Meeting people
Coffee chats in NYC: meeting people without a networking event
By ToShareAMeal ·
Short answer
A coffee chat is the lowest-commitment version of a shared table: a café, a fixed 45 minutes, two to four people, no agenda. On ToShareAMeal you can plant a Meal Seed for a coffee or a meet-and-greet exactly the way you would for dinner — the format is the same, the stakes are smaller.
Why coffee is the easier first step
Coffee is cheap, short and daytime. If the conversation is good you extend it; if it is not, it ends naturally. That asymmetry is what makes people say yes.
It also removes the two barriers dinner carries: cost and a three-hour block.
What makes a coffee table work
Small and specific beats large and open.
- Two to four people — a café table cannot hold a bigger conversation.
- A named café and a real time slot.
- Weekday mornings and weekend afternoons fill more easily than evenings.
- No agenda, no pitches, no badges.
How this differs from networking events
A networking event is a room with a purpose and a stranger-count problem. A coffee table is three people who all chose the same café at the same hour.
ToShareAMeal is not a professional networking product; the point is the meal and the company, and anything professional that comes out of it is incidental.
When a coffee table has a stated purpose
Most coffee Seeds are simply social — no subject, no reason needed. Some carry an explicit purpose instead, which tells everyone joining what the conversation is expected to be about before they take a seat.
Two of those are worth naming: founder and startup talk, for people building things, and career advice, for people working through a work decision. Neither turns the table into a networking event — the format is still a small café table, and nothing about anyone's role, company or expertise is verified.
- No stated purpose: an ordinary social coffee, which is the common case.
- Founder and startup talk: builders talking about the work, not pitching.
- Career advice: a decision discussed by a few people, with no mentors or recruiters promised.
- Language exchange, meet locals and others exist too — the purpose is visible on the Seed.