SF Tech Week 0/7: Bring Something On-scene
7 days during SF tech week I write about my daily reflections attending events and connecting with local dev and builder communities.
Hey, Ling here. Today marks our first day in tech week in bay area, before heading out for my first event I do want to take some time reflect on my first event last night — Cursor Cafe @Stanford. I’d say it’s a rather student-ish and early stage founder vibe setup but do have several surprises alongside. Here’s my quick takeaways out of the event.
The Organic Builder Connection
Last night at Stanford Cursor Cafe, tho the general participants are mainly students, but you literally can tell that everyone is building something. Either in process ready to launch or already received several funds. The naturality of talking about your project is beyond imagination.
I was joking to my team saying that, this must be one the thing that makes American american and silicon valley valley like — Not being afraid to talk about ideas and showing thoughts. Again, I might be a bit too gay for the bro talk and the fist bumping, but overhearing everyone talking about something they are really passionate about, that’s truly awesome.
Bring Some Gigs to the Scene
Another thing I noticed during the event is that, if you have something to offer, do demonstrate it and share. People not only appreciate it, they love it! I think people attending networking events at some point has a certain level of FOMO, and a great founder always know how to play it smartly.
FOMO we all know, but FOMO on the scene means if people see the queue or some crowd clustering around some people, they ask and will try to hop on. For those who want to test out ideas, products, or even making content, you can easily create a scene within this mentality. You bet, the crowd will seek info out of each other and come to you.
Bring something that’s big but still subtle enough for people to gather round to see, and choose the right “word-of-mouth“ people to start with, give out the first and second demo experience and you’re good to go. Apart from my team demoing Zeabur to other builders on spot, there are a team of two French young lad doing tech week content and bringing gadgets to the event, another Japanese guy showcasing his Meta glasses to people around.
TL;DR: Just Show It
I think this mentality works here, if you got something special and you believe in it, then sell it. Again luv my team and it’s a good start of the week, go! Lastly I want to shout out to the hosts of the Stanford Cursor Coffee event Asanshay and Emily, nice vibe and looking forward to the next one!!
p.s. We were grabbing burger before the event and Yuanlin (Zeabur’s founder) is on a call with some local VCs lol
