Moving to Bay area in few months. I am very passionate about startups and have started two in last couple of years. Both of them failed but the recent one was more successful than the first one. I will have to work for couple of years to build up my bank balance. In the meantime any pointers of different opportunities to get involved in the startup ecosystem. I really want to build a strong network here. How should I go about doing that ? Any pointers will be highly appreciated .
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There's this false notion that the Silicon Valley ecosystem exists to help startups "grow", but the reality is that it exists to take advantage of those who are not part of the oligarchy.
That’s how I found my ex, my former co-founder and my current significant other. (Three different people)
One time I did spend a good 6 hours drunk with some girlfriends pretending to be a cute bottom on Grindr and our inbox was flooded with dick pics.
10/10 activity for straight girls
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San Francisco traded their concert shirts for startup shirts! It’s nearing lame now and not nearly as fun as Oakland.
Conferences
Public shared hacker spaces like hackerdojo
Startup incubators like ycombinator and plug n play
There's a lot of risk, but failing teaches us what DOES NOT work. Just try to minimize your damages and set backs when you do fail. It sounds like you don't let failure keep down, that's the right mind set, but don't be a sucker either.
I would suggest NOT doing this alone.
oDXF46 has some good advice, find a parter or build/lead a team of like minded entrepreneur's like yourself. This also minimizes damages if you fail, two heads are better than one, just be careful you don't have too many cooks in the kitchen though. It's definitely a balancing act. The fact that you posted this question shows that you are not afraid to ask for help, so go network with other people.
One more thing I'd like to share, is that you don't have to buy the best of something in the beginning, for example, if you needed to buy a printer, don't go buying the best one that they make, you just need something that will work for now and get you by in fact I would buy used equipment to minimize your costs at the beginning it's definitely a spectrum though, you don't want to buy something too cheap, again it's a balancing act.
Bottom line is don't do it alone, find another person who has come close to success and maybe failed a couple of times like you did, together you can get to success much easier than by yourself.