Jamie | Day 11:

The French are Rubbing Off on Us

A walk about Paris will provide lessons in history, beauty, and in the point of Life. ― Thomas Jefferson

A couple months ago we welcomed esteemed community guru, Douglas Atkin, over to our office in San Francisco for lunch and a fireside chat about community. Douglas is famously (or infamously, depending on who you ask) known for his provocative metaphors. Communities start with “bum sniffing,” or the testing-the-waters-to-see-if-you’re-like-me stage. Then, the goal is to rub members together and make them sticky. Communities are people who bind together like glue around shared values and similarities they perceive in one another.

Regardless of taste in humor, however, most seem to listen to Douglas because his ideas work, and I’m starting to see this happen here. Our Insiders are joining in on each other’s experiences, sharing drinks, conversation and connecting both online and offline. And our members are not the only ones rubbing together and getting sticky: we are too. We all seemed to assimilate certain fashions of the French rather quickly. It’s nice to know we’re such an open-minded and flexible bunch. We’ve taken to the quart d’heure vaudois (the French rule of being 15 minutes late), like des poissons dans l’eau. We’re increasingly replacing emails with face-to-face meetings, as those good in business here do. Meals are sacred and take on a life of their own, meaning no fire in the world could tear us away from enjoying company and cuisine for as long as they’re meant to last (perhaps one hour, perhaps five). Using our smartphones in the presence of others is just plain rude. And emails? If you have more than one idea or more than several sentences in an email, it may go unanswered. Perhaps try Facebook messenger, or better yet, come find us at Mutinerie or suggest we meet for coffee. I’ve even noticed our team meetings have slowly evolved from brisk, action-oriented reports, to less structured discourse focused more on ideas and discovery than on an immediately obvious result. It’s tough to say whether this experiment in Parisian living will create long-term benefits or harm, but it’s clear that right now, there’s no turning back and we’re becoming a part of this community. This all is at once both incredible and terrifying for me. The French are rubbing off on us.

Who did you meet?

I went on the Do the Louvre in an Hour experience with Uriel and had a lovely dinner with Christophe and Guillaume at my flat.

What interaction stood out most and why?

Tonight I made dinner for two new friends: Guillaume (the guy in the top hat, founder of Djump) and Christophe (founder of Uinfoshare and a true connector). After dinner, Guillaume, Christophe and I retired to the living room for some cheese and another glass (or three) of wine.I had been telling them how I really want to improve my French. I remembered that my college French lessons classes were actually all on YouTube because we learned through the “immersive” learning program, French In Action, which aired on PBS (American public television), so I decided to find a few of the episodes and show it to Christophe and Guillaume.

I always joked about how comical this program was — in fact, it was a running joke with my roommate, Josh, and I during university that all I knew how to say in French was “Moi? Je ne vais pas a la fac!” (“Me? I’m not going to school!) or “il a un complexe parce que ses parents sont divorcés” (“He has a complex because his parents are divorced).

Turns out, this was even more ridiculous to my French and Belgian friends than I could have imagined. Not only is the series dated, but it leans heavily on ridiculous stereotypes of the French that suddenly made the light bulb go off for all of us. “This captures and explains so many of our cultural misunderstandings!” Christophe said. The series was created by a Frenchman who taught at Yale, so I always thought of it as “authentic” French. But Christophe and Guillaume didn’t care that the creator was French — they saw this as clearly American. t was produced out of Yale and aired on American Public Television. Nothing about this was authentic other than (possibly) some of the 1970s slang.

What was the biggest challenge?

Trying to figure out how to translate Celsius into Fahrenheit when baking a frittata and fish! I nearly burned dinner because apparently I had it at like 550 degrees Fahrenheit.

What new ideas did you have?

Perfecting the Insider experience on our platform is so important to delivering travelers the best experience. Nothing can replace these conversations we’re having with them and I want to make sure we keep this up even after we return home.

What did you discover about yourself?

The dining room table is my favorite place to work, wherever in the world I am.

What’s something new you learned about the Vayable business/community?

Travelers, Insiders, guides …everyone on our platform are truly peers, and it’s so representative of the world we’re living in, the way the economy is shifting and a new framework for thinking about services and transaction. Together we’re paving the way for a whole new way to relating to commerce.

How’s the team doing?

I think everyone has really found their groove. It’s also interesting to notice the different kinds of work environment each of us need varies by time of day or week, project and function we serve in the company. This has never been more apparent than now. Everyone seems to be having fun, going out in the evenings and discovering the city, working hard meeting Insiders, fixing bugs, and bringing the community’s ideas to life. It’s truly amazing to be a part of this.