Venture Club Indy: Lessons from an MBA

I'm in this entrepreneurship class called venture club, part of which involves attending the Venture Club of Indianapolis. We were advised by our professor to wear formal attire. I thought he was trying to be safe as I have found that such “formal” meetings end up being very casual. Well, he was right… ties and jackets galore! In my experience of business casual, I haven’t seen this amount of formal wear since my career fair in undergrad.

We stood outside for 20 minutes, talking to anyone who happened to stare at us. We were advised us to try to mention our companies not that we were students, probably so we can work on getting professional contacts. We are to do the one thing my introverted self hates… network. Really?? I hate networking. I usually just stare at my thumbs, talk to someone I already know (which we were asked NOT to do) or painfully pull out my teeth.

I get fortunate, I spot a Kelly student who I’ve never seen before (and I belong to 2 cohorts at the same time…long story). We talk a bit about the Indiana University Technology Transfer which I have never heard of (that’s for yet another article). I was excited to hear of something that mixes academic biological research with business.

So after a surprisingly sumptuous lunch (I will definitely come back to these meetings, if just for the lunches…oh wait… I have to come. This is a class), we sit for a few spotlight presenters who give pitches that are like a tame version of Shark tank. And that’s what my other articles are about.

Don't you just HATE the word "networking"?

Maybe hate is a strong word. Dislike might be a better fit. I'm in a class where we meet with venture capitalists and new business owners to listen to pitches (sort of like Shark Rank on ABC). For the first thirty minutes though, we are asked to "network". Networking reminds me how odd I am at talking to strangers and how I wish I could just melt into the wall. According to Prof. Wendeln, the reason I find networking uncomfortable is because this kind of networking has no "purpose", no reason to it. We just network for the sake of networking. So I don't understand it and dislike it.

Here is a great article though about giving a purpose to networking. Its by Jeff Haden of Inc. I identify with the "little moonwalk shy people do when we want to slip unnoticed to the edge of the crowd". Do you feel this way at social events too? Tell me how you feel? How do you get better at these mingling events?