Coupa Cafe in Palo Alto. Buck’s of Woodside. The Creamery in SoMa (RIP).
Silicon Valley’s coffee shops have undoubtedly seen more dealmaking than any one fancy office building or members’ club. Now a new guard of cafes, spread throughout the San Francisco Bay Area, New York and Los Angeles, is growing in popularity among venture capitalists and, by extension, startup founders and tech workers.
With AI deals suddenly running hot, and startup founders anxiously trying to crack a frigid fundraising market, the need to rub elbows with venture investors is high. To assemble a comprehensive map of the cafe networking landscape, we asked over 40 venture capitalists for their go-to espresso-ordering spots and got them to spill on when they’re usually there and who they bump into. Prepare for lots of Andreessen Horowitz sightings (the most name-dropped fund on our VC list) and plenty of matcha lattes. Spontaneously “run into” investors at your own risk.
