In 2008,( my sophomore year at college), I started to host a monthly coffee meeting. It was mostly for creators, entrepreneurs, and college students. I saw people are in NewYork are doing it. I reached out to them and said, “ Can I host this event in my city?” They said, yeah sure.
Literally 12 years ago. I was 20 years old kid:)
It was already happening in Istanbul so I got an “official” Likemind badge and started to meet people once a month every 3rd Saturday.
The original event (The New York Times article about Likemind) was every 3rd Friday early 7:30 am-10 am (Same time nearly 55+ Countries) at Starbucks. That time 2008 in Turkey none of the Starbucks were open that early also most of them at the luxury shopping center that was not the same urban, creativity feeling like the one in New York, Sydney, or London.
The reason they were doing early morning and also Friday because most people who came to the event, they were freelancers, marketers, or designers. Unfortunately in Ankara, we didn’t have any of those people. So, I had to do it on Saturday. Also, started to convince my friends:
a) Come to my event
b) Start either their own business.
I did hosting almost over a year then stopped. What I learned during that time:
- First, Ankara was not ready because of that city full of college students and bureaucrats.
- Second, I need to build my own network however staying in the Ankara will not help me. So, in late 2009, I made my decision to move out of Ankara when I graduate college. I can easily move to Istanbul but I said: “Nope, I need to be part of something bigger than myself”.
And, I checked where is the center of innovation and entrepreneurship? Yup, That was San Francisco. The rest is history.