#thinkubator

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Food for thought

Tonight the Co - Founders split their efforts and skills to dynamically take on the entrepreneurial world with a double blow at once. Joel attended a dinner event with a “Social concierge service”, which I’m almost convinced is just another way for him to meet chicks whilst I do all the work, and I attended “Thinkubator”; a dinner event in Farringdon where Co - Founders and CEOs meet to share their ideas, successes, frustrations and if they are lucky, achievements.

Whilst I am sure Joel’s mostly female heavy night was probably very fun (and in fairness, productive) mine was potentially more intellectually stimulating. The format is dinner; and between 3 courses a different person shares sincere issues on their mind that must not be discussed outside the confines of the dinner table because they are potentially scandalous/serious/ important or otherwise just not suitable beyond the trust that forms the basis of the evening.

The guests were; the owner of popcorn giants; “Propercorn”, 2 fascinating and quite clearly inspirationally gifted medical industry individuals, a finance chap running a fascinating sounding education startup who had just agreed a deal with News Int, someone who had successfully exited ad agencies 3 times (only one of which sounds like it has caused him particular stress), a major player of global content distribution network ‘trendwatching’ the owner of OneFineStay and some other fine specimens of equal value. And me... clearly the lowest value addition to a really great group of interesting people. All in all I think there were 10 - 12 of us, and in typical boardroom fashion only one girl, but she more than held her own, and coming from an ad background was someone I could relate to with ease.

The evening turned out rather surprisingly like therapy, for me. So often I feel like only Joel understands what I go through. The stress, disappointment, excitement, suffering, firing, hiring, partnerships, apologies, new ideas, broken ideas, dead ideas, the list goes on. Now, I know it sounds much like your typical first world issues, and these often are, but to go through it with someone helps.

Being given the opportunity help advise others; that helps plenty too and provides deep introspective thought about our own circumstances.

Being asked serious questions about shareholder agreement issues (which were very severe and stressful for poor "Member X" who is clearly very gifted and driven) was a really valuable insight into some of the issues I don’t face, and should be thankful for. Offering him advice was actually very difficult, because his is a situation with no clear resolution and even in a minute you could tell he deserves to succeed and reach the pinnacle of his dreams. Possessing the brains, the work ethic and the ideas he really was at a loss over his fairly unresolvable situation, yet I felt like he really appreciated all the advice; good and bad.

Next was "Founder Y's" turn to 'download' ideas. I was very chuffed to feel like I had made a valuable contribution to his issues over how to expand culture effectively, even though I may have been entirely wrong, he had the good grace of treating my solutions like they were valid and appreciated. As I have a friend that works there, I already have an insight that its a great place to work so I don’t really feel there’s much to worry about from his part, but international expansion was on his mind and the table shared valuable comments and varying concepts as to how he could tackle it.

Finally, was "Company Z". Their issue is operating in too many countries; their real issues, well I can’t share that can I? But ultimately, there remains an argument about how best to operate their business model that certainly requires much more than 1 swift conversation at dinner..

There was even very positive feedback about Grabble. Jonathan, sat next to me, couldn’t have been more enthusiastic or complimentary over our concept, I just hope he’s still intrigued and engaged when he signs up.

As for Tom who arranges these nights, and is on day 0 of setting up a startup with Johnathan (Trendwatch would be wise to consider them ‘one to watch’ given their clear talents), he did a marvelous job of keeping the night relevant and on point. Everyone had a chance to either share their problems or provide sage advice that they felt could be meaningful.

It was possibly the most valuable evening I’ve experienced for months (due in part to spending most nights waiting for the Itsu 8.30 half price sale so I can scurry back to the office and pretend I am still intellectually engaged and making valuable decisions until midnight at the office) and I actually feel considerably less stressed and more focused for it, and that’s simply from responding to other people’s problems. I can’t wait to discover the feeling of sharing my own and receiving such feedback.

Food: 8/10 Experience: 10/10