your next co-founder is already here

They're just sitting at a different table.

In 2012, I started hosting Bitcoin meetups in Bangalore. Three people showed up to the first one. Strangers in a hotel lobby, talking about digital money most people thought was a scam. By 2013, we had a thousand people at the Sheraton. By December, we'd launched Unocoin—India's first Bitcoin exchange.

My two co-founders? They were at those early meetups. Sitting at different tables.

The internet promised connection. Instead, it gave us isolation at scale. You can follow 10,000 people on Twitter and know none of them. You can join 50 Discord servers and belong to none of them.

Belief isn't transmitted through fiber optics. It's transmitted through eye contact. Conviction isn't built through Zoom calls. It's built through handshakes. In 2016, I did it again in Toronto. Coffee shop. Six people. Bitcoin was crashing. We kept meeting. Second Thursday of every month. The consistency mattered more than the crowd.

Within a year, a thousand people at the downtown Sheraton. Dr. Adam Back flew in. The 38th Director of the United States Mint showed up. Some people in that audience now run multi-million dollar Bitcoin companies. They weren't special when they walked in. The room made them special. Here's what people miss: meetups aren't networking events. Networking is transactional—"What do you do? Here's my card."

Meetups are transformational—"What do you believe? What are you building?" At a networking event, you collect contacts. At a meetup, you find co-founders. When we started in 2016, Bitcoin was $600. Now it's around $100,000. The people who came to those early meetups—when it was cold, when nobody believed—they're the ones building now. Not because they're smarter. Because they showed up when it mattered.

In 2012, Sathvik and Harish were strangers. By 2013, they were my co-founders. By 2018, we were fighting the Indian central bank together in Supreme Court. If I'd stayed home that night, Unocoin doesn't exist. India's Bitcoin story looks completely different. The precedent for constitutional protection of Bitcoin never gets set. All of that started because three people showed up.

We meet every second Thursday. 6pm. Firkin on Bay. First drink on us. You don't need to know everything about Bitcoin. You don't need a business plan. You just need to show up. Because the person sitting three tables away might be your next co-founder.

You won't meet them on Twitter. You'll meet them here. Join us.