Why I Charge People to Get Coffee With Me

When you ask to pick someone’s brain, you’re basically asking for free consulting services

Anna Codrea-Rado
Forge
Published in
4 min readOct 15, 2019

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A man and a woman sitting at a coffee table. The woman is listening as the man is conversing over coffee.
Photo: Stuart Freedman/In Pictures/Getty

RRecently, a startup founder cold-emailed me with a request: Would I mind taking a look at a beta version of his product, and then take a call to share my thoughts? I was an expert in his sector, he explained, and he’d love to use my insight to…

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Anna Codrea-Rado
Forge
Writer for

Journalist and podcaster covering business, culture & tech for the NYT, Guardian, FT, Business Insider, Wired etc.