This is spot on (especially for the "Hackers & Founders" kind of meetups) but there are a subset of (technical) events that are full of smart people and less bullshitters.
None of them will probably be your real customers but most of the people you'll meet are extremely interested in startups and new ideas. It's a crowd of early adopters, willing to try anything. This is worth something, at least while you're starting out and need to validate your ideas.
Compare that with pitching your startup idea to random people in a Walmart, that's way harder than it sounds :)
Re:Before the Startup
by johan_larson on Thursday October 02, 2014 @07:31PM
(#8403687)
Anyone know any good places to meet people who are interested in startups but who aren't from technical backgrounds?
There must be people out there who have identified problems that software can solve, but who can't build the solutions themselves. Lawyers who know what law firms need or plumbers who know what general contractors need, and such.
The composition of people attending your typical bi-weekly unmeeting is: few people with money, lots of people who would like some of that money, few random CEOs who look for free employers, and the rest that just wants to hang out with "startup guys" because it's cool (and maybe they get to see some new toys).