It helps if you're in a city that has a large base of startup entrepreneurs like San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, etc. If you're not, I suggest moving to one. C

It helps if you're in a city that has a large base of startup entrepreneurs like San Francisco, Austin, Seattle, etc. If you're not, I suggest moving to one. Check your city to see if they have any meetups (Meetup.com and Google). If you live in any of the cities that have active startup communities there are definitely meetups. Or just check if there are any upcoming networking events in the local area. Go to the meetups and meet everyone and anyone you can. Try to make real relationships with these people. Become completely ingrained within your city's startup community. You'll be surprised where a little bit of networking goes. Another tip: Apply to an incubator/accelerator. If you don't think you're good enough to get into Ycombinator, then apply to the lower-tier ones. Even the worst incubators can be immensely helpful for someone who isn't plugged in to the community.