

Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals - mhunter
http://mashable.com/2011/01/26/grubwithus/

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yesbabyyes
I'm sure you've thought of this, but fwiw: you should do this for big
corporations. I thought of something like this as a tool for bigcos and large
companies, where on my experience people tend to have lunch with the same
small click, and not having particularly fun. If they could have lunch with a
random group of colleagues from different parts of the company say once a week
to start with, I think that would really spark new ideas and improve any
company.

~~~
daishin
Thanks!!!

We are currently rolling out companies through our Grubwithus Groups, whereby
companies can have meals around topics like "team building," "strategy,""dept
A meets dept B," etc. Company members will join the Group and will get
notified when there are meals for them to reserve.

We are hoping to roll out lunches in the near future and like you said, it
would be awesome to have fun company lunches to meet other colleagues.

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jacquesm
What a neat idea! Having food together is the best way to socialize anyway,
time flies and you have something to do, no awkward silences :)

Maybe this is something to market to the airbnb userbase?

Serving food to strangers for a fee is bound to raise some eyebrows though,
this time not from jealous hotel operators but from the people that lord over
food safety and cleanliness in commercial settings, especially if you also
serve alcohol.

~~~
petercooper
Yeah, though "underground restaurants" have been steadily growing in
popularity nonetheless. A British example:
[http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/10/undergrou...](http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/10/underground-
restaurants-london)

I also watched a Jamie Oliver documentary series about food in the US and he
managed to wangle his way into similar places in a few US cities (mostly
oriented around Mexican food).

~~~
jacquesm
When you advertise online using a public service it's not very underground any
more.

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cfontes
I don't agree with that, a lot of underground bands and artists use online
only advertisement like last.fm and deviantart.com and still are underground.

It's just about the way you market it... you can narrowcast your marketing to
only the people you wanna hit, so you keep the underground feeling but get
more customers.

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jl
We're hosting a bunch of grubwithus dinners in the Bay Area with YC alumni for
women interested in learning more about startups:
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2144852>

~~~
duck
Either these guys are confused or they missed the notice:
[http://www.grubwith.us/restaurants/la-briciola-san-
francisco...](http://www.grubwith.us/restaurants/la-briciola-san-
francisco/meals/77#)

~~~
emmett
Actually it's an opportunity for women who want to get into startups to talk
to YC founders - most of whom happen to be men.

~~~
narrator
I wonder if there's such a thing as startup groupies. /joke

~~~
pbiggar
I was at some YC parties with some girls who really seemed like groupies (from
a distance, I didn't actually talk to them).

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cachemoney
I just wanted to say thanks for not demanding permission to post to my wall
when I linked my facebook account.

~~~
daishin
haha yea we hate that ourselves

~~~
shashashasha
Also for not having the "access my data at any time" permission which every
app seems to want to do these days

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kadavy
I tried this a few weeks ago in Chicago and it was great. One of my favorite
parts is that we didn't have to worry about splitting up the bill. I'd love to
set up grubwith.us's open only to my friends. Paying in advance also
eliminates the flake factor.

This will probably change as I say this: but women outnumbered men 2 to 1 in
the dinner I attended (8 & 4). What other social startup has an early adopter
profile like that?

~~~
daniel-cussen
Women were only outnumbered 2 to 1? Though that's not completely successful,
that's pretty good.

~~~
sparky
Other way around.

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brandnewlow
Met the Grubwithus guys at the last HN Chicago meetup and they impressed the
heck out of me as guys who enjoy and have experience running businesses. Best
of luck to them!

~~~
cfontes
Offtopic - I envy you guys so much for having HN meetups, I think I am the
only Brazilian that reads HN (very unlikely), because nobody answers me about
a Brazilian one.

~~~
phowat
Are you from Rio de Janeiro? If so feel free to email me.

~~~
cfontes
Nope :( I live in Campinas... Close to São Paulo

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dools
Am I the only one here that finds the use of the term "Social" as it refers to
"Social Media" to describe a social activity that is possibly the most ancient
form of socialising, disconcerting?

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mattdeboard
No, you aren't. Social is just a buzzword meaning "meeting strangers by means
of web technology."

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boredguy8
<https://www.grubwith.us/signup>

The "What city will you be eating in" lists S.F. after "other" -- straight
alphabetization? Struck me as rather odd.

~~~
daishin
Thanks!!!! We will change that out to put "other" last

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jjcm
Out of the box it seems very speedatingesque. While amazingly fun if you have
a good group, one bad guest might ruin the night for the rest of the group. If
this takes off, then awesome - a new way to meet people. However I think that
the grubwithus guys are going to hit quite a few social hurdles along the way.

~~~
jmtame
might need a way to rate other people you dine with to address this, kind of
how airbnb works

~~~
daishin
after the meal you can post comments about your dining experience with the
individuals you grubbed with. these comments are listed on their profile page
for others to read.

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jclemenson
Great idea. Suggestion: for me location matters more than date so maybe add a
map view?

~~~
daishin
Map view is a good suggestion. We are hoping with more volume we can release
something of this sort.

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raquo
Great idea in itself, but also because services that give implicit dating
opportunities always win.

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jnsaff
We are building a similar site with a bit different approach, ours is a free
site which encourages people to create their events at their homes or public
places, also bring together communities and create a framework for small
businesses, a bit like farmers markets or the like. Check us out at:
<http://eatwithme.net/>

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brandnewlow
Also, FWIW, the new home page is LIGHT YEARS better than the old one. Great
job. Got a designer referral?

~~~
daishin
THANKS! We did it ourselves -- just great feedback from YC and our user base.
We went through a ton of iterations

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mayank
For those browsing, it's well worth the read. Their positioning as an
alternative to the groupon model is very interesting. I wonder if they think
they can match the same scale though, even if it's just for restaurants.
Overall, great idea! I'm going to give the Chicago version a try.

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galuggus
Commendable. Really well executed.

How about linking up with online communities.

I'm sure a lot of people on reddit would love this for no-fuss IRL meet ups.
Likewise forums/ online games etc.

Well done

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wccrawford
I'm not even a very social person, but I think this is a great idea. If I'm
bored sometime, I might just try it.

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johns
Someone needs to build this for dating.

~~~
eddylu
A few people have actually dated after meeting on Grubwithus. Job offers too.
These things happen semi-serendipitously, which makes it better, because
everyone goes to the meal with the context of meeting new friends, not some
awkward dating context.

~~~
lifestyleigni
I agree completely. When there are preconceived expectations it can cheapen
the act or make it seem less genuine. When there are no expectations or
ulterior motives beyond interesting conversation, the most real and genuine
things are forged. It's better when things come up natural in conversation.

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rjett
How are people grouped together? Are people able to screen the other people
that they'll be eating with? Maybe that would take some of the serendipity out
of it, but it could also help curb some of the superficial conversation that
occurs upon meeting someone for the first time.

~~~
daishin
users can check out each others profiles and decide if they want to eat with
them or not

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acangiano
Love their 404: <http://www.grubwith.us/oops>

~~~
daishin
Except that means something went wrong on your end!

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brianbreslin
love this idea. groupon+eventbrite+opentable of sorts so i hope they clarify
on the checkout that tax + tip aren't included. I would have loved to have had
something like this in Miami, as we used to organize geek dinners every so
often and it was ALWAYS a pain.

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benzheren
Does the site actually check gender? Saw several female only meals with
reservations from guys.

~~~
eddylu
Yeah it's a little confusing. Those are actually the YC alumni that will be
speaking to female founders

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stx103
This reminds me of Rirkrit Tiravanijas work, a contemporary artist who uses
the experience of a shared meal and its underlying mechanisms to create a
space where strangers can connect (usually it takes place in a gallery) and
form new communities.

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jetaries
Congratulations. I am looking forward to the dinner.

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timjahn
Awesome job Eddy and Dashin! Love what you guys are doing :)

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daishin
Thanks Tim! We'll have to grub with you when we are in Chicago.

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csallen
Congrats, looks great!

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anemitz
Nice. Rock on, guys!

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zacharypinter
Looking forward to a Denver/Boulder addition. Cool idea.

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kin
Goodness, I can't wait until this hits LA and SD!

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daishin
The more people sign up in those spots, the quicker we will launch. Should do
well in both those areas.

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twakefield
Excellent idea guys. Congrats on launching.

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DaniFong
Great idea! I'm already signed up :-)

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yaseming
great idea. i will definitely try it out when it comes to boston!

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scottshapiro
very cool - looking forward to a berkeley dinner!

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atomical
Great idea.

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d3x
Every single one that I want to go is Females only. Dont you think that men
would also like the opportunity to lern from YC founders?

~~~
daishin
We actually hosted some meals during the YC interviews for guys to participate
in and chat with YC alum. We will look to do something like that again in the
near future. Thanks for the feedback!

~~~
d3x
awesome...im looking fwd to it.

