I’ve been to over 50 different meetup groups to date. (many of which I just stop by, say hello, then leave) During my winter break, I’d go to meetups everyday, cramming as many as three events on a given evening. After coming to San Francisco, that number has dropped to about three a week. Afterall, I do have something called school and business to attend to.

I first discovered Meetup.com back in January of 2007. My friend Jeff Solomon told me to come to San Francisco, surf Meetup.com, and find web 2.0 entrepreneur events that I could go to. And so I did!

If you don’t know already, Meetup.com is a website that helps people “who share their interest or cause, and form lasting, influential, local community groups that regularly meet face-to-face. ” Meetup memebers include everyone from web 2.0 geeks to dog lovers to wine tasters to tennis players to President Bush haters.

So here are some of my thoughts and feelings about meetup:

1) Meetups are an amazing way to meet like-minded individuals. You’ll meet both cool people and lameos.

2) Entrepreneur meetups often have way too many people selling you their business. If you don’t want to talk to them, kindly ask for their card, skake their hand, then move on. [Refer to my "Productive Networking" Post]


Picture of people at April’s SF Newtech Meetup

3) New Meetup members are often the ones looking awkward and confused – kind of like the boys who couldn’t get a dance at those lame middle school dances

4) Meetup Organizers are frustrated that not enough people come to their events. That’s because you actually have to WORK to get people there! I put in a good 3 hours of work just to get 70 people to show up.

5) The type of people depend on the location. San Francisco VS Palo Alto makes a huge difference. Of course, it’s mostly older people at the South Bay events.

6) Look for food. Meetups are exhausting and often happen during dinner hours. If you know they’ll have free pizza and beer, go for it!

7) If the meetup sucks, leave. Half of them suck, so don’t waste your time if you could be more productive with your time.

As the school year approaches, I’ll be going to fewer meetups :( I’ve met so many close friends at events such as SF Beta, Geeksessions, Stirr, and Newtech. If you’re interested in my event schedule, I’ll be posting a Google Calendar soon.

More to come!

Jessica Mah is a 17 year old entrepreneur, blogger, and sophomore in college. She’s currently the founder of a startup, managing editor at Startupism.com and Jessicamah.com.

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