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.
Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
21–30 of 81 posts
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#22Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, though "underground restaurants" have been steadily growing in popularity nonetheless. A British example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/10/undergrou... 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).
When you advertise online using a public service it's not very underground any more.
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.
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#23Out 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.
might need a way to rate other people you dine with to address this, kind of how airbnb works
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#24Someone needs to build this for dating.
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.
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#25Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, though "underground restaurants" have been steadily growing in popularity nonetheless. A British example: http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/10/undergrou... 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).
When you advertise online using a public service it's not very underground any more.
Depends how you define underground, as long as it is not popular in the mainstream I think you can consider it underground.
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#26Met 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!
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.
I gotta echo this, I live in Halifax Canada and wish there were some meet ups here !
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#27This 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.
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#28How 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.
users can check out each others profiles and decide if they want to eat with them or not
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#29I just wanted to say thanks for not demanding permission to post to my wall when I linked my facebook account.
haha yea we hate that ourselves
Re: Grubwithus (YC W11) Brings Strangers Together Over Social Meals
#30Great idea. Suggestion: for me location matters more than date so maybe add a map view?
Map view is a good suggestion. We are hoping with more volume we can release something of this sort.