Sounds great, as long as it's a more casual/social agenda, rather than trying to "force" a techie meeting agenda.
I love to talk shop with anyone who's genuinely interested in the subject matter, and can hold an interesting conversation about it. That's sooo much more relaxing and enjoyable than watching some poor Geek-Soul struggle with his Public Speaking fears in front of a captive audience.
Plus, I might be able to enjoy that conversation over something besides pizza all the time. ;-)
A casual lunch with no "speaker" is exactly what I had in mind. I had a great lunch today with Gabe Morris. We talked a bit about the latest demos in TechCrunch50 and Demo Fall. Plus he was a great sounding board for my latest business model idea.
Ideas for restaurants? We can try out a different one each time ... So where you like eat?
I could go for Japanese, Korean, or Italian just about any time. Maybe do Shokudo or Pietro's for lunch, and then those who want to hang out longer can head over to Jupiter for some coffee and coworking?
Else.. how about Ryan's in Ward Center?
Wednesdays and Fridays are good for me.
Permalink Reply by Sid on September 11, 2008 at 7:00am
Truman, if it works for you, I propose we meet up at 11:30 tomorrow (Friday) somewhere for lunch - close to Ward/Downtown/Ala Moana may be the best location based on the people you have had come to Coworking
Short notice I know, but I can bring my coworker Darren as we were planning on heading out to that side for lunch on Friday's anyway.
Kakaako kitchen is also good, that is one of our favorites - cheap, fast, and semi-outside.
How's about we try for next week Friday (Sept 19th) since, Sid, you mentioned in a separate email that you were interested to check out the Flickr Friday meetup tomorrow as well?
I would personally prefer a more moderately priced restaurant although something like Ryan's would be okay for me once in a while. I'm bootstrapping!
Brian Dote told me about this event and this sounds like a great idea. I can do Friday Sept. 19th, please let me know what place do you guys decide on. Anywhere downtown, Aloha Tower works best. : )
Currently I work for Blue Lava Technologies and attend the MBA program at UH Manoa. I am interested in marketing, PR, and web analytics ideas.
How about we meet up for lunch tomorrow (Friday, Sept 19th) 11:30am-1pm @ Kakaako Kitchen. Please reply to this thread if you think you can make it.
Possible Discussion Topics
I've been thinking a lot about web business issues so I have a lot I'm interested in talking about. For example, recurring subscription billing ... Right now I use a homegrown solution built on PayPal to set up recurring billing. I went with them a few years ago because I did not want to be responsible for capturing and storing credit card information (i.e., PCI compliance). But it is a pain with PayPal to manage subscriptions and difficult to upsell existing customers and bill them for metered usage or additional services once the initial subscription has been established.
Right now I'm looking at Vindicia as a completely white-labled billing solution that also comes with fraud protection and chargeback management. With more and more startups going the SaaS route, professional billing solutions are key to long term success in terms of customer satisfaction and upselling to improve revenues.
That's one issue I've thinking of lately. I'm also looking into online software to help my business with help desk / customer support / bug and issue tracking / source code management needs. Anyone ever tried FogBuzz, Unfuddle or Github?
Another topic I'm looking into is outsourcing. After my successful experiment with 99designs to get a new logo designed for my company, I'm looking to outsource more projects. Anyone have experience with elance, rentacoder or getafreelancer?
What issues are you thinking of for your tech business?
Well, I just noticed that the Bytemarks lunch is going on at the same time tomorrow. If you are interested, why don't we meet up there: http://upcoming.yahoo.com/event/1097374
Well, I'm going to be labeled a flip-flopper now. Gabe Morris and I are going to have lunch at Kakaako Kitchen after all tomorrow ... you're all welcome.
I just spoke with Truman - looks like we are going to have a smaller lunch at Kakaako Kitchen. All on this thread are invited to join. 11:30 tomorrow (Friday).
Hello Gabe and Truman, I apologize but tomorrow I cannot make it because of a previous appointment, but I can sign up already for the next Friday (same time) if you are having lunch.
Mahalo,
Damian