Notes on Professional Introductions While Traveling
Warm intros still work. Cold DMs from a new city read like spam with better lighting.
[ journal ]
Cold DMs from a new city read like spam with better lighting. I have sent a few in years I would like to have back. A stranger’s calendar does not owe me coffee because my timezone changed. Warm introductions still work. I ask for them like an adult: a specific person, a specific reason, a sentence the introducer can forward without editing my personality back in.
I keep a short note of who I already know in a city before I land. Not a hunt. A list. If there is no one, I do not manufacture a network in forty-eight hours. I do the work. I go to a meetup only if I would have gone at home. Follow-up with people I actually spoke to is a different note. Here I am talking about the ask that happens before a room: will you introduce me.
The message I want to receive is short. Who I am, what I build, why this person, what I am not asking for (a job tomorrow, a tour, a place to sleep). I offer a time window that respects their clock. I accept a no that is only silence. Silence is a no. I do not send the same paragraph to twelve people and call it hustle.
LinkedIn from an airport lounge is a poor context. If I reach out cold anyway, I do it once, with a reason that is about their work, not my itinerary. I do not lead with relocation. I lead with a question they can answer in two minutes or ignore without guilt.
Hate-networking is another essay. This one is narrower. Introductions are a scarce gift. I spend them on people I would introduce back. I write a thank-you that does not demand a second favour. I tell the introducer what happened, even if it was we spoke, it was useful, no next step. That closure is how you get to ask again in a year.
A city is not a contact list you empty on arrival. It is a place you might leave. Behave as if the introducer has to keep living there.
— JV · Dark Heart Labs.