The Importance of Community, Connections, Context, Conviction, & Conferences
1/ I spent part of Thanksgiving weekend planning my travel for the first part of 2023. I’ll be going to #CES2023, #CES, #SXSW, #SXSW2023. Flights and lodging booked. I recommend those who are attending these conferences to book their travel and lodging early & asap given how expensive it is to attend these events.
2/ I’m a big believer in attending in person events because events provide the context and opportunity to develop real in person connections or reinforce existing friendships. Real in person connections are ~100x more valuable than Linkedin connections. Additionally some of the most interesting people in the world are NOT on Linkedin. This year I spent around 100 nights on the road attending events. It’s not sustainable so I’m going to pace myself better in 2023.
3/ Attending conferences also shows conviction and what we in the military like to say "boots on the ground." I don’t just attend conferences but I also help organize conferences: The Military Veteran, Consumer Commerce Conference, and The Military Veteran Startup Conference (MVS). I joke that my job partially consists of being a community organizer. Thanks to all my team members: Brendan Aronson, Carina Cho, Amber Sims, Helen King, Joseph Stella, many others, and especially Heather Hsia.
4/ The event I’ve been spending the past 7 months working on and which I’m most excited about right now is the Military Veteran Startup Conference (#MVS). Join hundreds of military veteran entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, limited partners, and early-stage operators at #MVS2023 on Feb 2nd & 3rd, 2023 in San Francisco at the Marines’ Memorial club & hotel. There will be 400+ attendees.
This event will have panels on military veteran led unicorn companies, consumer startups, B2B startups, women veteran founders, veteran led VC firms, under represented founders, how to sell your company, & dual use founders.
5/ Military veterans make fantastic founders and investors - come build your network at the densest gathering of military veteran talent in the startup ecosystem. The event is open to everyone: military veterans, veteran spouses, & civilians. Learn more and register here: https://lnkd.in/gVNjDrZw
cc: Luke Schneider, Ryan Kent, Kyle Maggard, Riley R., "IRON" Mike Steadman, Grant Jordan, Paul Madera, Beau Laskey, Henry Ward, Davis Thacker, Kai Ryssdal, Bilal Zuberi, Steve Bowsher, Alex McKindra, Taylor Justice, Mark Frank, Socrates Rosenfeld, Ken Gonzalez, Daniel Gwak, Jacqueline Blackburn, Katherine (O'Donnell) Lynch, Ashley Hawkes, Gregory Coleman, Trey Hart, Chris Douvos, Benjamin Black, Blake Hogan, Steve Harrison, Neil Devani, Edward Ward III, Vineet Rajan, Lenore Karafa
#veteran #veterans #military #startups #founders #venturecapital #event #connections #network #entrepreneurs #community