This Week in the Cafe: July 11 – 16

So, what is the best way to get a meeting with a VC for your start-up anyway?  The Venture Cafe is a great place to start! This week, we  welcomed David Skok and Antonio Rodriguez of Matrix Partners, along with Robin Lockwood of Flybridge Capital for a group discussion and one-on-one office hours to answer this and many other questions. I won’t transcribe the group session in its entirety, but suffice it to say that Antonio and David answered many tough questions, from the primary universal reason why VC’s won’t invest in projects, to whether or not the VC business model will sustain itself beyond the duration of your start-up.

Have you got a question for a venture capitalist? No need to get your email lost in their inbox!  Watch our calendar for VC Office Hours in the Cafe (offered to-date by partners NEVCA and Highland Capital Partners, with more offerings under development, like the newly announced Bain Capital Ventures hours as part of their Innovation Center efforts). Come discuss your start-up one-on-one over a local craft beer.  As for the best way to get in front of a VC, David and Antonio recommend getting an introduction from someone else, but make sure it’s not another VC — this could easily look like one is trying to hand you off to another!

“Writer, blogger, conference organizer, provocateur” Scott Kirsner also joined the cafe this week and had an ever-growing list of people who wanted to sit down for a chat.  Via Twitter, Scott (@ScottKirsner) said “thanks to everyone who came to Open Office Hours at the Venture Cafe this afternoon; tweet me if we somehow didn’t get a chance to chat…”

Finally, we had our second installment of the #IDTechUp in the cafe. This group, coordinated by Seeding Labs‘ Nina Dudnik and David Qualter, gathers every third Thursday of the month to discuss international development and technology. Additions like this to our normal cafe lineup remind us that the innovation and entrepreneurial activity taking place in Kendall Square isn’t only important for the area, new technologies have the capacity to significantly enhance quality of life and health all over the world.  This is a small but growing group, so if you know social entrepreneurs in this space, please pass on the information. Stay tuned for the next installment in August!

Coffee, beer and conversation