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Technical.ly
11-07-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Level up your networking with these generative AI prompts
Ask anyone for one key to advancing your career, business or life, and you'll hear the same answer every time: networking. Using generative AI tools such as ChatGPT to help with networking may seem counterintuitive. Networking, first and foremost, is about interacting with humans — so much so that, while experimenting with ways to use the technology during an event, ChatGPT itself initially urged us to only ask it questions while hiding in the bathroom. With a bit of prompting, an AI chatbot can hone in on events that suit your individual needs. It can schedule, remind and keep looking for new events while you're not paying attention. It can even coach you to have effective interactions when you're face-to-face with someone you want to make a connection with. And, after the fact, it can help you organize contacts and remind you of people who might help you with projects in the future. Here are some tips and tricks to get the most out of networking with ChatGPT or another bot like Gemini, Copilot or DeepSeek. Before you start If you don't already use an AI tool as an assistant, you may be starting with a blank slate of a program that needs customization to get the most out of it. As we learned at the Builders Conference's 'AI Tools Basics' workshop with Jason Michael Perry and Jeremy Gatens, ChatGPT works best when it's customized to you. Click your avatar in the upper right and click on 'Customize ChatGPT,' and you can tell it what to call you, what you do, and how you want it to behave; you can ask it to be professional, witty, skeptical or anything else you can think of. 'Give it lots and lots and lots of context on whatever it is that you're doing,' Perry said. Preparing to network While you can type or speak to the bot conversationally, remember that everything you're telling it is a prompt and should contain enough detail to help it give you a useful response. If you're looking for events for networking, here's an effective prompt: ' Find 10-12 tech networking events in Greater Philadelphia in the month of August, focusing on events that are part of the tech ecosystem, geared toward developers, startup founders and/or STEM professionals in Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey and Northern Delaware. Events may be in person or virtual. Provide as a list of bullet points, including the date, times, location and a link to register.' Once you have a list, check the event pages directly to see if they fit your criteria (more than likely, not every suggestion will be what you're looking for). You may need to nudge the bot to include multiple areas — for example, it will likely hit a dozen events before moving on from Philly to New Jersey and Delaware. Once you've picked an event, let the bot know which one you want to focus on, and it will help you plan for it. Prompts: ' I want to attend the Tech Summit on August 20 at the Pennsylvania Convention Center. What is the fastest and most economical way to get there from Wilmington, Delaware? ' ' Help me plan 3 goals for the event. ' ' I plan to attend the AI and early education panel at 1:00 in room 122-B. How do I get there from the entrance? ' ' Summarize Joe Startup's LinkedIn profile in one sentence, and suggest a question I can ask them based on it.' ' Where should I park for the event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center? ' ' Where should I go for a casual dinner after the event at the Pennsylvania Convention Center? ' From now on, this thread, which you can access on the left sidebar, will be your networking hub. Practicing conversations Say you want to meet a specific panelist at an event. You can prompt the bot to offer suggestions for icebreakers, questions and topics of conversation geared toward the person. If you feel extra intimidated, it will role-play a networking conversation with you that aims to end with something actionable, like an exchange of information and/or plans to follow up. Prompt: ' Act as Joe Startup, the CEO of a startup that helps small businesses use AI tools. We're meeting at a tech event, and I want to make a strong first impression as a journalist who covers equity and innovation. Let's role-play a 2-minute conversation. You start. After the convo, give me feedback on how I came across.' Obviously, the bot can't predict what the CEO will say, but role-playing allows you to stop and think about what you want to say and how to say it, so your in-person interactions are less cold. Even if you don't know who you're going to talk to, practicing your introduction and segue into the reason you're networking can help, even if you've done it many times. The bot can also generate a list of potential questions for specific panels, summaries of speakers' LinkedIn profiles and a list of things you have in common with speakers based on their LinkedIn — and how you can use all of that to break the ice. At the event When you're there, actually networking, your focus should be on people, not your screens. But AI can assist in some scenarios, including: Explaining terms a speaker uses in a simplified way (if a term makes you feel especially out of your depth, use the 'ELI5,' or 'explain like I'm 5,' prompt modifier) Summarizing a person's job description to help you understand how to network more effectively Help draft a quick 'live' social media post by helping you find the correct name and job title of a speaker in real time Prompts: ' I'm working on a project about AI and early childhood education. Do I have any contacts who work in that space? ' ' I remember meeting someone at a fintech event in April 2025 who knew a lot about the law. What is their name? ' After the event The event was a success, and you have a stack of physical and digital business cards, some with notes like 'Startup profile?' scrawled on the back. You can photograph or screencap the cards with your phone and upload them — including your notes — to ChatGPT. Be sure to include the date and event for each (or each batch) of cards. Prompt: ' Here are five business cards from people I met at a tech event in South Jersey. Summarize each person's name, title, company, and industry. Then suggest a possible follow-up note I could send to each.' The more context you give with each card, the better. Mention if they were a speaker at the event, what you chatted about, their interests and/or projects. Keep all of this information in one thread, and use the memory feature: Prompts: ' Remember that I'm maintaining a networking tracker to surface sources and collaborators. It includes contacts from events I attend in Delaware, Philly, and South Jersey. I'll be updating it regularly with business card uploads or summaries.' ' Build and maintain a simple contact log. ' If you are consistent with uploading contact information with context, you'll have an interactive network of contacts where ChatGPT can suggest people who might be helpful based on your needs. Prompts: ' I'm working on a project about AI and early childhood education. Do I have any contacts who work in that space? ' ' I remember meeting someone at a fintech event in April 2025 who knew a lot about the law. What is their name? ' ' What was the name of the event where Joe Startup spoke around December of last year? ' 'Who from my contact list might be a strong voice on ethical tech or algorithmic bias?' 'Suggest someone I've met who could speak on youth robotics or community AI education.' This is a long game — not everything ChatGPT does is instant or devoid of legwork on your part. You're training the bot to be an assistant that knows your network and remembers everyone in it better than you ever could. Final thoughts Generative AI isn't a replacement for networking by any means. You still have to show up, be curious, listen well and follow through. Do all that, and it still may take six months to a year to get the most out of it. But as an assistant, it can help you prepare, navigate the event and organize your contacts in a next-level way.
Technical.ly
22-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Will there be more software developers working next year?
For the first time, the number of software jobs in the US has stagnated. This coincides with the broader trend of lower labor force participation across sectors. Previously, recent college grads always had a lower unemployment rate than the general workforce. That has flipped — now recent grads have a notably higher unemployment rate. Societal shifts because of new technology tend to be more noticeable over a decade than over a single year. Is AI different? Brian Brackeen says there will be fewer software developers working in the United States a year from now. I call bullshit. We're making a bet of it: Loser has to wait in line to buy the other a cheesesteak from South Philadelphia's beloved Angelo's — since we'll both be in that city for a tech-inspired celebration of the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence around the next Builders Conference (Here's coverage of our most recent one). Contrary to what I say to my friend's face, Brackeen is no fool. The proven entrepreneur–turned–provocateur venture capitalist has a point. Two big changes are hitting software development at the same time, making it difficult to distinguish between them: Higher interest rates have chilled speculative tech building, and new artificial intelligence tools are creating new efficiencies. Further complicating the trend, pandemic habits boosted international tech hiring, and the decades-old digital transformation appears to be aging. Expensive software developers seem an ideal role for executives to replace. In 2024, the American economy added new software developer jobs at the slowest year-over-year rate on record. All this comes in a strange macroeconomic moment. Take the first quarter of 2025: Tech hiring didn't just stall — it retreated. Software developer job postings were still falling even long after the pandemic-fueled bonanza had faded, a Wall Street Journal analysis found. Tech unemployment climbed above the national average, peaking at 5.7% in February. Other than robotics, most current AI excitement is concentrated in knowledge work, something college graduates specialize in. (The plumber I once worked for used to say that getting a college degree was a way to buy a chance to work in air-conditioning). So as economists research whether AI is affecting job prospects, they're focusing on degree holders. A real change is underway. For decades, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was almost always lower than the overall unemployment rate. Following the Great Recession, unemployment peaked in June 2010 at 9.5%; It was bad for recent college graduates too, but that rate never got above 7.8%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank. The same thing happened in the recessions of 1990 and 2001. But those figures have flipped in recent years — and the gap is widening. The first quarter of 2025 ended with an unemployment rate for recent college graduates that was almost one-and-a-half times higher (5.8% versus 4% for all workers). Amazon CEO Andy Jassy told employees this week that over the next few years, the online commerce giant 'will reduce [its] total corporate workforce as we get efficiency gains from using AI extensively across the company.' Any move toward the end of knowledge work bodes poorly for software development, an especially well-paid (and occasionally rote) trade. Fewer people are working — but not (yet) because of AI This coincides with a broader trend: Labor force participation remains down from pre-pandemic levels. A recent explainer from the Federal Reserve underlined the stakes: Either we grow our economy by improving productivity or by adding more workers. With aging demographics and early retirements, we've been trending in the opposite direction. That drop isn't theoretical. There are 1.7 million fewer Americans in the workforce now than in February 2020, per the US Chamber of Commerce. That means many jobs, including tech roles, are going unfilled. So software developers are harder to come by. But I'm still betting we'll have more of them by next year. Why? For one, the trends don't line up with AI breakthroughs. The unemployment rate for recent college grads crested above the overall rate way back in 2018 – though the gulf has gotten larger. Something else is happening. Next, pricing pressure can create surprising outcomes. Often called the Jevons Paradox, falling costs in something (like the price of building software) can boost demand for it (resulting in more need). The time required for any given software development can shrink, even as the need for people to do adjacent work can grow. Job titles can change — witness the decline of ' computer programmer ' — and job descriptions too. But software skills will remain in-demand for the foreseeable future. The third reason I took the bet is the maxim credited to Bill Gates: We tend to overestimate what we can achieve in a year and underestimate what we can in a decade. (Note: I was less sure about taking Brian up on a bet over 5 years, but jumped at the bet for a year out — check the video here.) Early this year, University of Oxford researchers published a paper documenting the impact automation has had on language translators. It's changing the job and shifting the skills needed, but certain tasks remain stubbornly human. Will AI be different from other tech advancements? No question getting a job, especially a first job, in tech is harder than it has been. The leader of one coding bootcamp told me there's been 'a collapse,' and they're feverishly adapting their model. At present, that is more to do with higher-interest rates and general macroeconomic trends, with AI as window dressing. Focused on the medium term, boosters remain bullish that the growth in tech apprenticeship will continue. Brackeen's side of the bet is that AI is different from past technologies, and that the speed will sneak up on us. AI legend Geoffrey Hinton recently argued the same. My side of the bet is that even if this is right, it will happen slower than we think, and that titles like software developer will adapt, and therefore grow, for at least a while longer. We'll settle it over cheesesteaks. See you in Philadelphia next May.
Technical.ly
08-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Most companies don't IPO, so here's how to plan for your likely exit
The most important day of an entrepreneur's journey might be the one when it ends. The big question: Will it end on your terms? That's the dilemma behind most startup exits, whether they take place through a merger, acquisition or an initial public offering (IPO). Experts put that distinction front and center during the 2025 Builders Conference session titled 'M&A or IPO: What is Your Company's Destination?' Moderated by Mike Ravenscroft of the University System of Maryland's Maryland Momentum Fund, the conversation featured attorney Kim Klayman of Ballard Spahr and Alexis Grant, founder of the M&A-focused newsletter They Got Acquired. Together, they laid out a candid, often under-explored roadmap of what founders really need to know about exiting — and why waiting until it's too late to plan is a mistake. 'Think about it early,' Grant said. 'Gives you more options.' The numbers are clear, Ravenscroft noted: Only a tiny fraction of companies ever go public, and even among VC-backed firms, IPOs are rare. The vast majority of exits happen via mergers and acquisitions (M&A). The panelists agreed that the perception gap around what makes an exit 'successful' can obscure the reality of its true impact. A $7 million sale might be life-changing for a bootstrapped founder with majority ownership. But if that same company had raised venture capital at a high valuation, the founder might walk away with little or nothing. 'If someone raises $5 million and they sell for $5 million, they probably didn't get any money,' Grant said. That disconnect is even more stark during economic downturns or slower capital markets. Klayman pointed to the increase in smaller companies acquiring other small firms — sometimes simply to pad revenue, not gain technology. But these all-stock or acqui-hire (in which a company gets acquired for their talent) deals can mask another story: Sometimes, the best-case scenario is simply survival. 'The reality is most companies end up in an M&A situation, even if it's a multi-generational business,' Klayman said. 'It does end up a lot of times in an M&A transaction if there is no succession plan.' The hardest parts that too few talk about Asked what founders need to prepare for, both panelists were unequivocal: The due diligence process is brutal. 'For many [founders], due diligence ends up being a second job,' Grant said, adding: 'You also have to keep running the business, and you want to run it in a way that performance does not drop, because that's the worst thing that can happen when you're going through a deal.' That's why both she and Klayman emphasized the need to 'get your house in order' — and do so early. From knowing who owns the IP to having clean cap tables and documented promises of equity shares, small oversights can kill a deal late in the game. 'I have actually seen one deal die because the whole company was built on this one piece of software, and that's what the buyer wanted,' Klayman said. 'And it was like, a software developer did it 25 years earlier, and they didn't paper it because it wasn't that important. And the deal just died.' She advised founders to use tools like Carta or diligence-prep software to identify red flags before a transaction is even on the table. Attorneys can help, but so can platforms that flag missing consents or unsigned option grants. 'Being organized is like 95% of the battle,' Klayman said. The stories behind the headlines Of course, learning these details can be difficult when many companies don't discuss them soon after an M&A takes place. The panel also pulled back the curtain on how mergers and acquisitions are framed in public — and how different the internal reality can be. Grant, whose company profiles founder-led exits, said PR statements often overhype vague synergies and downplay job losses or underwhelming returns. She added that sellers are often far more candid a year or two post-sale. 'Most of the stories we write, they're usually at least six months after the acquisition has taken place,' Grant said. 'The seller is more open to sharing real details at that point.' Klayman agreed: Sometimes the announcements make it seem like someone got a bunch of money, when usually the investors, even if they're paid first, 'are getting like 10 cents on the dollar,' she said. 'I don't think that people want those types of transactions to happen,' she said, 'but when they do happen, it takes effort and, I think, actually responsible founders to make it happen.' All emphasized that outcomes must be evaluated in context. Founders may sell to give their team stability, find a new role or offload a company responsibly instead of shutting down. What matters, they said, is alignment between a founder's goals and their investors' expectations. The closing message to founders was clear: Plan for your endgame from the beginning. Think through potential paths — and not just the flashy ones. Ask investors what their expectations are. Build a network that includes not just mentors and peers, but service providers who understand exits and won't charge you just to ask questions. 'If you don't know what success looks like, you're going to be poor no matter what,' Ravenscroft said, 'because you won't know it if you get it.'
Technical.ly
06-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
Audigent's cookie-free journey to adtech success
Startup profile: Audigent Founded by: Shelton Mercer, Jon Gosier, Brian Brater, Elizabeth Hitchcock and Drew Stein Year founded: 2016 in Philadelphia Headquarters: New York, NY Sector: Advertising services Funding and valuation: Acquired by Experian in December 2024 Key ecosystem partners: Time Warner, Ben Franklin Technology Partners In 2016, Shelton Mercer and his co-founders crammed into a tiny office in a Philly brownstone — 10 developers, hackers and software engineers sharing 500 square feet — to create an advertising technology under the name Audigent. A dozen years later, the startup, which specializes in online advertising without cookie tracking, would be acquired by global data analytics company Experian, with a reported valuation of between $200 million and $250 million, after raising millions in funding along the way. 'I have the privilege of having Audigent be my fourth exit from a company,' Mercer said at the 2025 Builders Conference during the panel 'Case Studies on Entrepreneurship Access.' Even with Mercer's experience, Audigent's rise took time, hard work and a lot of due diligence. No cookies, no problem Audigent's framework for advertisers and publishers allows customers to target their key demographics, as all adtech tools do. The difference with Audigent, now headquartered in NYC, is that it prioritizes the privacy of its potential customers by never using cookies (those small files that websites use to track users' online behavior). Instead, it uses data from partners, like music streamers, media companies and sports sites. In 2019, Warner Music Group (WMG) invested in Audigent during its Series A funding round, alongside Raised In Space and Gao Xiaosong. It was a strategic investment totaling $4 million, aimed at improving digital advertising within the music industry. 'We need to see, as a value for society, entrepreneurship as a way to get people to the next level and the next strata of wealth generation for their families.' Shelton Mercer, Audigent To get there, Audigent underwent the long due diligence process with investor and economic development organization Ben Franklin Technology Partners of Southeastern Pennsylvania (BFTP), something Mercer discussed at the Builders Conference with co-panelist Scott Nissenbaum, BFTP's president and CEO. 'Our process at Ben Franklin is designed like boot camp,' Nissenbaum said. 'No one says, 'That sergeant at boot camp was so nice.' That's not our job.' Mercer admitted he was initially hesitant about going through BFTP's 6-month process of intense scrutiny. But those six months of 'kicking, clawing, scratching, screaming,' as Mercer put it, led to that successful 60-minute meeting with WMG, on top of a $1 million investment from BFTP itself. Wealth-building through entrepreneurship Both Mercer and Nissenbaum share a vision for Philadelphia, and regions like it, where people from all kinds of backgrounds and walks of life can turn entrepreneurship into generational wealth. 'It doesn't just have to be the Silicon Valley, the New York, the Chicago, the LA founders or even founders who are fortunate to have partners like Scott and Ben Franklin to accelerate our company and the many other investors that helped us,' Mercer said. 'We need to see, as a value for society, entrepreneurship as a way to get people to the next level and the next strata of wealth generation for their families.' BFTP, Nissenbaum said, continues to value entrepreneurship as a driver for social change and advancement for groups underrepresented in tech. 'I think 46% of our portfolio has racial diversity in the C-suite, 56% has gender diversity,' he said. Key strategies for engaging with economic development investors Here are a few key things up-and-coming startups can learn from Audigent's journey: Be prepared for the grind: Ben Franklin's process is thorough. It's not a quick check-in; it's a deep dive. See that as a good thing — it forces you to solidify your plan and address potential weaknesses while building a bridge to other investors. Surround yourself with talent: Mercer credits Audigent's success to its strong team, with each bringing unique skill sets to the table. As Nissenbaum pointed out, most entrepreneurs are good at one thing. You need to fill in the gaps with people who excel in other areas. Embrace the ecosystem: Don't try to do it alone. Organizations like Ben Franklin and other ecosystem orgs exist to support startups. They provide resources, connections, and, sometimes, tough love. Don't be afraid of due diligence: While long, it helps you prepare for major deals. Have patience: If an exit is your goal, don't expect it to happen right away. Audigent's story shows what can happen when vision, the right support system and a lot of patience come together. As Nissenbaum said, 'Nine years later, we're celebrating an overnight success.'
Technical.ly
05-06-2025
- Business
- Technical.ly
‘Be yourself:' VCs want founders to tell authentic and urgent stories
There's no such thing as a perfect pitch — but there is such a thing as a forgettable one. At the 2025 Builders Conference, three venture capitalists with varied investment backgrounds joined a refreshingly unstructured conversation about what makes a founder's story resonate. Moderated by Ken Malone of Baltimore-based Early Charm, the 'VC Roundtables: Telling Your Story to Investors' panel featured Ryan Bednar of Orange Collective, Rob Brown of MVP Capital and Anthony George of Ben Franklin Technology Partners (BFTP). Despite their varied areas of expertise and interest, the three Philly-based investors largely agreed that founders need to lean into their own unique qualities when telling their stories to potential investors. Bednar, a founder and Y Combinator alum whose firm specializes in other graduates of the prestigious accelerator, framed it as giving the funder a sense of being in on something exciting. 'I think the best pitches,' Bednar said, 'are where you're kind of letting the investor in on a secret.' That secret isn't always about the product. In fact, as much as the panelists all believed in the value of a founder's passion, one of them cautioned against being too focused on those products or solutions, instead of the problem that birthed those products. 'Your solution should always be changing, your product should always be changing,' said George. 'But if you're obsessed with the problem, you're going to stick with it even when things get difficult.' Relationships over transactions, no matter the personality While the Elon Musks and Travis Kalanicks of the world might suggest that the most outgoing entrepreneurs are the most successful, several panelists said that it's entirely possible to build the right connection with a VC without that kind of personality. 'I think you can totally build relationships with VCs and investors as an introvert,' said Bednar, adding that he found success in online networking and email outreach when he was a founder. Brown said that the depth of a relationship matters more than how much a founder puts themself out there. 'You don't necessarily have to be a conference junkie,' he said. 'You can find one-on-one ways to interact. It also goes back to the idea of time: I find that I have introverted tendencies myself, and I find that over time, the more time you spend with someone, the more extroverted you become with that specific individual.' That said, the panelists also believed in the worth of a pitch that can hook someone in on the first interaction. 'The last half-a-dozen deals we've done, almost all of those were where the pitch didn't happen over Zoom or on Powerpoint,' Brown explained. 'The pitch happened in person, talking to them, meeting them for the first time. That was the real pitch.' For bootstrapping founders — especially those building in hard tech or from cities outside the usual VC hotspots — the advice was practical. Conserve cash. Do your research. Find the right kind of capital for your business model. And don't assume geography is a limitation. 'You can also build relationships out in Silicon Valley,' Bednar said. 'I don't think you should limit yourself to a particular geographic area.' What (not) to do Building relationships that lead to investment may not be a perfect science, but the investors still had actionable tips for what every founder can do (and should avoid) when seeking venture capital. While entrepreneurs often conflate story with pitch, panelists drew a line between the two. The story is personal, emotional and evolving. A pitch is structured, strategic and designed to answer key questions like who you are, what you're doing and why. But one needn't be fully separate from the other, and the panelists also shared tactical advice for making that story stick. For instance, George of BFTP suggested founders create a 90-second pitch video to share with funders, especially if they can't meet a VC firm's principal immediately and need to give something representative to that firm's associate or analyst. That video could incorporate the story, which must be unique to the founder's particular journey. Either way, 'don't copy it out of a book,' he warned. Asked about the 'wrong' way to build investor relationships, panelists agreed: pushiness and rigidity are quick turnoffs. A founder who can't pivot raises red flags. The speakers also advised against flooding pitch meetings with more than one team member and pitching ideas that don't fit an investor's stated interests. 'We are a bit generalist,' he said. 'But when I say, like, 'Listen, we don't do life sciences' … they typically get the message.' George also said that founders too often skip a critical piece of their story: not just why they're building a company, but why now. Context matters, he said, because timing — from technological readiness to macroeconomic tailwinds — can make or break an investment. Through all of these themes and the many audience questions that guided the discussion, the investors revolved around one primary consideration: authenticity. 'This sounds trite, but be yourself,' Brown said. 'If the end result of this is … potentially a 10-year-long relationship, you can't fake it for 10 years.'
