Some of the most useful moments at GLOWS and Thrive have nothing to do with the work people came in to do. It is the question you ask the person at the next desk, the introduction someone makes because they overheard what you are building, the contact you swap with a stranger who turns out to be exactly who you needed to meet. None of it is planned, it just happens because people are in the same place.
That’s what networking really is, and it’s far simpler than the word makes it sound. It rarely begins with a strategy, it begins with proximity, with spending time around other people who are building something.
Why networking matters
Most of the useful things that happen to a new business arrive through other people. A recommendation, an introduction, a bit of advice from someone who has already made the mistake you are about to make, the encouragement to keep going on a slow week. You can’t manufacture those moments on your own, but you can put yourself in the places where they’re likely to happen.
Shared desks, shared problems
Our workspaces are the most reliable of those places. GLOWS in Tulse Hill and the Thrive Hub in Surrey Quays are affordable space for South London founders who need somewhere proper to work, though calling them workspaces has never quite captured it. They’re the desk next to yours, the person who’s already solved the problem you’re stuck on, and Magdalen and Jamie-Lee, who somehow know everyone and what they need. People come for the space and stay for the people they meet there.
The market is a network in disguise
The Thrive market does the same thing in a busier, louder way. Twice a month it brings people together at Surrey Quays Shopping Centre, and the conversations between stalls are often the best part of the day, the tip about what’s working, the familiar face who comes back each time, the person who points you towards an opportunity you’d never have found alone. A market is somewhere to show your work, and just as much somewhere to find your people.
Workshops bring strangers into the same room
Our workshops and events work in a different way again. What we’ve found is that people arrive as strangers, focused on what they came to learn, and leave with a few numbers in their phone and a handful of people they can message later. There’s something about working through the same material in the same room that turns a group of individuals into people who look out for each other afterwards.
Come and see for yourself
If you’re a South London founder, the easiest way to start building your network is to turn up where other founders already are.
You’ll find more about our workspaces, the next Thrive market date, and all of our upcoming workshops on our website – or drop us a line- we’re always happy to help!
