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Comment by nate | Hacker News Reader

This is a tangent, but the post reminded me of this.

I've done quite a bit of cold-emailing to reach new mentors and new clients.

One of the things I started doing a couple years ago was to offer buying someone I was cold-emailing a "virtual cup of coffee". I even played with using that in the subject of the email.

I'd say: I'm working on a new product and I wanted to see if it would be handy for them. If they have a chance to talk on the phone or Skype, I'll send over a gift certificate to Starbucks so they could get their favorite drink before the meeting.

Those emails got some nice hit rates in responses and meetings. And you can very easily buy a $5 gift cert. online from Starbucks and email it.

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I had a friend in new york ask if he could have a virtual lunch with me over skype to get my advice. He called up eat24 or something and ordered me food to have it delivered when our lunch meeting was scheduled to start. Totally surprised me, albeit pleasantly.

That's an aweseome idea!

Love that idea!

Something about the human instinct to pattern-match compels me to point out that this is the "reciprocity" principle of influence spelled out by Cialdini's 1984 book "Influence: The Psychology of Persuasion", http://www.amazon.com/dp/006124189X .

When people show up to networking meetings with a gift (book, chocolate, whatever) I know I'm being manipulated but I don't mind. I'm more likely to pass them on with a good reference because I know they'll behave well if I send them on. This is despite knowing that they're manipulating me.

You can tell pretty quickly whether it's manipulation or a kind gesture.

Manipulation: gift + nothing meaningful to share

Kind gesture: gift + something really meaningful to network about

True. But many times the networking comes from a junior person looking for help finding a job. I take those calls because everyone has to start somewhere. Usually I pick up the Starbucks because they're less likely to have any income yet, and the people taking care of me back in the day did the same thing. Though maybe I should pick up the Starbucks just to not get manipulated. :-)

One man's manipulation is another man's manners / ingenuity. Do you manipulate your parents by talking to them differently than to your friends?

Most definitely so! :-)

Kindly disagree here. Many people simply "need a favor", and frame it as such, without any manipulation. While I'm requesting another person's time, I might as well bring a small token of appreciation.

When people show up to networking meetings with a gift (book, chocolate, whatever) I know I'm being manipulated but I don't mind

One could characterize it as "manipulation," which has a negative connotation, but it could also be conceptualized as dealing with a person who brings something to the table—that is, who understands that your time / effort is presumably valuable, and that they shouldn't expect something for nothing. Trying to pay outright would be overly expensive and too intrusive, but a small thing like coffee demonstrates that the person wants to differentiate themselves from most people, and that they have something at stake.

People treat "free" as very different than "not free," which Dan Ariely describes in Predictably Irrational, and people treat exchanges in a special way, as Lewis Hyde describes in The Gift: Creativity and the Artist in the Modern World.

Companies which write to me saying "we're using some open source code you wrote, thanks for doing that -- here's a free t-shirt" tend to get more help from me when they write back later to say that they're having trouble with something.

Paying for favors in advance goes a long way. I like the saying, "Dig the well before you need it."

How meta! Not only are you bringing up the reciprocity principle to further analyze this phenomenon, but you're also offhandedly analyzing your actions as human instinct.

Even better -- you can now tweet them a $5 starbucks gift card. https://www.starbucks.com/tweet-a-coffee

I still want to see this implemented with some local breweries. I'd definitely use tweet-a-beer.

I agree. Tweet-a-beer (especially for a local brewery) has more of a community feel. Tweet-a-coffee (even though I end up at starbucks almost daily) feels more like giving to a faceless corporation.

done via Twitter and Chirpify http://tweet-a-beer.com

This just sends five bucks — it isn't tied to a specific drinking establishment or brewery, or even to beer. Totally not the same.

awesome

That would be pretty cool as a user (drinker?), but I don't see the ROI for the brewery.

You mean besides the business it would get?

Well, sure, they'd get business--that's the benefit.

But how easy is it to tie into twitter and a payment system? That'd be the cost.

Starbucks can distribute such costs (which may not be fixed, but certainly won't grow linearly) across a larger number of stores than your local brewhouse can.

For the brewery its the same benefits as gift cards: Not everyone that receives one will actually use the money. On top of that, free advertising.

And all you have to do to get these benefits is somehow integrate with twitter and a payment system. Which might be a tall order for a local brewery.

(Or is that easier to do than I think?)

Its not my area, so I don't know how easy it is to do, but I do think it could be a space for a third-party to step in. Someone figures out how to handle the twitter/payment side, reaches out to some local breweries/bars, takes a small cut of the money for each beer tweeted. Its not going to be a super profitable business, but it might be a fun sideproject for someone.

I forgot to add the 3rd benefit to the brewery is that I would assume, in general, when people stop in, they don't come alone, and they don't just have one beer and leave. Once they're in the door, they tend to spend more money.

The app could be TAB (as in open a bar tab) Badumm-cha!

While there may be issues with localized liquor laws, this is the greatest idea I've ever heard. Too bad you just missed the last YC batch! I'd be your first beta user.

As an alternative to Skype, you could use "vLine link": https://vline.com.

The advantage over Skype with this use case is that you don't need to add them as a contact (especially if it turns out to be someone you decide you don't want to stay in contact with).

Disclaimer: I work for vLine.

That is a brilliant idea! I'll have to try that sometime

Sounds like manufacturing obligation to me. I would be suspicious and slightly insulted.

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