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Random Meetings

Earlier this week I was enjoying myself at an Oxlo board meeting (the food was “ok” – at least there was food) and I realized that a number of people in the room were folks that I had met randomly. I’ve had a long standing “random meeting” policy – I try to set aside time to get together with people that are referred to me by someone I know. While I don’t do coffee, breakfast, lunch, or other time consuming things, I’m always happy to spend 15 minutes meeting someone for the first time, hearing their story, and seeing if I can connect them up with something I’m involved in.

A year or so ago I realized that the endless context switching between random meetings and all the other stuff I did was disruptive.  So – I started doing “random days.”  Twice a month, I schedule a day in the office where I fill it up with as many random meetings as I can.  I space them apart by 30 minutes and aim for each interaction to be 15 minutes long.  If we get into something profoundly interesting, it stretches to 30 minutes.  Since I started doing this, I’ve gotten rid of the endless daily interactions that are “random” and end up having a great, super stimulating day where I meet 15 to 20 new people in a very efficient (for me) context.

As I pondered the folks that I work with today that I met “randomly” I smiled and realized this has been working very well for me over the past 20 years.

January 21st, 2006     Categories: Entrepreneurship    
Brad Feld

Hi, I'm Brad Feld, a managing director at Foundry Group who lives in Boulder, Colorado. I invest in software and Internet companies around the US, run marathons and read a lot.

 
 
 
Startup Communities - Chapter 3