Most conferences have the same problem: there are hundreds of people in the room, but you still somehow end up talking to the three people standing closest to the coffee.
You exchange business cards. You follow a few people on LinkedIn. You promise to “stay in touch.”
Then you go home wondering whether the person who could have changed your business was sitting twelve feet away from you the entire time.
That is the problem Manisha Merchant wants to solve.
On this episode of Legacy Launchers, I sat down with Manisha, a fellow UC Berkeley alum and the creator of Sonar, a technology designed to help people make more intentional connections at events.
Networking Has a Discovery Problem
The traditional conference model assumes that putting hundreds—or thousands—of people in the same building automatically creates valuable relationships.
It doesn’t.
The real challenge is figuring out:
Who should I actually meet?
A founder may be looking for an investor.
An investor may be searching for a particular type of company.
A business owner may need a strategic partner.
Someone else may be looking for a mentor, customer, collaborator, employee—or even a date.
But unless the right two people happen to cross paths, the connection never happens.
Sonar approaches networking more like a matching problem.
Instead of leaving everything to chance, technology can help surface the people in the room who are most relevant to what you are trying to accomplish.
What Dating Apps Figured Out Before Business Events
During our conversation, we also explored an interesting parallel between dating apps and conference networking.
Dating apps normalized something that once sounded strange: using technology to sort through thousands of possible human connections and identify the handful that might actually make sense for you.
The same logic can apply professionally.
Imagine walking into a 1,000-person conference and instead of scrolling through an attendee directory thinking:
“Who are all these people?”
your phone tells you:
Here are the five people you should probably meet today—and here’s why.
That changes networking from random proximity into intentional discovery.
And it doesn’t have to eliminate spontaneity.
It can actually create more of it.
AI or matching technology can make the introduction. Humans still have to have the conversation.
AI Should Help Us Become More Human
That distinction matters.
There is a version of AI where we automate so much of our lives that we interact with people less.
But there is another version where technology removes friction so that we can spend more time having meaningful human interactions.
Sonar represents that second possibility.
The technology isn’t the relationship.
It simply helps two people who might benefit from knowing each other actually find one another.
That is a much more interesting use of AI than generating another hundred emails no one wants to read.
We Aren’t Born With All of Our Biases
One of the bigger themes behind Legacy Launchers is that technology isn’t separate from human behavior.
The systems we build reflect the people building them.
And humans carry biases.
I don’t believe we’re simply born with every assumption we eventually carry through adulthood. We learn patterns as we move through life. Some of those patterns originally help us navigate the world or protect ourselves.
But eventually, some of those programs stop serving us.
The same thing happens in business.
Maybe you automatically approach the person with the biggest title.
Maybe you assume someone younger has less to offer.
Maybe you gravitate toward people who look, speak, dress or think like you.
Those shortcuts may cause you to completely miss the person who could become your best collaborator.
Technology has the potential either to reinforce those old patterns or help us look beyond them.
That is where thoughtful design becomes important.
The Conference of the Future
The conference badge of the future may tell people your name.
But the conference technology of the future could understand something much more useful:
What are you trying to build?
What do you need?
What can you offer?
Who in this room complements you?
And perhaps most importantly:
Who would you never think to approach on your own?
That is when technology becomes more than another event app.
It becomes a tool for serendipity.
Your Next Opportunity Might Already Be in the Room
Entrepreneurs spend enormous amounts of time looking for customers, partners, investors and opportunities.
Sometimes the opportunity isn’t missing.
The connection is.
There may already be someone ten tables away who needs exactly what you do.
The future of networking may not be about meeting more people.
It may be about identifying the right people sooner.
And if Sonar and technologies like it work as intended, perhaps the most valuable question at your next conference won’t be:
“Who did you meet?”
It will be:
“Who did you almost miss?”
Listen to Legacy Launchers
In this episode, Manisha Merchant and I talk about Sonar, intentional networking, conference connections, technology, human behavior, and what happens when we use AI to help the right people find one another.
Because ultimately, AI shouldn’t replace human connection.
It should help us find the humans worth connecting with.
What will your legacy be?
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