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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
This is such a great idea for Young Professionals. Let me know if you'd like some introductions in the Santa Barbara area. Lots of wealthy, lonely types :)
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
I was stupid and bought a seat to give to a female potential-startup-founder friend of mine (mainly because it was the last seat, and she's already asleep), but it signed me up instead. Oh well.
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?
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!
That was one of the most madcap fun evenings I've had in a while. It was great seeing people pop out of the woodwork and hearing about what they're working on. Great to see GrubWithUs taking flight!
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.
<troll>You should envy us! The last Chicago one had about 30 people show up and was far and away the best one I've ever been to. There's great people here in Chicago.</troll>
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?
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.
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.
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/
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
