Ask HN: Avoiding entrepreneurial development events ok?

[yesreally]

I have a few friends that go to all of the meetups and seminars with entrepreneurial development organizations and related groups and try to get me to go, but I'm just not interested. I've been to enough to know that I'm not into networking in-person just for the purpose of networking. I can be outgoing, but I just don't tend to be. Why go waste your time meeting with people before you even have a viable product or service to be trying to drum up interest about, or if you just aren't "ready"? I understand that there is a lot to be gained from having relationships with various important people in the industry, but isn't there a lot to be lost also if you get the reputation for going to these things and having nothing to say to anyone? Isn't it ok to not waste your time with people and events that you just aren't interested in?

[mkeblx]

Obviously before these type of meetups entrepreneurs were successful in creating companies so it's not a requirement. But there is a lot of value in getting out there and interacting with people, it's only networking for networking sake if that's how you approach it. A great time to talk about what you're doing is exactly before you have an actual viable product. Personally if I would have waited until everything was 'ready' I would have missed some critical connections. The risks are zero (well the reputation thing could be real, so have something to say), the potential reward is actually high.

[yesreally]

What is "something to say"? It sounds like it doesn't make sense to go unless you have an idea or have something in the oven. Thanks for the input!