Today was the first day of Startup Grind. I’m like, already over it. No shade to Startup Grind, which was actually ultra awesome, but because I’m working on overcoming my social anxiety and hatred of crowds and working on shit like that fucking sucks. So I got there late, mostly because I wasn’t in a hurry to get there, but also I was waiting for traffic to clear out because the traffic here is no joke.

I think about the irony of how for someone who hates going to anything social ever, I sure do end up having to talk to a lot of people and go to a bunch of social shit for work ugh. I know complain a lot here, but don’t worry, because I also complain a lot in real life, in person, very loudly. I think half the people think it’s funny, half the people are like, “oh but you’re so good at it” (sigh), and half the people are secretly or (not so secretly sometimes) are like “yeah same.”

It sucks though because I learn so much and I genuinely love it and people are cool and people are doing such interesting things. OMG I met this guy who was 76 and they had a ton of patents and they needed a manufacturer for this special heating vent and I was like iono man this doesn’t have AI in it at all lol, but anyway I asked them a lot of questions and they were so nice and proud of their work like omg if someone can hook these guys up with a manufacturer that would do a 1000 units of one thing because everyone else wants a crazy amount like 1M.

One thing though that is awesome is I LOVE THAT HALF OF STARTUP GRIND IS OUTSIDE. YES THANK YOU LIKE HOLY SHIT to be able to dip into some fucking fresh air or after like 4 booth evaluations I can be like, I NEED A BREAK and then I’m outside in two steps? They were also nice enough to have multiple exits too and it kept it from being hot AF in the Startup Tent.

Like when you need to see sunlight at RSA, depending on where you’re at it could take 2 business days to get out of there so I end up doing giant ass batches of evaluations and then when I climb out it’s like a troll seeing sunlight after 18 years. But I only have so many chances to get booth data so I have to eat it.

Somehow I made friends with this community builder who gave me a free ticket to something during this pub crawl they had as an event. He went back in to return his glass and he said, “Wait one minute,” which I took to mean, “Hide inside this entryway and jump scare him as he passes by.” I managed to convince the girl next to me to do this with me. We were having a somewhat serious conversation about work while simultaneously peeking out to see when he was coming by. It was taking unusually long, so long I thought he left us instead, when someone else came in and joined us so now there were three of us hiding in this giant entryway. Anyway I jumped out and he was like “Do you want some?” and had a box with a burger and fries.

Anyway, my friend is presenting on the main stage tomorrow. Yay! Love it!

Fries consumed: 3
Mischief made: Some
Times I complained: All of them
Regrets had: None