Hi,

Going to keep this deliberately vague.

I recently got invited as a guest by quite a* *large startup to a dinner they are hosting in NYC. I did not know anyone at this company prior to this invitation.

I am quite junior in my career however I have somewhat of a expertise in an area of their business, nevertheless I am pleasantly surprised to have been invited however compared to others I expect to be there I feel quite out of my depth - I am by no means senior in any way in my field.

I am new to startups and know very little in the way they operate in terms of events/ hiring processes etc vs corporates so I have a few questions.

While corporates often host these events for networking purposes, what is generally the motivation of a startup to do this?

How should I generally approach this?

Thanks in advance