[wheels]

I think the point is that networking events aren't usually chock-full of potential customers. They're often an early-adopter circle-jerk and unless your customers are early adopters, you get diminishing returns on such things.

You need to build up a network, and so getting out and pitching to folks is a necessity early on, but remember that networking events are mostly just practice for pitching to the people who actually matter.

I'd suggest also that a lot of people are convinced that their target customers are early adopters because it's easier to imagine that their customers are like themselves. This is often wrong, sometimes dangerously so. Do some soul-searching (Are these really the people that are most likely to give us money? Do they even have any money? How much?) if you find yourself in that spot.

There are a lot of "entrepreneurs" that get caught up in the social aspects of being an entrepreneur without actually going out and getting traction on their business. It turns into an ugly form of cargo-cultism quickly.