Month: June 2022

Last Friday, I joined some friends for wine night. This is a regular event that they have been attending for months but was my first time. Although I did have a few glasses of malbec while in Argentina, no one would ever mistake me for a sommelier. I am trying to expand my horizons though and saw this as low-risk.

The event took place outside a bakery café currently undergoing renovations around a makeshift bar with tables and chairs filling a parking lot. They are installing a bar on the back patio as part of the renovations, but the place had a temporary feel that did little to create ambiance. My friends were sitting on barstools talking to the bartender when I arrived. It was clear that they were regulars from their conversation. They had just returned from a trip out west and so were regaling the bartender with some of their stories, and I just listened in also as I hadn’t seen them since they got back either.

I don’t know what wine I had. It was something light in color from Portugal and on the funky side, a bit like some sour beers. For me, the wine wasn’t the point. I wanted to have some conversation after a hectic week of dealing with lawyers on the other side of transactions. I didn’t even choose the wine I drank; I left that decision to my friend who knows me well and know wine much more than I do.

My friends knew everyone who was there and talked to most of them. This was their spot. Being there with them was a reminder of what I have missed thus far in Raleigh. I don’t have my spots yet, and that needs to change. Will change. I write that knowing I’m planning on a short trip away again after the holiday weekend, but summer is the time for this exploration and that will be my focus over the coming months. I encourage you to do the same wherever you are this summer—go out and explore and find your own local spots.

I attended a startup pitch event last week, the sort of event I have been attending on a regular basis for a few years now. Investors in the Southeast have always been more concerned with a path to profitability than their counterparts in Silicon Valley, but sustainable growth was even more of a focus at this event and there seemed outright disdain for the growth-at-all-costs mindset that dominates most venture capital (e.g. there are publicly-traded companies that grew with venture funding that still aren’t profitable). This event was more for practice for the founders than anything else and most of the companies speaking will never seek investment from venture funds, but that wasn’t the point—I was there to listen to the investors and get a sense of what they are thinking.

There has been some heavy consternation in the startup space during the last few months. Y Combinator published a memorandum to founders telling them to prepare for lean times that has become a lightning rod for both criticism and praise. The current economic state might best be summarized by a quote from Game of Thrones: Chaos is a ladder. Lots of companies will retract and recoil. Some might fail entirely. Yet there will be others that come through this crucible and become juggernauts. And for those of you reading this who don’t have your own businesses, a similar logic holds for people as well. There will still be opportunities, just maybe not the ones you thought would exist a few months ago.

During the final weekend I was in Buenos Aires, I went to a soccer match. It was the first game of the new season so there was an air of novelty, though Argentina is unusual as there are two seasons every year for its top division. I chose to attend a home match of Boca Juniors, one of the two biggest clubs in Argentine soccer along with River Plate. This match was not a superclasico between the two Argentine giants, but Boca is famous for having one of the most imposing stadium atmospheres anywhere in the world. The stadium is called La Bombonera, which translates to the chocolate box, so named for an older version of the stadium that looked like a box of chocolates and one of the great stadium names anywhere.

Attending a soccer match in Argentina is not as simple as just buying a ticket and showing up. For one thing, visiting fans aren’t allowed inside stadiums. Argentina is not the only country in Latin America with this policy that is a sad reminder of the violence that has sometimes broken out in the stands. There are also different classes of tickets. Most tickets are allocated to socios, a form of membership that is comparable to being a season ticket holder. There can be additional single tickets for purchase, but there is no guarantee that any will be available.

To eliminate the risk, I overpaid to ensure someone local would be with me attending the match. As it turned out, I’m not sure this was an overpay at all as there was an issue with the socio card I was given to enter the stadium. I still don’t know exactly what the problem was, but I was escorted by a team employee to another line where he explained the situation to a cashier and she placed a wristband with an embedded scannable code on my arm. It was stressful, but there was nothing I could do other than laugh at this misfortune. Eventually, though, everything got sorted and I was able to pass through the turnstiles.

There was still almost a half hour before kickoff, so I was still able to get the full pregame experience. My seat was along the sideline, about at the 25 yard line if it were a football field. Mind you, this is not where our tickets were, but I preferred to be a little higher up than the fourth row so I could see more of the pitch. The atmosphere inside built as more and more people crowded into the stands. When the crowd really got going in the minutes leading up to kickoff, both ends of the stadium were just noise and color of waiving banners and balloons. They were singing the same songs, but the timing was a little off between the two ends so the effect was a very strange and rapid echo. A few flares added some smoke to the atmosphere, and then we were ready for kickoff.

For large stretches, what was taking place on the field was almost an afterthought. Boca were dominant in possession, but the final killer pass was lacking for most of the half. Then someone finally found that perfect pass and it resulted in a simple tap-in goal. When Boca scored, the place shook. This was both exhilarating as it resulted from such an outpouring of joyful emotion and disconcerting as the structure is mostly concrete and steel. A second followed shortly thereafter and all signs pointed towards a blowout. Then out of nothing the visitors stole the ball in midfield and broke forward to score themselves. And the Boca fans responded by getting louder to back their team to respond, something I’ve always wanted to see but that never happens when the other team scores in our stadiums.

The second half was rather drab with the only real on-field action being a mistake from one of Boca’s central defenders and a great save to keep the score at 2-1. When the final whistle blew, I stood and slowly turned in circles to take in the receding scene around me. The wall of people and noise to my left only began to fade after the players left the pitch, but those in my section filed out in quick order. Exiting the stadium was much less chaotic than entering, and we walked backed to where the car was parked. I was then driven back across the city and dropped off at a subway station to proceed with the remainder of my time in Buenos Aires.

In order to traverse Buenos Aires as quickly as possible, I have taken many journeys by subway during my stay. It helps that each ride only costs about fifteen cents. During off-peak hours, vendors walk through the train cars selling things. They sell boxes of tissues, face masks, chewing gum, sewing kits, highlighters, or whatever else they have managed to procure (chewing gum is a consistent best-seller). There is an established protocol for how these vendors operate. The vendor places the item in the lap of everyone seated in a train car (you can opt out with a simple hand gesture no) then doubles back to collect the goods. Prices are listed on stickers on the items. If you don’t want to buy, the vendor will pick up the goods as he circles back. If you wish to make a purchase, you hand him money instead of the item. If you want a different flavor or color, he will make it happen. And then the vendor will move into the next train car and repeat the process. The whole operation takes about the same amount of time as traveling a single stop, but if you wish to purchase before exiting the train you can flag the vendor down and he will make his way over to you. And you can just leave the item on the seat if you aren’t buying but have reached your stop.

The rules for this commerce are not posted, but all of the locals know them. This has been a simple example of something that I don’t normally notice but that is heightened by being a visitor here. Everywhere as its own quirky customs, things that don’t make sense when first viewed by outsiders but that often have internal logic. In the case of these subway vendors, it is an efficient way to purchase things in transit even if there is a lottery to what is offered. Stepping out of my normal environment into another has allowed me to observe this, and that is one of the great benefits of travel.