Used to hand off my network to anyone who asked at meetups. Not anymore.

I used to just give out my personal phone number and referrals to anyone who seemed interested at local entrepreneur meetups here in Austin. Then last year I had a guy call me at 11pm on a Tuesday asking for a favor involving a rental property I didn't even own. Now I use a separate Google Voice number just for networking events and keep a simple spreadsheet tracking who I connect with and when. Has anyone else dealt with weird boundary issues after being too open with their network?

2 comments

2 Comments

the_ben12d ago

Started using a burner number too. Fixed everything.

patp7912d ago

Had a buddy who runs a small IT consulting shop here in Austin. He gave his cell out at a startup mixer and got a call at 6am from some dude who wanted him to "just take a quick look" at a broken server at his brother's friend's dental office. When my friend said no, the guy showed up at his actual office later that week with the server in his trunk. Had to make the receptionist tell him he wasn't in. Super awkward.