I want to set the scene.
It’s the end of April 2020.
Lockdowns started a month and a half ago.
I’ve been traveling for the past year and am now living in Kyiv, Ukraine.
Traveling, I developed a tradition. Whenever I arrived in a new city, I would message 1st and 2nd degree connections on LinkedIn, asking to have coffee. No agenda at all. I just enjoyed meeting people.
I met with incredible people this way, even billionaires:
@build_in_public Who I met pushing my comfort zone in Prague. #digitalnomad #livingabroad #networkingtips #linkedintips ♬ Storytelling - Adriel
No more of that, though.
With a month and a half of shelter in place, I’m really missing networking.
The learnings I get, the friendships I make, the opportunities created…
Like all of us, I’m spending all day on my computer. I start checking Product Hunt frequently for cool apps, and one day, I come across something called Lunchclub.
It’s free. You submit your LinkedIn. They approve you. Then, you can start meeting people from their community.
“Sounds interesting,” I think.
I try it, wondering if I’ll get approved.
I do.
Lunchclub
If you’re not in places like NYC, San Francisco, Miami, etc, or don’t have a preexisting great network, it’s generally hard to meet with established people (unless you do this).
And even in these cities, you still may not have access to people like this.
But Lunchclub was magic.
It brought together successful and interesting people from around the world, though heavily in the United States, who just wanted to talk to and learn from each other.
The premise was, and still is, simple:
- You make a profile, give your socials, and write a short bio.
- You say the times you’re available.
- Lunchclub’s algorithms connect you with likeminded people.
- You’re automatically scheduled for a one-hour video chat with somebody you’d like.
Starved for the types of fascinating conversations I was having before lockdowns, I really hoped this would work.
And did it?
It did.
It worked well.
In my first month, here are only some of the people I had calls with (in chronological order from my marketing journal):
- Head of Global Marketing at Ralph Lauren.
- Global Brand Solutions Lead at Google.
- Contributors to Forbes, Cointelegraph, and more.
- Entrepreneurs with exits.
- Brand Director for Beats by Dre.
- VCs.
- Angels.
- Head of Programming at SXSW.
After every one of those calls, I would feel energized and excited. I was having such great conversations, learning so much, and meeting people I vibed with.
Years later, I still keep in touch with many of these people.
But like I said, that was only my first month using it. The following months were just as good. We got employees through this, investment tips (the NFT hype cycle was just beginning), articles written about us, and more.
So Lunchclub is the tool I’m sharing in this week’s article.
Is Lunchclub still active?
I’m going to be honest, I seldom network now.
I put out at least one video a day. A podcast a day. This newsletter each week.
I don’t have much time, and if there’s somebody I want to meet, this brand I’ve created helps me meet them.
Sidenote: anybody can make the brand I did. My secret is just that I’m consistent and don’t miss a day, no matter what. Here are my lessons from a year straight of posting on TikTok.
But if I had more time, I’d be on Lunchclub, especially while continuing to travel (sending this from a small city in Poland).
I looked into it before writing this email. I can see that it’s still active, and people were messaging me on it all throughout last year:
So I think it’s a worthwhile share, especially if you’re not in a New York, San Francisco, Miami, Austin, etc.
It’s 2024 – we should be able to meet cool people from anywhere.
With Lunchclub we can.
It’s free, so I don’t get anything substantial from this, but this is my personal invite code for anybody who’d like to try.
