Startup Communities: Building an Entrepreneurial Ecosystem in Your City

OFFICE HOURS

In the late 1990s I became overwhelmed with the number of people who wanted to meet with me. I’d become visible in the Boulder community, both as an entrepreneur and VC investor. Although many people wanted to meet purely for networking purposes, others had specific agendas for getting together.

At some point I realized I had a choice: I could either spend all my time meeting with random people who wanted to get together with me or I could become much less accessible. Neither of these appealed to me, so I created the concept of random days.

One day a month, I’d declare a random day. On this day, I’d spend 15 minutes with anyone. As the steady stream of requests to get together for a coffee or a meal along with the endless referrals from people I knew to “meet with their friend” came in, I’d simply invite them to a 15-minute meeting on random day. When random day came along, I sat in a conference room and had up to 20 short meetings like this before I wore out, called it a day, and went and had a beer.

I’ve made many great connections on my random days. Numerous people I met now work for companies in which I’m an investor. I’ve made long-lasting friendships with people in large companies to which I didn’t expect I’d have access. Startups, such as TechStars, came out of a random day meeting, and I’ve learned about a number of curious, unexpected things.

Over time, someone realized this notion of random days was similar to the academic construct of office hours during ...