- Talk about experiences you're not ready for. Hi. [LAUGHTER] You may not know it, but you're sitting in the middle of one of the most amazing and vibrant startup communities in the United States. And it's not just tech startups. Every day in every corner of Portland, people are rethinking, reinventing, and innovating on any number of products. It could be apparel, biking, banking, donuts. You saw some donut innovation this morning. Donut inside of a donut. Pretty innovative. [LAUGHTER] Education, health care, nonprofits, we even have people innovating on how business can better collaborate with local government. I try and track and promote as much of this stuff as best I can, but a lot of it is grassroots and hard to track. So it makes sense that when people are looking to get involved in the startup community, they wind up finding their way to me. I'm Rick Turoczy. And while helping Portland folks connect isn't in my job description, it's the work I find myself doing every day. I'm not alone. There are a bunch of us working on this effort to build community. It's not easy work, and we have to do it. Anyone can do it. Literally anyone. I know that because I am probably the last person on earth anyone would choose to do this work. Not outgoing. I'm not extroverted. And meeting new people makes me exceedingly uncomfortable. [LAUGHTER] I think probably the best way to give you a glimpse into the personality that I have is to take you back and introduce you to my best friend from kindergarten. Every single day, the first thing I do when I got to school was find my best friend. As soon as we'd found one another, we'd immediately go hide in this little tent in the corner of the classroom, just the two of us. We're practically inseparable. And we'd spend hours in that tent, just me and my best friend, Golden Walnut. [LAUGHTER] Now, this was Montessori school. [LAUGHTER] I get That parents can be a little creative with names. But see, Golden Walnut wasn't one of those creative kids names. Kind of think you see where I'm going here. Because my best friend in kindergarten was, in fact-- [LAUGHTER] --a walnut. [LAUGHTER] Solid friend, though. Seriously. [LAUGHTER] Back then, we referred to that type of behavior as being shy. Today, we see it more as being introverted. Clearly, pretty aggressively introverted. No offense, Walnut. So if someone who would rather hang out in a tent with a walnut can do this building community work, fairly confident you can do this community work as well, even if you're introverted like me. Because introverts are counterintuitively actually really, really good at this stuff. I think it's because we become comfortable with being uncomfortable. We've gotten used to being in awkward situations. Because for us, every single interaction with another human, fairly awkward. [LAUGHTER] So introvert or not, I've found through my experience that it's easier for anyone to meet one-on-one, face-to-face, because it's not as scary as a group of people. It's not as scary as attending an event. By the way, hi to all the introverts watching the live stream right now. [LAUGHTER] [APPLAUSE] I see you. And I can now, for the first time in history, confirm that meeting one-on-one, face-to-face is nowhere near as frightening as standing alone on stage talking to 3,000 people. [LAUGHTER, CHEERS] I call these one-on-one meetings collecting dots. In collecting dots, I'm given the opportunity to meet new people with a variety of backgrounds and perspectives. I'm able to step outside of my comfort zone. And best of all, I'm able to capture dots that have the potential to benefit other dots I've managed to collect. Now, being introverted isn't the only reason people avoid connecting with the startup community. Sometimes it's because they think they don't do startups, or they don't have anything valuable to add. But the fact that you don't do startups is exactly what makes your insights valuable. The startup community has had more than enough of our own echo chamber. What's needed now are new opinions, a diversity of ideas, and people with new experiences and backgrounds. Not more of the same. Because unfortunately, I think it's pretty obvious where that more of the same behavior has gotten us. Collecting dots can be time consuming, but you can make it more efficient. Folks tend to open up around food. You just had lunch. You probably talked to a lot of folks around meals. It's the family dinner dynamic or the watering hole effect. And in my experience, a cup of coffee is the smallest possible instantiation of that dynamic over the shortest period of time. A cup of coffee helps people open up. It helps us as humans to connect and connect more quickly. So building community, collecting dots can happen simply and quickly over a cup of coffee, and someone to have it with. Best of all, it helps both of you collect a dot. So efficient but still intimidating, because a lot of folks worry about providing value during that short time frame of a coffee meeting. So let's be honest. Most everyone I've had a coffee meeting with will tell you this. I am completely useless in 99.9% of the coffee meetings I have. I mean, I listen, I drink my coffee, I ask a few questions, and sure, every once in a while I have an insight or something that may be valuable. But that's a rarity. And that's OK, because connecting the dots isn't even the most valuable part of building community. For me, it's the hardest part, but not the most valuable. The real value comes long after I've been jacked up on caffeine. Potentially days or weeks after I've had that meeting, the real magic happens when I have the opportunity to step back and reflect on that dot. Upon reflection, that dot gains context. It gains connections. It starts to provide value to all of the other dots I see. It stops being a single point of reference. Now, you might say those connections, aren't they common sense? Talking a lot about common sense here. My perspective on common sense is common sense isn't common. Frankly, it's only common to you. So for me, it makes perfect sense why I need to connect the former head of project management at a massive multinational corporation with the founder of a tiny local blockchain startup. For me, I can see why I need to connect the dot that's wrestling with rethinking venture capital to the dot who's successfully churning up wacky flavors of ice cream. Those connections are obvious to me. And because of your unique experience, because of what you focus on day in and day out, because of your dots, you're able to see connections that I can't see. Someone else is able to see connections that neither you nor I can, but they're obvious to them. This is how community is built-- by connecting the dots that only you can see. But this doesn't just happen naturally. If we leave it to nature, it won't happen as quickly as we need it to. It might not happen at all. Building community is artificial. There's absolutely nothing natural about this, especially for an introvert like me. And despite what we've been taught, not everything artificial is bad. Sometimes humans come up with some pretty amazing things artificially, like coffee and golden walnuts. [LAUGHTER] So enough of the talk, enough theory. Let's get tactical. If this struck a chord, and you're raring to go-- I don't know, maybe you're an extrovert or something. [LAUGHTER] I don't get you, but I get you. All I'm asking you to do is just schedule a coffee meeting with one new person. Just go collect one new dot. But if that feels like too much, trust me, I get it. All I'm asking is that you simply say yes to the next coffee invite you get. Just say yes, and you'll still manage to collect a dot. You both will. That's all you have to do to build community. The reflections and connections, you'll figure that out. I'm confident. In fact, I'm convinced that right now, every single person in this audience, with your existing dots, knows someone that someone else should know. And you're the only person who can make that connection, because you're the only person who can see that connection. Because to you, it's common sense. So let's use your common sense and your common sense and your common sense to collect and connect those dots and build a better, more tightly-knit community for all of us two cups of coffee at a time. Thank you. [APPLAUSE]