If you’re trying to build a professional network in Toronto from scratch, most advice starts with the same things: go to events, message people on LinkedIn, join communities, ask for introductions.

That advice is fine once you already know who you want to meet. The harder question is usually the one before that: Who is actually worth talking to?

A better place to start is not “I need to network more,” but something you’re genuinely trying to accomplish. Maybe you want your first product internship, you’re thinking about leaving banking for a startup, you want to understand venture capital, or you’re building something and need to talk to potential customers.

Once the goal is clear, the people become easier to identify.

Look for relevance, not seniority

People tend to network upward. Students reach out to executives. First-time founders chase famous founders. Junior designers want to meet design leaders. Sometimes that works, but the most senior person is not always the most useful person.

If you’re trying to get your first product job, someone who went through the same recruiting process two years ago may remember far more about portfolios, interviews and what actually got them hired. If you’re trying to get your first ten customers, a founder who solved that problem six months ago may be more useful than someone running a company with a mature sales team.

A useful rule is: look for someone far enough ahead to have learned something, but close enough to still remember the problem. That usually creates a better conversation too.

Don’t wait for the job posting

This is especially true when you’re looking for a job or internship. Most candidates start networking after a role appears. By then everyone is applying, messaging recruiters and trying to get the hiring manager’s attention. There’s no reason you have to wait.

We hear this often from LunchME users: students and young professionals meet people on teams they’re interested in before there’s anything to apply for. Instead of asking, “Are you hiring?” they talk about the work: what the team looks for in junior candidates, which skills are hard to find, what makes someone stand out, and what people misunderstand about the role.

Maybe there’s no opening today. That conversation can still matter. A few months later, an internship opens, someone leaves, or a team expands. The hiring manager may now be looking at a familiar person instead of another name in a pile of applications.

We’ve seen LunchME conversations lead to internships, jobs, introductions and later opportunities. Often, the opportunity wasn’t there when the first meeting happened. The relationship was.

Toronto makes small-format networking easier

Toronto can feel huge when your goal is simply to “meet more people.” It gets much smaller when you narrow the goal.

If you work around King and Bay, thousands of people in banking, consulting, finance and fintech are within a relatively small area. Around U of T, MaRS and downtown, students, researchers, founders and startup teams overlap every day. That makes a 30-minute coffee or lunch surprisingly practical.

You may not need another conference or evening mixer. The person with the experience you need might already work ten minutes away. A specific invitation also makes the whole thing easier.

Would you be open to lunch near King next Wednesday?

That is much easier to act on than “Would love to connect sometime.”

Use LinkedIn once you have a hypothesis

LinkedIn works best when you already have an idea of who might be relevant. If you’re in consulting and considering startups, find people who recently made that transition. If you want to enter fintech, look for people whose path resembles the one you’re considering. If you’re building software for restaurants, spend less time looking at investors and more time finding restaurant operators.

Before reaching out, you should be able to answer two questions: Why this person? And why does talking now make sense?

Once you know those answers, the message doesn’t need to be clever.

I’m currently in consulting and considering a move into an early-stage startup. I noticed you made a similar transition last year. I’d love to hear what surprised you about the move. Would you be open to coffee or lunch downtown sometime next week?

The wording is simple because the reason is clear. That matters even more now that AI can write polished outreach in seconds. Better copy is becoming cheap. A good reason to meet isn’t.

What if you know what you want, but not who to search for?

This is where things get harder. Sometimes you know the exact company, title or person you want. Search works well for that. Other times, you only know the outcome.

• You want to find customers, but you’re not sure who feels the problem most strongly.

• You want to get into AI, but you don’t know whether the most useful conversation would be with an engineer, founder, researcher or product manager.

• You’re thinking about starting a company, but you don’t know who would actually help you think through the idea.

You know the goal before you know the person. That’s one of the ideas behind LunchME. Tell your agent what you’re trying to do. It finds people who may be worth meeting. You just meet over lunch.

Try LunchME →

Start with five good conversations

You don’t need 500 new connections. If you’re starting from zero, five genuinely useful conversations can already change how you understand an industry.

Meet someone who recently did what you’re trying to do. Someone who sees the problem from another side. Someone who might eventually hire, buy from or work with you. And a few peers who are moving in the same direction.

That’s usually enough to create the next conversation. And that’s how a network actually starts.