Want to meet people, try charging them for it? - Notes on software development

I have been blogging consistently since 2017. And one of my goals inspeaking publicly was always to connect with like-minded people. Ialways left my email and hoped people would get in touch. Even whilemy blog and twitter became popular, passing 1M views and 20kfollowers, I basically never had people get in touch to chat or meet up.

So it felt kind of ridiculous when last November I started chargingpeople $100 to chat. I mean, who amI? But people started showing up fairly immediately. Now granted themoney did not go to me. It went to an education non-profit and Imerely received the receipt.

And at this point I've met a number of interesting people, from VCs tobusiness professors to undergraduate students to founders and everyonein between. People wanting to talk about trends in databases, abouthow to succeed as a programmer, about marketing for developers, and soon. Women and men thoughout North America, Europe, Africa, NewZealand, India, Nepal, and so on. And I've raised nearly $6000 foreducational non-profits.

How is it that you go from giving away your time for free and gettingno hits to charging and almost immediately getting results? For one,every person responded very positively to it being a fundraiser. Italso helps me be entirely shameless about sharing on social mediaevery single time someone donates; because it's such a positive thing.

But also I think that in "charging" for my time it helps people feelmore comfortable about actually taking my time, especially when wehave never met. It gives you a reasonable excuse to take time froman internet rando.

On the other hand, a lot of people come for advice and I think givingadvice is pretty dangerous, especially since my background is notsuper conventional. I try to always frame things as just sharing myopinion and my perspective and that they should talk with many othersand not take my suggestions without consideration.

And there's also the problem that by charging everyone for my timenow, I'm no longer available to people who could maybe use it themost. I do mention on my page that I will still take calls from peoplewho don't donate, as my schedule allows. But to be honest I feel lessincentivized to spend time when people do not donate. So I guess thisis an issue with the program.

But I mitigated even this slightly, and significantly jump-started theprogram, during my 30th birthday whenI took calls with any person who donated at least $30.

Anyway, I picked this path because I have wanted to get involved withhelping students figure out their lives and careers. But without adegree I am literally unqualified for many volunteering programs. AndI always found the time commitments for non-profits painful.

So until starting this I figured it wouldn't be until I retire that Ifind some way to make a difference. But ultimately I kept meetingpeople who were starting their own non-profits now or donatedsignificantly to help students. Peer pressure. I wanted to do my partnow. And 30 minutes of my time in return for a donation receipt hasbeen an easy trade.

While only raising a humble $6,000 to date, the Chat forEducation program has been moresuccessful than I imagined. I've met many amazing people throughit. And it's something that should be easy to keep up indefinitely.

I hope to meet you through it too!

I wrote about trying to meet like-minded people and fundraising for educational non-profits. pic.twitter.com/UJ9U6DIHGU

— Phil Eaton (@eatonphil) June 28, 2025

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