StartupDrinks on Thursday June 14th

Just a reminder that the next StartupDrinks event is set to go down on Thursday June 14th at 6:00pm until late at The Winking Judge on Augusta Street. StartupDrinks is a monthly pub night that we’ve been doing since October 2011, it happens every 2nd Thursday of the month. After trying it out at the Kelsey’s by McMaster Innovation Park we’ve moved it to The Winking Judge. The Winking Judge has an amazing list of great microbrews on tap and a great, friendly atmosphere. StartupDrinks is sponsorship-free and presentation-free, it’s just a freestyle social event for people to get to know one another and talk about whatever they like in a casual setting. I’ve come to appreciate the value this sort of event has for the community over the last while.

I was talking with a startup co-founder in the area about a month ago about how they ended up partnered with their other co-founders. They told me it was after going out and having a few drinks that they were really sold on their business partners. I’ve observed this sort of thing myself time and time again involving working relationships. You can have a match between employer and employee or between co-founders that seems well enough on paper, but there is something about the casual conversations at a social outing that give us an indication of who we can work well with (and maybe who we can’t too).

Finding a co-founder is a particular problem for startups, it doesn’t always work out as planned, so services have been created to solve this problem, and events like Startup Weekend are organized to facilitate “co-founder dating”. I think StartupDrinks is playing a similar role by letting the local tech and startup community connect in a way where we can really get to know one another, not just to connect with compatible people as co-founders, but to connect with compatible people for the full range of working relationships later on.

It’s a fun event with a welcoming crowd, and if you’re interested in startups or technology in Hamilton I encourage you to come out and connect with the community.

Register for StartupDrinks here: startupdrinkshamilton.eventbrite.com