I almost left San Francisco because I was so tired of answering the question:
“What do you do for work?”
So I came up with an idea: What if I invite 50 strangers to dinner for an evening of meaningful conversation?
I posted the idea on Twitter.
It went completely viral (here & here).
https://x.com/adele_bloch/status/1806033536513974358
I got 500+ applications to join, with so many expressing similar feelings - wanting a space to make meaningful connections that move beyond work talk.
Behind the scenes, I didn’t have any part of the dinner planned yet. No restaurant, supplies, run of show… anything.
But I knew I shouldn’t start planning until I proved that I could fill up seats.
I manually read through every single application and set a price point of $200 (restaurants in SF are pricey!)
Invited the first batch to join and gave them 48 hours to confirm their spot.
I sold 50 tickets in 5 days:
$10K in revenue secured.
We were ready to GO!
Over the next 4 weeks, I toured restaurants, designed the flow, purchased supplies, decided the menu, and made sure every last detail was accounted for. I wanted it to feel like a truly special night.
No detail went untouched!