It’s not only the two highlighted startups and their pitches that matter to those who attend 1 Million Cups at the Kauffman Foundation.

The weekly entrepreneurial meet-up also offers a great opportunity to network on a regular basis with other small business owners and potential investors who also may be in the audience.

[ RELATED: HOW 1 MILLION CUPS HELPS LOCAL STARTUPS GROW ]

To Thou Mayest Coffee co-founder Bo Nelson, who became a regular attendee and eventually a presenter at 1 Million Cups, there’s no more stimulating experience for area entrepreneurs. Still, it took a friend’s cajoling to get him to go the first time.

“I was like, ‘Nah, I don’t want to do that—it’s just a bunch of people getting together and talking,’” Nelson recalled. “But the first time I went, I was hooked.”

Why?

“It really is pulling in the best of what’s going on in the city,” he said. “It’s pulling people together in one space—and the more thinkers and movers and shakers who are in one room at one time, the more you’re setting up this entire thing for a lot of success.

“What they’ve done a really good job of is to say, ‘Hey, we’ve set up the confines, we’ve set up the fences. We’re going to get all these entrepreneurs, all these local community people, and we’re going to get them really caffeinated and then we’re going to see what happens—wink, wink.’ Because we know what’s going to happen. People are going to start talking. They’re going to start networking.”

Image courtesy of the Kauffman Foundation.