Community Hours – Trying Something New for Random Meetings
I’ve been a long time practitioner of having “random meetings” where I meet with whomever wants to get together with me. Some amazing things have come out of this over the years, including my first meeting with David Cohen which turned into TechStars.
I’ve decided to try something different for the next few months. Rather than having random days in my office, I’m going to have “community hours” in the Bunker (the TechStars office) once a month. The TechStars space is big enough for people to hang out and mingle (unlike my office) so it’s easier for groups to hang out and meet each other, in addition to spending time with me. I’ve always loved the idea of “professors office hours” – this is the closest I could come to simulating it in my little section of the universe.
We’ve set up a self-service wiki for my Community Hours. The rules for signing up are simple – just set up an account and then pick a date and time slot. Put your name, email address, and a brief description of the meeting. Given my ever changing schedule, there’s always a chance that we’ll have to move one of the dates around so having a valid email address is critical for us. More extensive instructions are on the wiki.
My partners Seth Levine and Jason Mendelson are also giving this a try, as is David Cohen. If it works, we’ll do more. Feedback and suggestions are welcome.
I think it's a great idea, Brad!
Thanks Josh.
Hi Brad – any chance for office hours in back here in Cambridge sometime? I've heard a lot about you in the MIT startup world, would be great to meet
Probably at some point. I want to try them in Boulder first.
What a great idea! Not only from the aspect of getting your input but for people to meet peers at the same time. Another incentive to move there…!
The “welcome Duey’s to Boulder” party is all set up and ready whenever y’all are.
We get closer every day or so, believe me! The housing market here is still awful unfortunately.
Looking at the meeting descriptions already posted, I see some of the topics being of general interest. For example, "Marketing to Enterprises" would be applicable to many people (including myself).
Have you considered having open topic discussions? You could setup a UserVoice.com account so people can suggest topics and vote them up. Or you could even record the discussions and post them TED-style.
way to be Brad – you just don't stop giving back, eh. thanks!
Good suggestions. I’m going to start with trying this for a month or two and then see where it goes from there.
Ha – I just changed the title of my "Marketing to Enterprises" meeting! Seriously though, same general topic I just broadened it a bit. Maybe I could take notes and post them somewhere?
Dear Professor Feld
I think this is a great effort and I wish more people would do this, but great that you are setting the trend. Might just have to fly out to Boulder for one of these sessions!
What an awesome initiative! Wish I was in the position, geographically speaking, to avail myself of the opportunity.
Hi Brad, I hope all is well. I ran a similar experiment the first half of this year (calling it "OC VC Office Hours" and had mixed results. The folks that attended seemed to really like it though so I may resurrect it this fall once my schedule calms down a bit.