I needed a new rule. My next event was a twenty mile cycle ride that would take pretty much the whole of the day; my problem was that I also needed to go to work. I decided that my new rule was to be called the ‘deferred activity’ rule: if a group comes up that doesn’t fit in the spare time that I have available at that particular moment, I still have to visit the group’s next event at the earliest opportunity.
I joined the group: Richmond Scenic Cycling, and then looked down the list of events to see the next one I could get to. I needed to go to Old Street underground station and head towards a café called The Book Club that was literally around the corner from my meeting with Dan.
The Book Club was empty, except for four other visitors. I saw a sign on a set of empty chairs that advertised the Tech City event. Knowing I was in the right place, I walked towards the serving area to order a coffee. My eyes were rapidly drawn to signs for another group: there was a meeting for AirBnB hosts; London homeowners who rent out their spare rooms to visitors and tourists. I chatted with the meeting leaders for a bit, placed my order and then went to sit down.
Ten minutes later, Desmond, our group leader arrived, and offered me a very firm handshake. Desmond was clearly ready for business: he wanted to know who I was and why I was at the group.
‘Well, I’m interested in tech…’ I replied. I told him about my day job and said that I used to be a computer programmer, and I was going around different Meetup groups to learn more about the tech community in London.
We were joined by Steve, who arrived just as Desmond had gone to the counter to buy a coffee. Steve was a young chap of twenty five. Steve worked for an American data infrastructure company that was now owned by IBM.
‘We own and run 25 data centres around the world…’ he told me. Steve, it turned out, was the highlight of the coffee morning. He had an interesting story to tell us about his journey from a business graduate from Edinburgh University through to working in the Tech start up scene in New York, through to becoming a ‘community manager’ (or ‘technology evangelist’) in London. Steve’s job was to help start-ups by introducing them to his business’s technologies and services. ‘We’re like Amazon web services, if you know them? But we operate at a lower rung of the technology ladder than them, if you know what I mean.’ I sort of knew what he meant. I nodded, signifying a degree of understanding.
‘Do you know Heroku?’ I said that I didn’t. ‘You’ve got to check it out’ Steve encouraged.
Desmond had returned with his coffee, and three more people had arrived. One of them, called Jason, was wearing a smart jacket and bow tie. A very tall smartly dressed woman put out some leaflets on our table. There were around seven of us. Thinking of my day job, I asked Steve what he thought was the most important skill that computer science graduates needed to have.
‘Recruitment is a big problem’, he began. ‘Getting money is easy. Getting the right people is really difficult. It’s really tough. There’s a really big demand for engineers, but finding them is difficult, plus in the start-up space, the salaries are not amazing, but what you don’t have in salary, you get in equity; it’s a risk that not everyone wants to take. When you get funding the vast majority of that goes on salaries, and the problem is that really good engineers are expensive. It’s really tough because recruiting the wrong person when you have, say, a company with just four people, can literally finish a business. The tech skills is just a part of it; what is more important is trust. Trust and loyalty, and you’ve got to be able to assess that somehow’.
Recalling the time when I was looking for a job in tech, I asked whether they used agencies.
‘No. We don’t. Recruitment is done based on just knowing people. It’s on recommendations. It’s based on having those networks and making those contacts with people’.
I figured out that Steve was pretty much on his own in London. After moving back to London from New York three months earlier he had been working in co-working spaces, spaces like the Google Campus; he seemed to know them all.
‘How does that work? Do you pay for the space?’ Since he was able to offer advice and some consulting support to start-ups that occupied that space, they let him use the space for free.
Desmond stood up. He asked us to introduce ourselves. We had to say our name, what we wanted, and how we could help others. We had a minute. It was my go.
‘Hello… My name is Chris, and I used to be a software developer.’ I wondered how far to go in terms of disclosure. I didn’t want to upset the dynamics of the group. I didn’t want to become ‘the weird guy’ who accidentally becomes the focus of attention. ‘I’m interested in tech, start-ups and what’s happening in London. I’m pretty much interested in everything really, so I’m here to, well, mostly learn from everyone. I’m really interested in learning. As for what I can give to the group? I’m not sure! Perhaps this might become a bit clearer when we chat one to one.’ I paused, wondering what else to say. My mind was blank. ‘Thanks for having me here!’
It was Steve’s turn. Steve did a short introduction, telling us all about his company. We heard from an ‘infrastructure guy’ and a business consultant before moving onto the chap who was wearing the dinner jacket and bow tie.
‘My name is Dominic, and I’m the founder of a business that offers high quality healthy meals that can be delivered to your home or office within twenty minutes. We have our own kitchen that is in the east of the city, and a team of delivery staff. We put emphasis on quality food and a quality customer experience. So, if you’ve got a meeting or event in the city, and you need a caterer, then we can do it. Also, we don’t deliver to an address, we deliver to a GPS co-ordinate. If you’re in a park, that doesn’t matter: we can come and find you.
‘We’ve been going for only five weeks now. We began by winning an accelerator after getting some seed funding. We’ve currently looking for series two.’
The group asked him about the main competitors. Steve told him that there was a similar business in New York. We heard about plans to open a second kitchen to try to extend their geographical area to another part of the city. They had created their own technology to make it work. Dominic had delivered an impressive pitch.
The final person to introduce themselves was Kay. Kay worked in a public relations company, which was also a start-up. Her company operates on a monthly subscription model and allows subscribers to get in contact with tens of thousands of different journalists and media companies. Kay’s business also offers training to help you to write press releases. Her office was around the corner from the café, but she had travelled up from the south coast. It was also an impressive presentation. She talked about the history of the business, its contacts, and plans for the future.
Desmond took back control of the meeting and asked Steve whether he could say more about his role and experience. He talked about how he joined an organisation called the ‘Start-up Institute’, and then spoke about differences between the New York start-up scene and the London start-up scene. He said they were similar in some respects, but London didn’t quite have the same sense of community that New York had. He felt that the communal work spaces didn’t connect to each other as much as they could do.
From beginning to end, the Meetup lasted for about an hour and a half. I enjoyed chatting to Steve; I was impressed by his dynamism and his ability to talk. Although I learnt a lot about the business that he worked for and the job that he did, I didn’t have a sense of who he was or what motivated him, despite angling for this. I was also impressed by Desmond, especially how he was trying to get different people to talk to each other. The Meetup emphasised the importance of networks and contacts. I had again caught a glimpse of a rich social world of technology and computing; a dynamic world that could be found a short train ride away from my house in South East London.
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