Ask HN: Networking in the valley

[mat3]

I'm planning to come out to the valley for the month of August to network with other entrepreneurs and try to find investors for my seed stage startup. Unfortunately I don't know anyone in the startup scene there.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to get started meeting entrepreneurs and investors.

Has anyone else been in my situation. How did you go about finding people, investors, a place to stay?

How did you get around? rent a car or ...?

Right now my plan is to attend the following events, meet people and go from there - http://newtech.meetup.com/14/ - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/910056/ - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/793854/ - http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/867200/

Thoughts?

[skmurphy]

You can meet other entrepreneurs at a Bootstrapper's Breakfasts http://www.bootstrappersbreakfast.com/ there are three scheduled for August. We get a number of out of town visitors and you would be welcome. The other events you list all look very good, if I had to pick one from those you mentioned to make sure of attending it would be the the New Tech Meetup in Palo Alto. SVASE (http://www.svase.org/) runs a number of events where you can meet VCs: breakfasts, Startup-U, CXO Leadership forum. SDForum (http://www.sdforum.org/) runs 20+ SIGs, I would check out the Startup and VC Funding SIGs during your visit as well as any related to technologies you are working with.

[mat3 → skmurphy]

thanks. I'm here in the valley now and I've signed up to get event mails from those groups.

[ScottWhigham]

If you're looking for a place to stay, I love, love, love Dinah's Garden Hotel (although I don't know how close it is to where you want to be). It's actually one of my favorite hotels inside the contiguous: http://www.dinahshotel.com/

[mat3 → ScottWhigham]

Looks really nice, but I'm planning to be there for a month, so its too expensive :(. Thanks though.

[mat3]

I'm thinking of using zipcar -http://www.zipcar.com to get around. Has anyone here used it? What do you think?

[ScottWhigham → mat3]

I read the cover story about them in Inc mag - looked very cool. Haven't used them though.