Beeeeep. Wow, I love doing that. And I'm so glad that you're doing it even though you don't love it. So here we are.
Hey, Josh. It's funny I was taking notes on my Slack DMs to myself as I was listening to your audio note to me or your voicemail, I should say. And I was like, I don't even know exactly what I'm going to say. Maybe I should think about it more. But I feel like that's the point. So, here my initial thoughts.
Okay, this reminds me...as we talked about friendships...a lot of the opposite of loneliness, which you know, I'm obsessed with. And I think I've told you, it's a book, the first chapter of the book is a speech that a woman named Marina Keegan gave back in 2012, at Yale commencement. And I just had to pull this up, because I feel like it's just so spot on for how I think about friendships in my life, and how I think about Groove and the perspective that I bring to this whole thing. So she's talking about the opposite of loneliness and how we don't have a good word for it.
She says, "It's not quite love, it's not quite community. It's just this feeling that there are an abundance of people who are in this together, who are on your team."
And then later in the speech, she says, "Yale is full of tiny circles, we pull ourselves around. acapella groups, sports teams, houses, societies, clubs, these tiny groups make us feel loved, and safe, and a part of something even on our loneliest nights, when we stumble home to our computers, partner lists, tired, awake."
And then she talks about how we won't have those next year talking about, you know, all those graduates, we won't be on the same block as our friends, we won't have a bunch of group texts and how that scares her.
And when I think about how I make friends, I think a lot about these tiny circles of people. And I think now that I live in New York City, where a lot of these circles have had the opportunity to come together, whether it's college friends, home friends, my like community leader and tech space friends, folks from Groove, folks from other communities that I've joined, they come together now inside of New York.
It's really interesting to have the opportunity to have those circles intersect and sort of be in control of that of those introductions and saying, Hey, someone from this circle should really meet this person from this circle. And I have a lot of fun doing that. So yeah, I think about that a lot, and how that relates to like the different circles.
And one of the cool things about Groove is that some of those people from those different circles get to come together here, it's an easy way for me to introduce my friend Rachel, who was originally like a community leader, friend with my friend Paul, who I met way back at Penn State in college and like inside a Groove, they can now Groove together, they can now co work together, what a cool thing that like they're in the same space, even though they live in completely different cities, and know me from different parts of my life.
I think that just like gets me really excited about the possibility of having all of your friends and I use that term "friends" quite loosely, because some of the people that I've invited into Groove, I wouldn't say we're close friends, even Paul, like Paul, I have not seen in person and God knows how many years, but we Groove together. I feel like I'm more part of his life now in the last year and a half than I ever was, before. We were just people who both went to the same coworking space back in college and knew some of the same people we really, like we've never had a meal together.
So it's really interesting because I think I use "friend" quite loosely in my life. And I love the connection of bringing two people together from those different circles. I don't like it being forced, I don't like having to do it. I like doing it when it's appropriate. Like there's a reason and I think, oh lightbulb moment this person should meet this person or the like serendipitous. I'm at an event and I'm like, Oh my gosh, so and so should meet so and so. Â
I've been more intentional about creating spaces like that. I've had a bunch of my girlfriends from those different circles come together for these rooftop parties of mine in New York and they all have very intentional reasons for gathering and it is very cool to be able to walk around and say like, oh, this person should know this person for this reason and you know each other or you know me from different parts of my life.
So I guess when I think about Groove, I guess one of my one of the top things feeling most alive as I listened to your message is, when we think about building friendships on Groove, I think part of it is doing it in a way that is still in the moment, like your example of Tal, I'm thinking myself—well, you probably met Tal, from like something you had in common in a moment, probably in real life, since you've known each other for so many years, and I know you did live in the same place, and eventually were roommates.
So I feel like with you two, you probably had some sort of a shared experience, maybe you were at the same place at the same time because of a shared interest or because of a mutual friend, whatever it is, like there was a richness to you to meeting in a moment, versus you like stalking Tal on LinkedIn and being like, let me send a connection request, which feels like very clinical and like, blah, I don't like that feeling. It doesn't feel normal. Yes, people do it. I send LinkedIn requests, and I share funny notes, and kind thoughtful requests.
But at the same time, by sending requests, there's, there isn't a shared understanding of what's next, like what's expected of that request. Like when someone says, Oh, I'd love to connect with you. It's like, okay, so do you want to find time on my calendar to have a virtual coffee chat? Do you want to meet up in person because you're also in New York? I don't understand the commitment level?
That's one of the problems with orbit requests on Groove. The reality is the on demand nature of hopping into a coworking session at a time that makes sense for you is so cool, that I wouldn't want people to have to make it something they plan for more intentionally to meet someone.
I think the biggest challenge for us is, how do we get smarter with helping people realize what they have in common with someone in those moments of meeting and feeling safe and excited to meet that person at that moment versus requesting to plan a later moment of meeting? So, that's what's feeling alive for me right now.
I hope you have a fun time listening to this and I will catch you next week.
