Grad Profiles highlight the personal and professional stories of Founder Institute Graduates from across the globe.
This profile on LetsLunch, a Graduate of the Silicon Valley Founder Institute, was written by Emma Tzeng. Emma blogs at http://emmatzeng.wordpress.com, and you can also follow her on Twitter at @emmatzeng.
Let’s face it: networking is a pretty arduous task. You spit out your two-minute elevator pitch in blind hopes of sparking even the slightest interest, all the while wondering if both of your individual career goals and interests even align. You repeat the same tireless process with at least ten other professionals. Small talk is made, business cards are exchanged, and by the end of the session you’ve forgotten over half the names and faces and accumulated a stack of business cards to add to your growing collection.
Sound familiar?
LetsLunch understands. That’s why the Silicon Valley-based startup is streamlining the networking process by making it more personal, enjoyable, and meaningful.
After registering on the LetsLunch website, participants can sync their accounts with their LinkedIn profiles and other social media presences and list their interests. Users then choose a few dates they are available for lunch; and after doing so, they will receive an email from LetsLunch suggesting possible matches and local lunch spots. If both parties express mutual interest in meeting over lunch, they confirm a location and time and take it from there.
So what happens after lunch? For starters, participants will have gained one more professional connection to derive inspiration from and bounce ideas off of. Users then evaluate their lunch partners through a series of questions that offer context and insight.
Every LetsLunch account holder is assigned a Reputation Rating from 1 to 10. The rating, which is generated based on that user’s social media presence and user ratings, fluctuates depending on activity.
By measuring real life interactions in addition to social media presence, LetsLunch aims to formulate a more balanced, accurate sense of an individual’s true influence.
Once a user crosses a certain rating threshold, he has the option of nabbing a lunch date with one of LetsLunch’s VIP users, which include big names like Eric Ries of The Lean Startup and Drew Houston of Dropbox.
The premise of LetsLunch is straightforward enough, but it’s really the technology that sets it apart from traditional forms of networking. LetsLunch’s platform is driven by a continuously evolving algorithm that sorts and matches thousands of users based on their interests, overall social media reach, region, and availabilities. In this way, LetsLunch ensures that local users get paired with other people with similar “social scores” and interests, increasing the likelihood of participants connecting with other professionals who share similar experiences and goals.
The company generates revenue through partnerships with local restaurants. After matching two professionals through its platform, LetsLunch suggests possible lunch spots with partner restaurants and takes a cut of the profit. It also plans to roll out premium services at an extra cost for users in the future.
LetsLunch’s Bay Area roots run deep: the company first launched in Silicon Valley in February 2011 and the idea behind it originated in downtown San Francisco. Founder Syed Shuttari, a database engineer who worked in corporate for over four years, went out to lunch with the same colleagues day in and day out. After continuing this routine for a considerate amount of time and watching others do the same, a thought began to flicker in his mind: Why not connect bright, passionate professionals with other like-minded career folk outside of their work circles?
Since then, LetsLunch has grown to a team of four, acquired over 9,000 active, hungry users, and expanded to New York and Italy. On average, 200 lunch dates occur every week across the LetsLunch platform.
As the company continues to experience rapid growth, LetsLunch plans to launch services in other US and international cities, including New Zealand, according to the official blog. The startup has also been featured in TechCrunch, Huffington Post, and VentureBeat.
“If LinkedIn is a noun and LetsLunch is a verb, we are working on making quality professional connections available to you so that you can build a strong network,” Shuttari explains.
By using online data to foster in-person interactions, LetsLunch fills in the gaps that online social networks haven’t yet successfully bridged: What does one do after adding all his “connections” or “friends” to his profile?
That question alone is one that social media giants like LinkedIn must continue to chew on. LetsLunch, however, is already a leap ahead of the rest; and as it continues to expand its reach, users can expect the company to roll out more networking opportunities to satisfy customers’ appetites—literally and figuratively
For more information on LetsLunch:
