee chats or local founder dinners. I always thought it was all about demo days and big conferences. This was from a survey of about 200 early-stage companies. Makes me wonder if I should skip the next big expensive conference and just hit more small local events. Has anyone else had a key connection come from a totally low-key setting like that?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_paul2mo ago

That research totally lines up with my own experience. The big conferences are great for energy but terrible for real talk. Did the study break down what kind of "casual meetup" was most common, like was it a scheduled one-on-one or more of a random chat at a small group thing?

oscar7432mo ago

Yeah they found most of the good chats came from those random small group talks, not the scheduled stuff. I always skip the main hall and camp out near the coffee or the smaller side rooms. You get way better conversations when it's just a few people standing around.

reeseperez2mo ago

That pattern shows up everywhere, not just in startups. Same thing happens with jobs - most people get hired through someone they met at a casual lunch or a friend of a friend, not through formal applications. Even finding a good mechanic or a plumber usually comes from a random chat with a neighbor, not a Google search. The big formal stuff looks impressive but the real connections happen when nobody's trying to sell anything. People relax and actually talk when there's no pressure to perform.