LaunchPad: The Networking Event That Banned Networking

An hour before our first event, I was standing in an empty coffee shop in downtown Grand Rapids with keys that weren't mine.

The former owner had trusted me with them. My landlord was catering out of his restaurant. We'd ordered a banner we definitely didn't need. And a ton of people had just backed out.

That was LaunchPad. People showed up anyway.

Why we bothered

Every networking event I'd been to ran the same way. Mediocre appetizers, a stack of business cards, and everyone looking over your shoulder for someone more important to talk to. You'd leave with 15 cards and nobody you'd actually call.

We wanted a room where people acted like people. So we had three rules:

• No business cards. Your LinkedIn QR code works fine.
• No elevator pitches. If what you do doesn't come up naturally, you're trying too hard.
• No job titles on the name tags. You're more than your headline.

Who we invited

Not everyone needs to be invited to everything. We were upfront about it in the invite: dress casual, be normal with people. If you weren't going to bring your actual self, and were planning to spout LinkedIn nonsense instead, it wasn't for you.

We were intentional about having a room that was mixed in gender and race. But the real filter was one question... did you actually want to be here?

What the night looked like

We had an agenda, because people WANT to know when they can leave. We didn't have rigid activities. And we tried really hard not to take ourselves too seriously.

Later ones moved to breweries and a baseball game. At every one, we made a point of walking people over to someone we knew they had to meet.

What it actually took

Planning one night was a lot more than picking a date and sending some emails. For the first one we:

• Talked a coffee shop owner into renting us the space (shout out to the former owner, who also trusted me with the keys)
• Hustled for food (my landlord saved us by catering from his restaurant, which is networking in action)
• Met up for beers after work for weeks to plan ONE event
• Got overexcited and ordered a banner
• Sent countless invites, follow-ups, and "no really, you should come" messages

Then followed up again.

All of it happened after our day jobs. The tools were the easy part: Lu.ma for the event page and RSVPs (it sends the reminders, but for a first event you're still sending the invites yourself), Google Forms for feedback, and a local photographer who cost less than we expected and gave us photos to promote the next one.

What went wrong

The timing was off. Someone spilled on the floor. People backed out last minute, and yes, there were stretches of awkward silence.

People still made real connections. Some started projects together. Some became friends.

Afterward we ended up at the local bar. A few people from the event came with us, and we couldn't stop talking about how much fun it was and who we'd met.

We haven't run one in a while. I still run into people who go "hey, when are you doing LaunchPad again?"