Re:How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley
by apike on Thursday August 02, 2012 @04:04PM
(#4330713)
Coffee (and beer) meetings power Vancouver too, and presumably any reasonable startup hub.
More important than knowing they're important is keeping them from consuming your week. Although they only take an hour, they're more expensive than that because they totally disrupt your Maker's Schedule.
My solution to this is to only schedule coffee meetings on Thursdays. If there are too many in a week to cram into a Thursday, they need to bump to the next week or further. Being connected is important, but building your product is much more important.
Re:How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley
by jasonshen on Thursday August 02, 2012 @04:05PM
(#4330718)
Great point. I try to either do them Friday afternoons, when things are wrapping up for the week anyway, or early in the morning, before I get started with anything else.
And yeah, I do see beers as another option. Though the conversation is usually a bit more muddled - not a problem if you guys are friends, but sometimes less good if you are trying to learn something important or discuss something complex in nature.
Re:How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley
by apike on Friday August 03, 2012 @06:55PM
(#4336634)
Indeed, choosing between beer or coffee depends on the type of meeting. If it's exploring doing business or a negotiation I generally propose coffee, whereas if it's sharing war stories or a friend then beer is great.
Re:How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley
by jasonkester on Thursday August 02, 2012 @05:26PM
(#4331100)
Remind me to schedule a 4:30 coffee meeting with you next time I'm in town. I want to see if you'll be able to put together a complete sentence after 21 shots of espresso in a single day.
Re:How Coffee Meetings Power Silicon Valley
by lsc on Thursday August 02, 2012 @05:25PM
(#4331093)
that is just the advice I needed. thank you.
Everyone has been pestering me to setup a more managed hosting solution; it's a good idea, with enough bulk I could do it both profitably and cheaply. But it'd take just as much effort, if not more, than my current unmanaged ventures, so it's not happening without help (and a big customer to get started)
But yeah, I feel like just the meetings have been badly impacting my productivity on my unmanaged hosting business. It's a completely different mindset. I mean, it's kindof fun? but right now is a realy hot time; opportunity costs are very high.
More important than knowing they're important is keeping them from consuming your week. Although they only take an hour, they're more expensive than that because they totally disrupt your Maker's Schedule.
My solution to this is to only schedule coffee meetings on Thursdays. If there are too many in a week to cram into a Thursday, they need to bump to the next week or further. Being connected is important, but building your product is much more important.
And yeah, I do see beers as another option. Though the conversation is usually a bit more muddled - not a problem if you guys are friends, but sometimes less good if you are trying to learn something important or discuss something complex in nature.
I start vibrating after my 3rd.
And yes, decaf, half-caf and tea are essential tools for this approach. :)
Everyone has been pestering me to setup a more managed hosting solution; it's a good idea, with enough bulk I could do it both profitably and cheaply. But it'd take just as much effort, if not more, than my current unmanaged ventures, so it's not happening without help (and a big customer to get started)
But yeah, I feel like just the meetings have been badly impacting my productivity on my unmanaged hosting business. It's a completely different mindset. I mean, it's kindof fun? but right now is a realy hot time; opportunity costs are very high.
Guess what? They have it in NYC, Boston and everywhere else there are amazing entrepreneurs doing interesting things.