Review of NextStep Shanghai Entrepreneur Mixers

Sometime in early 2007, some wise guy on ShanghaiExpat.com felt expat entrepreneurs in Shanghai could really use a community and network to support each other’s endeavors. He offered to set up some events and invited those interested to join his e-mail list, promising to notify everyone of when and where those events would eventually take place. I signed up and not long after, I began receiving e-mails with digital fliers from some organization eventually known as NextStep Shanghai.

I attended my first NextStep entrepreneur mixer over three months ago, when it was held at Volar on January 15th. Keen to network with fellow entrepreneurs to pick each other’s minds and swap business cards (you know, to feel important), I even dragged my business partner (who dragged his friend) to come along.

Unfortunately, we ultimately left feeling rather disappointed.

To be sure, there was a reasonable crowd, but for an “entrepreneur” mixer, it was sorely lacking in…well, “entrepreneurs.” Of course, like many professional mixers everywhere, there’s a high probability of meeting a lot of sales reps for various companies hoping to find customers, connections, or (mostly business-to-business sales) opportunities. You also run into a lot of individuals trying to network their way to some important person at some big-name company in hopes of landing a job that’ll look good on their resume. As anyone with experience with such professional events would know, these are often expected. Nonetheless, the bottom line is that such an environment isn’t exactly helpful for actual or aspiring entrepreneurs looking to discuss new business ideas or solutions to new business problems and difficulties. As such, I had a nice drink or so, and met a few decent people, but didn’t consider the event having been worth my time.

Not long after, Elliott asked me to guest-blog here at CNReviews.com. As I sat down to detail my experience, I realized it wasn’t quite fair to judge NextStep’s entire concept and execution on the basis of a single event’s results. Setting my notes aside as a draft, I resolved to give NextStep another chance by attending another event.

That draft sat untouched for months.

What can I say? I’m a busy guy. It wasn’t until April 15th that I finally made my way, through heavy rains, to another event. This time, it was held in The Collection at Shanghai’s ever-lovely Xintiandi.

I’m glad I went.

Unlike the first event, I happened to meet far more entrepreneurs, entrepreneurial-minded individuals, and even some venture capital representatives this time. Suffice to say, I had far more productive and relevant conversations that evening. I even had the pleasure of meeting Joseph Constanty, one of the founders of Next Step Shanghai (amongst his other ventures). We chatted about how he bult up NextStep’s following, the work it involved, and how they plan on monetizing all of it eventually. They’ve since expanded NextStep with www.nextstepdirectory.com, a dedicated directory website featuring various businesses that may be useful for entrepreneurs, business-owners, and expats in Shanghai (and perhaps beyond). He even anticipated and answered the quesiton of just what the hell is “Tangential Consulting?” (Apparently, it’s something of an “umbrella” entity under which NextStep operates.) That alone earned brownie points in my book.

As young, dapper, and well-spoken as Mr. Constanty was, what he’s done is far more remarkable. He simply saw a need that wasn’t being adequately filled and decided he could do it, and do it better. Organizing events around a common-interest isn’t revolutionary, but he’s done the legwork to approach venues, arrange them to provide space and drinks, get the word out, and get people attending. Moreover, and by his own self-admission, the most appealing part of it all was that it didn’t require much investment capital. After a year of consistent and reasonably successful events, he’s continuing to build on the basic concept by developing logical extensions that promise to further cater to the needs of his target market. Again, nothing revolutionary, but that’s solid entrepreneurialism in action. He’s the kind of entrepreneur you’d want to meet at these events.

Two hours after I had arrived fashionably late, I regretfully had to leave behind a packed house that undoubtedly promised plenty of conversations and opportunities that likely would’ve been worth my while. In sum, however, NextStep Shanghai’s events can always be hit or miss. Sometimes you’ll get a lot of sales reps and job-seekers. Other times, you’ll meet some true entrepreneurs and small business owners. Most of the time, they’ll all be friendly, but sometimes you’ll meet a jackass or two. That’s life. The crowd will often be mostly foreign expats but there are plenty of locals as well, usually identified by being clustered around each other wondering how they’re going to interact with the scary white folk. :)

NextStep Shanghai’s extrepreneur mixers are usually held every otherTuesday. The venues change but there’s never any cover charges and there’s always drink specials to help the social lubrication process. The next event will be held Tuesday evening (April 29) from 8pm to 10pm at Park 97 in Fuxing Park. (click on the flier to the right for more details)