At one of the meet-ups that I went to last week, a buddy told me to check out Ohours. He didn't tell me much about it, but said that it's a good way to meet smart, interesting people around NYC. Great, I'd check it out.
I went home that night and spent some time browsing the site. Ohours is meant to be similar to college office hours. There are members from VC, start-up, biz dev, marketing, and programming communities all willing to sit down for 15-30 minutes and talk about anything. I decided to get the full Ohours experience by hosting an office hours and attending one.
Hosting: I opened up my office hours at around midnight last Tuesday. The hours were to take place on Wednesday at 3pm. I thought the odds of anyone attending were relatively slim. However, at around 11am on Wednesday I got an e-mail from a technical developer who wanted to talk about the business side of his product. He met me at a coffee shop, and we spent 40 minutes talking about his project. I had a great time learning about his business. I also realized that technical entrepreneurs need business guys almost as badly as business guys need technical talent. I explained to my Ohours visitor that in order to get funding, he'd need to put together a business pitch. We then spent 15 minutes talking about relative slides he'd need in his pitch deck. We ended with him saying he understood what needed to be done, but it was basically that last thing on earth he'd want to do. Surprising, because I actually enjoy putting together plans and talking about strategy. So far, Ohours was working great for me.
Attending: I attended an Ohours hosted by Frank Denbow. Most people in NYC will recognize Frank Denbow from start-up digest. He helps curate the start-up events in NYC. Frank and I talked a bit about how he chooses his events. He also told me about key events that I need to attend in NYC. I also talked to Frank about the minimum coding ability necessary to enroll in a hackathon. Unfortunately, I'm not at that point and need to cancel my registration for a hackathon this Saturday. Anyway, I enjoyed chatting with Frank and found our meeting productive.
Overall, Ohours exceed my expectations. I definitely plan on giving the service a try in the future. Please let me know about your Ohours experience below!
