I was recently telling Ted that I had spent the past few days hanging out with a friend from college who was in town for a conference. His response: “Friend from college?”
I really need to work on how people perceive my social skills.
But anyway, it is true that over the past few days I’ve done a couple of unusual things.
On a boat
On Wednesday night, I went to a party, in San Francisco, where there were plenty of people I don’t know. And you know what? It was pretty fun. Thanks to a social connection, I found myself invited to the First Round Capital summer party. Brendan was in town for the Velocity conference, so I invited him to come along and check out the party. FRC had rented out La Mar, a Peruvian restaurant overlooking the bay. Considering I was already well outside of my usual comfort zone, I disregarded my usual caution regarding unknown food and tried many new things. Unfortunately, none of it was labeled or visually recognizable, so I’m not sure what I ate. Some things were just colored blobs on spoons. I think I remember trying yellow and purple. As usual, anything that was fried tasted the best.
Both being employed at companies that are no longer seeking funding, and not in a position to give any away, Brendan and I just enjoyed the free food and drink, but were happy to talk to anyone who engaged us in conversation. We talked to representatives of a wide variety of startups, including Invite Media, a First Round funded company recently acquired by Google. And in the “small world” category, Brendan saw a former ESPN intern and I was spotted by someone who went to my high school.
Not everyone was there just for fun. One conversation ended pretty quickly after I confided, “I’m not asking for money or giving any away.” Even though I wasn’t really there to talk to investors, Brendan and I had fun joking that we were there to secure another round of funding for OnlineHaircuts.com, coming up with conversation-starters like “It looks like you need a haircut.” If I get invited to more events like this, I’ll totally have to print up some OnlineHaircuts.com business cards. I’m seriously working on the site, though. Let me see what I can come up with over the July 4th weekend.
When we arrived, the restaurant was already crowded, and our first mission was to make our way to the deck to enjoy the view. When we arrived, Brendan spotted a sign for a free boat ride for three. T-Pain was busy networking, so just Brendan and I got on board. We were greeted with glasses of champagne, and were actually outnumbered as passengers by the crew of three. As we pulled back in to the dock sitting on the bow of the boat, the attendees standing on the deck turned and watched as we approached. I assume that they were thinking, “Who’s arriving via yacht?”
While we were the only ones out on that first ride, about 30 minutes later we saw the boat departing again, this time full of passengers. We’re total trend-setters. Later in the evening, I wanted to sit down outside. Brendan pointed out that everyone else was standing. I bet him that if we sat, everyone else would. Within just a few minutes, I was proven to be correct.
I had a great time, so thanks to First Round Capital for the party. For you skeptics out there, there is photographic evidence of my attendance.
In a bar, with sports
On Saturday, Brendan and I went to the Tied House in Mountain View and watched the USA vs. Ghana World Cup game. I watched the whole thing, and didn’t even pull out my phone except for during the breaks. What’s next? Football?
I hope I just blew all of your minds.