Photo by Stephanie Watson, used under a creative commons license

I read a blog post last year that advised never to ask a venture capitalist (or any busy person) to lunch.
The post, written by Silicon Valley entrepreneur turned venture capitalist Mark Suster, advised entrepreneurs to ask for a coffee meeting instead. The jist of it was that venture capitalists don’t have much time and they only want to dine with people they know well. But asking for a coffee date was just fine.
In the startup community, a lot of deals get done over a cup of coffee. The coffeehouse provides the perfect venue for veteran entrepreneurs to dish out advice and for startup founders to soak it up. And these meetings don’t take place in the neighborhood Starbucks. Creative entrepreneurs seek out other creative entrepreneurs who run independent coffeehouses. I’ve compiled a list of the entrepreneurial coffeehouse meet ups that I know about in Austin and San Antonio. If you know of more, please mention them in the comments and I’ll add them to the list.

Jeffrey Harbach, executive director of the Central Texas Angel Network has office hours on Wednesdays from 9 to 11 a.m. at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters, 3825 Lake Austin Blvd, Austin.

Robert Reeves, IT and Wireless Portfolio Director with the Austin Technology Incubator holds office hours every Thursday at Jo’s Coffee at 242 West 2nd Street from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m.

Entrepreneur Joel Bush heads up a group of regulars who meet Friday mornings at Mozart’s Coffee Roasters, 3825 Lake Austin Blvd. You can follow their activity on Twitter at Regularing and through the group’s tumblr postings.

Entrepreneur Joshua Baer also holds office hours at Lola Savannah Coffee Shop at 6317 Bee Cave Road at 360 in Austin. You must sign up in advance for the next available time.

San Antonio also has lots of groups that meet informally at coffeehouses around the city. But thanks to Geekdom, I found out about San Antonio Open Coffee Club that meets every other Tuesday at Grassroots Coffee at 343 W. Sunset starting at 8 a.m. I’ll be there tomorrow to check it out and network with other entrepreneurs. So if you’re there, say hi!