Hi. My name is Alan Mendelevich. I’m a founder and CEO of AdDuplex – one of the older Lithuanian startups – and I’m an introvert. I like being an introvert. I don’t have any personal issues with it. That being said, the world of startups is not really optimized for people like me. Quite the opposite.

Nine years ago I was contemplating the value of attending a local developer meetup. After weighing all the pros and cons, I concluded that this type of activity is not for me and wrote this on my blog:

I’m introverted (like most developers) and not seeking to meet random people for no apparent reason, … and I can learn much more by spending the time wiser.

Needless to say, my views on the subject have changed since then. I’ve learned to enjoy conferences and meetups, even if in moderation, and a lot of good things have happened to me because I took off my headphones and got out of the building.

The first time I went to a proper tech conference I was almost 35. As an introvert I didn’t see the point before that — the content is usually available online in some shape or form and the people… well, I’m an introvert. Over the next 7 years, I went to about a hundred conferences and similar events, and I learned to like going there (for the most part).

So, I decided to write down things I’ve learned over these years that helped me get the most out of these events, share these tips and tricks with you, and, hopefully, help you maximize the ROI of the “torture” of being around people.

The result is a short book titled “Conferences for Introverts.” The book is not free (though cheap), but in the spirit of giving back to Lithuanian startup community that helped me quite a bit on my journey, I’ve created this special link that you can use to get the book for free. This link is valid for a week since the publication of this post. After that, or if you want to get a paper book for your team, you can use one of the links on my blog to get it.

The book is targeted at introverts, but quite a few of the extroverts who read it told me that you don’t have to be an introvert to get value out of it.

If you read the book, I’d appreciate your feedback either over email at ailon@ailon.org or on Twitter @ailon. And +100 Karma points to you for spreading the word about the book!