Anyhow, below is first of the series of stories where I'll talk about how I took a conversation at the coffee shop further.
Flash back to June last year!
I like this girl sitting at a table beside me and she seemed to be talking about startups with couple of people. Interestingly, she seemed to have started her own.
I have got a lethal point to start the conversation.
I am waiting till she is done with her conversation. Finally after an hour, they started leaving. Coincidently, she is the last one to leave.
5 second rule! If you don't act now, you'll never get to talk to her.
I ask "Hey, do you own a startup?"
I said "own" not "work"!
She said "Yeah, do you as well?"
Have your pitch ready. After the pitch, make sure you ask a follow-up question about your startup.
I told her about Truffle and asked what she thought of offline dating. We chatted for about 10 mins.
Evolve a habit of asking questions. It doesn't just help with girls but in general will make you an interesting person to talk to.
Turns out she has a boyfriend! That's ok, I got to meet a new person. We exchanged emails and went our ways. We ran into each other a couple of times later at the same coffee shop.
Try to make one coffee shop your base. People will recognize that you are a regular and remember you.
After some months, I asked her about getting dinner sometime in the next week.
Always have a place/time ready when you invite someone for a meeting. Decisive people usually end up with more dates.
Don't even think about flirting on your first meeting. First, you are breaking the bro-code (she has a boyfriend) and second it will just put her off.
Ask her if you can walk her home. Gather some gentleman points.
During one of our conversations, she brought a new startup idea she was thinking of, I extended my help.
Whether it's a girl or a guy, helping fellow entrepreneurs is always a sweet thing.
So things took a wide turn and she had a break up. I didn't know about it until she told me at a dinner that I invited her to, with my friends.
Pro point : Always good to include new friends if you are having dinner with your older friends.
After about a week from then, I asked her out for a dinner again, without the friends. She said yes and I guess that was our first date.
I said guess because I was not sure if it was a date but I'll tell the other half of the story in the next post soon. Oh, and if you are reading this article in a coffee shop, go ahead... start a conversation with the person sitting beside you.
Truffle Your first coffee date is on us :)