I agree that the food is really high. If you are really trying, the one time cost of a rice cooker and a 10 lb bag of Basmati rice from Costco will go a long way, as will bag lunches instead of going out. If you try, food can really cost very little.
2-3$ for breakfast (egg, cereal, organic milk) lunch will cost (12$) at any reasonable panera, etc... and if i get something else cheap for the day, that means another day i can invite someone to lunch for a networking opportunity. that leaves me with ($10-$20) for dinner. eating just noodles does not work for me, i need to get some sort of carnivorous delight for a meal at least once a day, fish is like 6$ a pound and then you have veggies on top of that if you cook at home, or a sushi tray is like 8$-12$ for a small one.
At 28, I can not live like a freshman college student any more. I just can't think on 1800 calories of carbs. I need a more well balanced diet.
Am i wack for thinking this? I know the average age of YC is 25, and on our team we are all 27/28, with a few younger and a few older helping on the side lines.
Why spend $12 on panera when you can make a chicken breast sandwich for $4?
And it's worth noting that cooking for yourself doesn't always save time. After you consider preparation and cleanup, sometimes it consumes more.
It can also be stressful if you don't have a nice kitchen, or if you have to share your kitchen with others. Although probably one of the benefits of having founders living together is optimizing your kitchen.
You can always stick to the basics. Ramen takes ~10 minutes for boiling water and clean up. Chicken breast takes 2 minutes to season, 14 minutes to cook and clean. Tuna takes no effort right out of the can. Boil or steam vegetables for about 5 to 10 minutes. Rice or oatmeal are cheap sources for carbs.
With these ingredients, you can eat well for under $10 / day where I live (Providence, RI). Just make sure you invest in a good spice rack.
how much do you loose by not meeting new people?
I go out to talk to people while i work, most of our team does not, they are introverts, but I need to be the extrovert for the group, plus if these guys are bringing their wives or traveling back and forth, they can spend some of the food budget.
Is this essential networking or is it talking to someone else while being away from work? (No, the waitron doesn't count.)
How many outside networking meals do you think you should have per person-week? (The answer probably depends on the team-member, but it's never 21 because some of those meals should be with other team-members and for some team-members the number is probably around 2.)
As far as your diet "requirements", are they really different from those of a grad student?
BTW - If you're paying for every networking meal, you're doing it wrong.
That may be true, but are you really lacking in opportunity if you're in a decent startup?
>i can invite someone to lunch for a networking opportunity
Is this "networking" for the startup, you, or is it a euphemism for a social life?
Let me suggest a test. Networking involves enough pre-meeting prep to enable a non-trivial agenda. Post-networking, there will be a debriefing to evaluate whether you achieved your goals and possibly what to do about it. You may not achieve said agenda every time, but if you do, that will often result in work that you have to do for the startup. If it rarely does, then either you're not very good at networking or you're not networking for the startup.
So, let's hear more about the value of this networking to the startup.
sometimes those deliverables are true, and sometimes i do it more casually than maybe i should. in milwaukee its about real relationships, in the valley i would think more people understand simple networking.