Announcing Thunderview CEO Dinners

Years ago, when I was living in California, I threw a semi-monthly dinner with friends in the San Francisco tech community. The dinners were always an opportunity to connect people and build friendships. Honestly, I didn’t actually get to catch up with most people, because I was busy greeting those arriving and saying goodbye to others heading out. But it didn’t matter; community is a wonderful thing to be a part of.

Part of the magic was the venue — Henry’s Hunan at 110 Natoma — which, due to it’s SOMA location, was fairly empty most evenings. It was easy to call them up and ask for space for 40 people and not worry that we had to turn over the tables after an hour. For the price of about $30 per person, we got delicious food and an incredible evening with friends.

When I moved to Colorado in 2008, I wanted to set up something similar in Boulder or Denver. But I couldn’t find a restaurant that was okay with a similar arrangement. So I put the idea aside.

In 2018, I started hosting client dinners at my house (somewhat aspirationally called Thunderview) in North Boulder. Every month, I’d cook a main dish and my clients would bring sides and we’d spend an evening sharing and listening and helping each other with challenging startup problems, It was one of my favorite nights each month, mostly because I got to shut up and watch my clients take on the coaching role with one another.

Then the Pandemic hit and that was the end of dinners for several years.

Recently, I learned that my friend Danny Newman purchased the Mercury Cafe last year and within 24 hours I was hitting him up, asking if we could hold a monthly CEO dinner at his venue. Less than a month later, here we are. The dates are booked and the web site is live. Now all we need are the CEOs. Let me know if you’d like to attend!