San Francisco Tour – Thank you…

Posted by Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten on May 13, 2007 in Business, Drinks, Food, Fun, Inspiration, Party, Personal, Travel, Vacation | 6 comments

We just had one of the best trips ever in San Francisco last week thanks to everyone who helped us out with office space, tips for parties and dinners. I want to take this post to thank those people and show them a little linklove.

We arrived on Thursday evening but not after taking a detour through Minneapolis. At the flight from Minneapolis to San Francisco I met Lou Hughes. He is the President and General Manager of SimpleDevices (Universal Electronics Digital Platform Group) and a successful serial entrepreneur. Thanks Lou for making that long flight enjoyable!

On Friday we had our first OpenOffice day. We were invited to Yahoo Brickhouse by Salim Ismail. We worked at the Brickhouse and then had an excellent lunch at the aptly named Brickhouse (not affiliated!) Hamburger Restaurant. Thanks Salim for having us over and giving us access to an unlimited supply of drinks!

Also on Friday we walked into the Wired Offices to meet with Chris Anderson (without an appointment!) but unfortunately he wasn’t there. Better luck next time.

That night we had dinner with Rikk Carey’s (from Plaxo), Joseph Smarr and Mark Fletcher at Rikk’s house in Half Moon Bay. Dinner was excellent, drinks were great AND fun and we had a beautiful walk to the beach with Dan Ambrosi!

On Saturday evening we visited the Supperclub during Cinco de Mayo. Thanks to our contacts from Asmallworld.net who got us on the guest list.

On Sunday we drove back to Half Moon Bay to go sailing on a huge boat owned by Harold. We had a great time on that boat. Especially when the wind stopped blowing and the engine didn’t start. Thanks for an unforgettable experience!

After we had drinks at the Half Moon Bay Yacht club we had dinner at Dan Ambrosi‘s house! Thanks Dan for everything! Especially the stories you guys told us sitting at the back porch about… well… you know.

On Monday we had another OpenOffice meeting. This time at the MySQL offices where we were invited to by Marten Mickos. They gave us the biggest conference room and again an unlimited supply of drinks and food. We launched a new member section for Fleck.com right there in the MySQL offices. Thanks Marten for having us!

On Monday evening we were supposed to have dinner with Michael Arrington from Techrunch, Matt Mullenweg from WordPress.com and Scott Rafer from, well, a lot. Even Om Malik was invited (last minute!) but he was too busy and Michael didn’t show up because of a mix up in someones calendar. But Scott, Matt and us had a great time at this sushi place and after that went for drinks with even more local entrepreneurs. Can’t remember too much about the rest of the evening, it was that good…

So on Tuesday morning we went to the Palo Alto OpenCoffee meeting organized by Keith Teare from Edgeio. We also met Willem-Jan Schutte from Glaxstar and Damon Grow from SR Interactive.

At that meeting Keith Teare told us he heard about the missed appointment with Michael Arrington and suggested we go and wake him up at his appartement. He said “Bring coffee and a croissant and then maybe he won’t kill you”. So we did. The result. Thanks Michael for not killing us!

After surviving Michael we had a nice lunch with Olivier Hanisch from Red Herring. Thanks for lunch Olivier!

After lunch we went to the Plaxo offices to work there. Everybody was extremely friendly and Rikk even gave us his personal office! Their photographer made a beautiful photo and you can see it here on the official Plaxo blog.

That same Tuesday evening we drove to Kevin Kelly‘s house near the ocean and had Dim Sum and an incredibly inspiring evening. See a great photo and read all about it here. Thanks Kevin for taking hours and hours to talk to us and answer all our questions. And thanks for the tour of the Japanese supermarket and having us taste pigs ears, octopus and chicken legs. I loved it!

On Wednesday we were invited to have our OpenOffice thing at Mashery by Oren Michels. We worked in actual cubicles which we hadn’t done before which was great fun. We also had lunch with Oren and he reserved us a VIP table for the evening at the Involver.com Launch party. Thanks Oren for everything!

But before we could relax at the Involver.com party we drove to Palo Alto for the STIRR meeting. It turned out that a lot of people we knew were there. Even if we only knew them by name until then. So, thanks Jeff Clavier for buying us a beer (we forgot to bring money and Jeff is an investor so we figured… …you know?) and introducing us to people! Thanks to the Justin.tv people for giving Patrick new shoes. We also met and had fun with Ann-hao Chao from Riya, Ray Karno from TriNet and Todd Sampson and Ian Kennedy from Yahoo there.

Three things I regret from that STIRR meeting: not winning the SUN server they gave away, not remembering to ask the businesscard of that nice lady who just started as a VC, was working on her pilot license and was interested in Fleck.com, and the last thing I regret is not having danced with Pascale Diaine from Orange. She is the Evangelist for Orange and we DID dance in Paris at the Le Web 3/Netvibes party. Better luck next time.

So after that we drove back to the city for the Launch Party of Involver.com which was held at the Harlot.

We had VIP passes but I decided to introduce us at the door by passing the huge line of people waiting to get in and yelling “We are the band!!!“. The gorillas at the door were not impressed and they didn’t let us in until after a few uncomfortable moments and only after we showed them the VIP passes.

At the party we met the guys from MyBlogLog including Scott Rafer and Eric Marcoullier (who is friends with TOO many people!) and just too many people to remember or write down. I suggest you take a look at my Flickr San Francisco set to see who was there. If you were there and I didn’t mention you here do me favor and leave a comment!

And then we went home.

And we were depressed.

And then we went to another party!!!

On Friday evening we had just arrived back in Amsterdam when we were invited to come take a quick look at the Odeon for the after party for the Next Web Party. Jet lagged and tired we decided to just wear our white suits again and go for it. So we ended up having a great time with the guy running the place (Peter!) and having dinner, cocktails and way to much great wines until 2 in the morning.

So, one more time: thanks everybody for being such great hosts while we were visiting San Francisco. This has been a truly unforgettable week , a huge inspiration and although slightly exhausting also very refreshing and energizing!

Can’t wait to get back…