Students looking for the right person for professional mentorship. Professionals finding their way in Finnish workplaces. Entrepreneurs starting out here. We all get the same advice: go to events.

So we go. The room is full, the talks end, everyone heads home. And we still haven’t met the one person we came for.

I know, because that was me. Five years ago I came to Finland as a student, hoping to meet people who shared my interests and find new opportunities. In Turku, one event ended with a coffee with someone I still work on business ideas with. But in Helsinki, with far more events, it only got harder: more rooms, more name tags, fewer real conversations.

Looking back, the connection that lasted never came from the crowd. It always came from a one-to-one conversation.

I still need conversations like that. I’ve spent over seven years in tech, several of them at Finnish companies, and I run my own companies. Now I’m looking for a co-founder for a product idea, and I’m exploring business opportunities between Pakistan and Finland. In return, I can share what I’ve learned, from studying in Finland and Sweden on an Erasmus Mundus scholarship to working here and building companies.

Many locals would gladly help, too. We all have something to offer and someone we need to meet. We just can’t find each other in a crowd.

So Shaheryar Tariq and I started building Duologue: a way to skip the crowd and meet who matters, over a cup of coffee.