On an unimposing corner, only 5 minutes walk from the Mountain View Caltrain station stands the RedRock cafe. Wooden finishings and liberal lick of red point is the theme. The coffee is good (by my Australian standards too!) but the best thing is the conversations that you overhear.
Behind me a young lady tries to convince her older co-founder or possible investor that her startup is "just like Apple", and that if a VC doesn't want to partner with them, then they probably just don't get it.
Next to me two co-founders are consoling each other to keep going:
It doesn't matter if they say that the problem may be too broad, as long as our assumptions are still correct there MUST be a market for it
In a very out of character way, an older person is complaining about how crap it is that his fridge is rusty. Ahh, rusty fridges, a universal problem.
An older man appears to hold a phone interview at a nearby table. But instead of asking technical questions seems to be judging his prospective new hire by the age of his laptop. He also dismisses Apple:
Some people think they [Apple] are innovative, and that they like to be deliberate with their hardware, and that's why they don't always have the latest ports. I just think they are lazy.
Suddenly, the Apple man decides to leave, citing that the cafe is not that private. He is quickly replaced by two gents who unroll a Chess board, and sit down with steaming tea. They speak in hushed tones as they get ready to do battle, placing each piece down with a satisfying knock.
Suddenly my ears pick up, the lady behind me has just asked her friend:
Well,
I need you to write me a check!
In a confident tone, the her friend replies
Ofcourse I'll write you a check.
Later in that same conversation:
Guy: It's really hard going after the consumers. You're not Apple. Girl: But somebody has to go after the consumers! Bose, Bose just bought it. ... see that's the problem, I care, I care about people. If I sell the company and somebody buys it ...
Later again
Girl: Is that REALLY true or are you just saying that to be positive? Well, I'm glad it's happening.
And they get up and leave the coffee shop.
Random comments from another table:
They added psuedo-random bubbles into the pipeline. I'm pretty sure it's patented. ... I spent most of my time fighting internal, I'm never doing that again. ... People are gonna fight for resources...
The volume of the cafe comes and goes, with the crowd sometimes fighting against the music, but other-times everyone seems to agree that it's time to be quiet, and a brief lull descends upon the room.