Don’t you love it when blog posts have catchy titles for the purpose of baiting the reader. +1 for me

So this blog post is not about dating in a romantic context, but more related to a networking context. A few months ago, my husband and I started our own incubator to work on our “projects”. (We’ve deliberately chosen not to use the word “startup”, mainly because of the overuse of the word and all the false meanings the word implies in the SF and Silicon Valley areas. Our end goal is to start a company based on our project learnings. But for now they are just projects, and the incubator is the company.) In the 3 months, since our projects started, we’ve defined our target industries, met with customers, and built mvps. Last week, we met for a “quarterly review”, and created a wishlist for the next quarter. About 80% of my wishlist was tied to interfacing with more people. ie Find cofounders and meet with more customers. So, my husband suggested that I do a “50 coffee dates” challenge that he read about in another blog post. If anyone really knows me, I do not enjoy talking to people (especially meeting new people at a networking event). But out of necessity, I’ve learned how to do it, but it is not anything that I enjoy or look forward to doing. You can imagine my thoughts about 50 coffee dates. But the other part of me is always up for a good challenge. So, the challenge has been accepted — 50 coffee dates in the next quarter. This equates to about 4-5 coffee meetings per week. (sigh) I have a goal of catching up with old friends and to meet new ones alike. With a primary goal of learning about my dates’ current happenings/projects, and finding a way to help. A secondary goal of talking about my current project and asking for introductions.  Most All of my opportunities in the past, have come from people that I known, and vice versa, I’ve been able to introduce others to opportunities floated to me through my network. I’ll keep you posted on the status of the coffee dates. But in the meantime, if there is someone you believe that I should meet and they are able to meet in San Francisco, (preference for anyone working in or passionate about the specialty foods, restaurants, or grocery space), please do an introduction. If they don’t work in any of the spaces, but you strongly believe we should meet, I welcome an introduction just as well.

Thanks for the read!