Ten thousand coffees. That’s a lot of caffeine, but it also has the potential to change the future. Imagine sitting down for your favourite Starbucks blend, but instead of an empty seat, sitting directly in front of you is Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau, or perhaps CEO of McDonald’s Canada John Betts, or the Head of Twitter Canada, Kirstine Stewart, or maybe you’re sitting across from astronaut Chris Hadfield. Intrigued? If so, you are in luck because this is the concept behind Dave Wilkin’s Ten Thousand Coffees.
Ten Thousand Coffees is a new Toronto based startup with a simple mission: to connect students, recent grads, and other young professionals with industry executives, experts, and thought leaders over a simple cup of coffee. Recognizing the opportunity and value in connecting young people with more seasoned veterans, Ten Thousand Coffees offers benefits to both participants. For the younger person, the opportunity to connect with people at the top provides invaluable access to information, insight, and life lessons from someone who has been through it all. For the expert, the opportunity to help shape the leaders of tomorrow and get valuable insight into the mind of young people is surely both rewarding and useful.
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Ten Thousand Coffees operates by being a hybrid social network. In order to access the wealth of experts they already have on the roster, you first have to sign up for the service as a novice. From there, you are able to browse all of the experts available to meet and send a request to connect. If the expert accepts, you set up a time to have your coffee. Now, the definition of coffee is a little bit loose as coffee can range from an in-person cup to a Skype call to an email exchange. For experts, the sign-up process is slightly different – and the experience is reversed. Ultimately, while you may want to sit down for a cup with George Stroumboulopoulos or Rick Mercer, you may have to do it remotely instead. Certainly not anything to complain about though!
Ten Thousand Coffees is currently entirely free to join and can be found online, on Twitter, and on Facebook.
Is Ten Thousand Coffees something you’d be interested in joining? Let us know in the comments below or tweet us @ViewTheVibe.
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