Just a quick reminder that there will be three Lunch 2.0’s tomorrow!
See you there!
We’ve been having some great Lunch 2.0’s here in the Bay Area recently. It’s gotten to the point where some have been wondering how we make money. The answer is, we don’t and as the V.C. of Lunch 2.0 (a.k.a. person who plunked down $5 for the domain name), I don’t want you giving any of the other founders any ideas. As far as they’re concerned, they’d consider it a roaring success if they’d just got a free meal out of it, and I’d like to keep it that way. (I’ve studied venture capitalism and as near as I can figure, the key to success is to keep your companies running at a loss until they sell out.)
Sometimes, living in the Valley, you forget that there is a world outside our little bubble. So since we’ve been hearing some rumblings about Lunch 2.0’s spreading organically around the country, we decided to take a look. (I hope in the future they’d stop stealthing these kick-a— events and keep us up-to-date about these things by cross-posting on this blog.)
First, Brett Petersel of Lunch 2.0 NYC has managed to score the first Lunch 2.0 in the Big Apple at the Ladders on October 16th. Nice complement to our hit in The Wall Street Journal. I’m going to invite everyone I know in NYC and you should too.
I also see that Lunch 2.0 is starting up in our nation’s capitol going so far as to schedule an event on Facebook for October 17.
Oh yeah, FamilyOven is going off to that area. After the clever success of their Lunch 2.0 this week, I’m really bummed. Just when I thought the food at L2.0’s was getting better. (Note to self: a little Piazza Pellegrini risotto and a chefs hat can’t absorb the effects of a few ice cold Moretti beers on a hot roof.)
If it isn’t obvious by now, Nicole Jordan reminds us that Silicon Valley is not the only place with geeks. She describes the Lunch 2.0 Los Angeles debut where over 200 people showed up! They’ve already scheduled their next Lunch 2.0 at Yellowbot.com in Burbank on October 12th.
Well, there is no Lunch 2.0 yet in Boston, despite hoping it’ll come true. But they have their own version: tastybytes!
Hmm…
Lunch 2.0BETA.png)
I see we haven’t gotten better at dating ourselves in the last thirty years. (Thanks Web2.0V2 Logo Creatr.)
Well, maybe we have.
Seattle Lunch 2.0 really has their stuff together, right down to a new logo.
As if that isn’t enough, he points out they will have their next Lunch 2.0 at Widemile and looking at their Upcoming events schedule, I see they’re booked up until 2008! Double ouch!
I wonder who that special east side host is in November? These guys? Are you sh—ing’ me? Do you know how long Mark and I have been working at an official invite from them…like ever since he got fired. Triple ouch!
That, as they say, is a Lunch 2.0 T.K.O.
If you’d like to host a Lunch 2.0 in the Bay Area, just e-mail Mark, me, Dave or Joseph. We’d love to eat your lunch! (I promise in the future, I’ll try to get some L2.0’s scheduled and not look so bad.) Follow us on Twitter. Hmm, twitter. Those guys really needs to host a Lunch 2.0 
Upcoming Lunch 2.0s:
Quick note: If you can’t make it down to South Bay for the Lunch 2.0 @ Plaxo, then check out the Lunch 2.0-inspired, SF Lunch .NET 3.X down at Mastrelli’s Delicatessen in the Ferry building, right next to where Microsoft hosted Lunch 2.0 last month
Joshua Maher is kicking ass and taking names with the Lunch 2.0’s in Seattle. The next one is at Cardomain
When: Wednesday, September 12th, 11:30AM-1PM
Where: CarDomain Network, Inc., 1633 Westlake Avenue North, Suite 100, Seattle
RSVP upcoming page
Yes, I know it’s filled up already! Don’t be left out again and check out the seattle.lunch20.com, especially thier upcoming events page which is showing two more. One on September 21st and another on October 12th!
Did I forget to mention that Lunch 2.0 is officially starting up in L.A.? Their first event is going to be at ThisNext on September 7th, right after Burning Man.
When: Friday, September 7th, 12:05PM-
Where: ThisNext, 1409 3rd Street Promenade, Santa Monica
RSVP on Mixergy
There are already 40 people RSVP’d including some very recognizable names. Like Lunch 2.0 elsewhere—it’s a free lunch. So tell all your SoCal friends about it and help Lunch 2.0 LA grow organically…even if we can’t always eat organically.
Also today, hot on the heels of her success at Twiistup 2, Lunch 2.0 L.A. co-organizer, heathervescent, is hosting an her L.A. Geek dinner C & O Cucina in Marina del Rey.
Brett Petersel has contacted us about getting Lunch 2.0 in the other Silicon *ly: Silicon Alley in New York City. I guess running Web 2.0 Meetup NYC wasn’t enough. 
If you’re interested in helping, hosting, or just attending, contact him: info [at] this site and the soon to be launched LunchNYC.com!
Speaking of new websites, what’s Oota 2.0?
Bangalore. The Silicon Valley of India.
Rana Singh and Aakash Mandhar inform us that they’ve started a Lunch 2.0 LAN (Lunch Area Network) there, but put a spin on it calling it “Oota 2.0.” I heard it means “lunch” or something in a language other than English. Check out or contact them: rana.singh [at] this site or aakash.mandhar [at] this site, or their blog.
Ben Ramsey, PHP community manager and Atlanta native thinks it’s B.S. that there isn’t one on the south…
answer his question on LinkedIn or contact him: ben [at] this site.
The other day I was trying to figure out our Lunch 2.0 mission statement when I happened across one of the first e-mails Mark sent to a couple friends:
Hey Joyce and Adam [of Renkoo], we weren’t kidding about Lunch 2.0. We already bought the domain name. Want to be admins on our community blog? The idea is that we’ll announce where we’re hitting up for lunch and invite people to come along. Then afterwards we’ll post pictures, etc. It’ll be great.
That’s basically our winning formula:
If you meet someone from an area that is starting up a Lunch 2.0 refer them to the people above. Interested in starting one in your area? Contact Mark and me.
Mark was right: “It’ll be great.”
It was… and is… and will be.
The Seattle Lunch 2.0’s have taken off so fast that I can’t even get an announcement done on the blog before the spots fill up! I don’t know if this is even worth mentioning at this point, but there is a Seattle Lunch 2.0 @ Wishpot just before Gnomedex with some home cooking!
Location: Wishpot
Address: 1114 2nd Ave N, Seattle 98109
Date: Friday August 3rd 2007, 11:30-1PM
RSVP on Upcoming
Wishpot is like an Amazon wishlist without the Amazon. I’m half tempted to wish that there was more space to host all these great Lunch 2.0’s they have up there in Seattle.
EDIT: The official announcement. The same thing happened to Josh too. We didn’t get them out fast enough before it filled up. 
The folks at Seattle asked me to mention that the second Seattle Lunch 2.0 is going to be held next week at Zillow, the cool place to look up how much your boss spent on his home.
According to their RSVP, they have 50 attending and 49 watching. Wow!Since the attendance is listed as full, I don’t know why they want me to announce it — maybe to rub it in that Seattle has their s–t more together than us Bay Area types. (Hint: Get Zillow to increase the invites.)
This leads to a small bit of irony: Wasn’t Lunch 2.0 started by sneaking into places? Someday, the founders are going to find themselves sneaking into their own events.
Seattle is on a roll with their second Lunch 2.0 event scheduled! And since Drew and the Zillow team are hosting, they have been able to double the real-estate over last time.
Ahh, I have great memories of Zestimating my coworkers’ homes. Good stuff!
Location: Zillow
Address: 999 Third Ave., Suite 4600 Seattle
Date: Wednesday, July 11
Time: 11:30AM – 1PM
If you didn’t see the pictures from the last event, Lunch 2.0 Seattle was a hit and there were plenty of developers, designers, marketers, and entrepreneurs to make the event interesting.
Of course, if anyone in the Seattle area is interested in hosting one before or after July 11th, let the folks at seattle.lunch20.com know!
For those of us in the Bay Area, remember that the next Lunch 2.0 is at Ning in Palo Alto next week!
Update: Here is the official announcement and Zillow’s announcement.
Noticed in Computer Weekly that Lunch 2.0 is backlash again:
Tim O’Reilly has a lot to answer for. When the publishing guru coined the term Web 2.0 at a 2004 conference he spawned a generation of marketing puff. We have had Marketing 2.0, PR 2.0, Democracy 2.0, Identity 2.0, Jobs 2.0 and even Lunch 2.0. The numerical suffix has become shorthand for anything new and, more dubiously, groovy.
Score! But Danny forgot to mention: “tasty, funny, and subversive.”
Speaking of which, Josh Maher writes about the Seattle Lunch 2.0 kickoff. Hmm, looks like our buddies to the north are showing us up! Let’s make that up by being at the next Lunch 2.0 at Ning on Thursday, June 14th!
Josh Maher and friends have done a great job trying to show us that Seattle is just as down on this Web 2.0 thing as Silicon Valley. In fact, they’re hosting the first Seattle Lunch 2.0 event at Wetpaint on June 1!
Location: WetPaint, EyeJot, and ZenZui.
Address: Wetpaint, 307 3rd Avenue, Suite 300, Seattle
Date: Friday, June 1
Time: 11:30AM – 1PM
Check them out at http://seattle.lunch20.com/ (Yep! their own subdomain: that’s how we roll.)