Between June and September we ran nine evenings in New York and used five rooms to do it: Continental Sports Lounge, Sugar Mouse, St. Pat's Bar & Grill, A to Z Rooftop on Fifth and Harlem Hops Chelsea. Come twice and you probably went to two different addresses. This fall we stopped moving. All four dates are in one room, American Whiskey on West 30th Street, every second Wednesday at 6.
This is our own room, so read what follows as a host's guide and not as a ranking of the city's events. The record of those nine evenings is a separate note: New York so far.
Why one room
A room that moves starts from zero every time: a new address, a new crowd, nobody to pick a conversation up with. One room on a fixed rhythm is the opposite bet. You can leave a conversation half finished on October 14 and finish it on October 28, with the same people, at the same bar.
Getting to West 30th Street
American Whiskey is at 247 West 30th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, steps from Penn Station and Madison Square Garden. If you come in from New Jersey or Long Island, the train leaves you a block away. From the rest of the city, the A, C, E, 1, 2 and 3 all stop at 34th Street–Penn Station.
How the night is timed
New York is our early room. Doors open at 6 PM, an hour before our evenings in Toronto or San Jose, and the night is over by 9.
| Time | What happens | What to do |
|---|---|---|
| 6:00 PM | Doors and topic tables | Put on a name sticker and take the table closest to what you're building. You stay there for the hour. |
| 7:00 PM | Five founders on stage | Five minutes each, then questions from the room. Ask the one you'd want asked of you. |
| 7:45 PM | The hour after | The stage is done and the floor stays open. Find the person from your table. |
| 9:00 PM | Close | You're a block from the train. |
What to bring to the table is in Bring One Ask. How a founder gets one of the five seats is in Five Seats on Stage.
Four Wednesdays
- October 14. The first evening in the new room.
- October 28. Two weeks later, same room, same hour.
- November 11. Veterans Day. The evening runs as usual.
- November 25. The night before Thanksgiving. Last year AAA put the worst hours on the road that Wednesday between 11 AM and 8 PM. Book this one only if you're staying in town.
The two November dates are on the New York page.
Who is in our New York base
Thirteen New York companies are in our startup base. One of them is on the record as having pitched at a New York evening: Stardome DBA Mothership, seed stage, on August 5. It's building one app for AI creation and work.
Three of the other twelve work in health, described here from their own applications:
- Hubly Surgical, Series A. A drill for neurosurgery that stops on its own. The company says it has sold 7,000 of them across 100 U.S. hospitals since its 2024 launch.
- Guidance Analytics, Series A. Dashboards that help independent medical practices through government incentive programs such as MIPS.
- HealthKey, seed. A marketplace of health providers that plugs into employee benefits and gym memberships.
And one could only have been started here: dineoutwith.us, growth stage, which handles reservations, invitations and payment for groups of 6 to 40 at New York restaurants.
Four questions about this room
- What's the exact address?
- American Whiskey, 247 West 30th Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues.
- What time should I be there?
- Doors open at 6 PM and the stage starts at 7. The evening closes at 9.
- Is the November 25 evening really on?
- It's on our calendar as of October 7. It is the night before Thanksgiving, so check your travel first.
- Where were the earlier New York evenings?
- In five other rooms between June 3 and September 30. The New York history page lists all nine.
Mentioned in this piece
Companies · in our startup base
- Stardome DBA Mothership · pitched Aug 5
- Hubly Surgical · New York
- Guidance Analytics · New York
- HealthKey · New York
- dineoutwith.us · New York
Places
- American Whiskey · 247 West 30th Street, New York
