Just smile and say "Hi." It can't hurt.

I've talked to a lot of people over the past couple of months. I've been working with my new business partner, Mike, on our new company, GetMinders, and part of my role is to meet people, make deals and fundraise when necessary. One reason I love this role is that I get to make new friends and have conversations with some of the most interesting folks!

As I've been working hard to meet people in the industry from VCs and advisors to business people and awesome developers, I've found that simply saying and meaning it, "Hello there, I'd love to meet up at some point over coffee to get to know you," seems to be the best way to get the ball rolling. There are great services like Hashable or LinkedIn for e-introductions and they can help a lot but a Tweet or email saying "How are yah?" really does go a long way.

We're all only human so this technique works better than you'd expect. Whether you're the richest man alive or someone just getting started in the biz, everyone enjoys socializing. Most of the time when someone doesn't respond to your virtual wave it's not because they don't want to (or they don't like you) but because they may not be able to. Time is not always on their side and responding to each and every request would be nearly impossible. But give it time and your "Hello", if sincere, may stand out from all of the other pitches and requests out there.

Comments

[Joe]

Simple, sincere and honest. Excellent post!

[Jesse Middleton]

Thanks Joe! Appreciate the feedback. I'll try to keep at it.