Two fundamental differences were immediately obvious between prior, Boston-based Entrepicurean dinners and this one: first, the space here (courtesy of Susanne) is substantially larger than my place in Boston, which made it possible to have ten people seated comfortably around the table; hence this dinner had the distinction of being the largest as well as the first one in New York. Second, being in Manhattan means that people generally don't have to drive to events. That in turn makes for a more relaxed schedule and people staying longer. In fact, virtually nobody left until about midnight.
As one might imagine, many conversations took place during the evening. I was pleasantly surprised that, once we sat down to dinner, most of the time was spent in a group conversation rather than splintering off into smaller units. Probably the most significant discussion was about Esther Dyson (Esther - perhaps your ears were burning?), who in a way was the original connection between Eric, Daphne and myself. And of course that inevitably led to discussions about angel investing, space travel, Elon Musk and other related topics. Somehow the conversation then veered toward a discussion about whether or not Google is evil - but Jewel, who spent some time there helping to promote apps into educational institutions, assured us that Google is still not evil.
Two of the guests (Daniel and Connell) work in the energy space, albeit in different sectors, so there was a frequent sprinkling of related topics such as solar energy, LEED certification, fracking, efficiency and the Story of Stuff. At one point we got into a bit of show-and-tell mode, with each of us talking about the work we were doing. As I look again at the picture, there is in an interesting left-right distribution, with the left half of the table representing individuals with multiple start-up experience (I would venture a guess that between John, Daphne, Eric and Daniel there is a collection of a few dozen companies). On the other hand Connell (energy efficiency), Jewel (visual identification of parts), Daisy (fashion technology) and Scarlett (visual content exploration) are all working on very exciting companies and have shown impressive achievements - particularly so given their youth.
The food was traditional northern Italian fare: after the usual mixture of appetizers, we enjoyed Risotto with Porcini Mushrooms, Cotolette alla Milanese (though I cheated and used chicken instead of veal) and a medley of peas, carrots and corn cooked with apricot jam. Dessert featured a pumpkin cheesecake and chocolate ganache torte, both courtesy of Trader Joe's. All of this was washed down with a variety of excellent wines brought by the guests.
To sum it up, I would say this was a successful foray into the New York Entrepicurean scene. Stay tuned for more dinners to follow: hopefully as my life becomes less nomadic I will be able to hold these dinners more regularly - there are certainly plenty of wonderful people to invite!
