make something that you can talk about. Make something cool. Something interesting. Spend time on it. Go crazy. Even if it's the least useful thing you've ever made, if you can talk about it, make it.

Next, find events where the people you want to work with are. Then get a drink into you (or don't) and talk to them about it. Relax. It's probably interesting to them too. Even if it's not, because you've made it, you sound like you know what the hell you're talking about.

This is easy, too, because you're talking about something you've made that you think is cool and interesting. As an added bonus, many people go to these events just to talk about cool and interesting things, so you'll fit right in.

You do something interesting and you tell everyone about it. Then you get contacts, business cards, email addresses. Then you get contracts, job offers, investors, whatever. You make friends who think what you do is cool. You make a name for yourself as "the person who did that cool thing." Then, the next time someone wants to do something in any way related to that cool thing, they come to you first.