It really helps to keep unofficial ties to universities, both socially and professionally. Universities have random talks all the time that you can just go show

It really helps to keep unofficial ties to universities, both socially and professionally. Universities have random talks all the time that you can just go show up to and talk with people. I've also attended a fair share of Phd. gatherings. If you happen to be in Europe, showing up to one of these talks from "industry" gives you an immediate inflated status because of how EU funding works (if I was ranting I would claim how broken it is). Every grant-seeker is searching for "industrial partners" to put on their grant's "consortium". Some universities are even okay with assigning 100% of the IP rights to the "industrial partner" in the case of e.g. a student thesis project.