When I’m in Boston for the day, I like to use Andala Coffee House as my base of operations. I get there insanely early and grab my favorite seat right by the service counter. This gives me access to a super secret power outlet that only long time regulars know about. It also allows me to avoid some of the “loud talkers” who start to populate the place around 9ish.
Andala is mostly populated with youngish urban hipsters and geeks trying to get some work done. There are lot’s of apparent job interviews and the occasional awkward “breakfast date” generated from Match.com or Jdate.
So I’m sitting there last Friday minding my own business when I guy comes up to my table around 8:45 and asks whether I’m Rob Go. I’m a little confused because I really don’t look Asian. Oddly, the most famous Mike Walsh is a somewhat hunky Asian guy who is a new media guru working out of Australia and Hong Kong.
In any case, the guy apologizes for distrubing me and as he is walking away he says “I just thought you were the most interesting guy in the world.”
Ok, I’m thinking it’s time to queue the theme from “Twilight Zone.”
Over the next hour or so the same thing happens another three times. A person walks up and asks whether I’m Rob Go or “the most interesting man in the world.” By now the barrista has figured out some of the mystery and redirects these folks to a customer sitting in the far corner with his back towards me.
When I got a couple of spare moments, I decided to google “Rob Go” and try to figure out this confusing behavior. It turns out Rob Go is a VC with Spark Capital in Boston. From his blog, I can see that he is in fact Asian. His twitter icon ( @robgo ) is an old white guy.
OK. I somewhat understand. I’m an old white guy with white hair who sometimes wears black and therefore could possibly be mistaken for Rob Go’s twitter icon.
The rest of the day, I keep asking people if they recognize the guy in Rob’s icon. Finally, my young nephew says … “Why that’s the most interesting guy in the world” as in the star of those quirky Dos Equis beer commercials.
Apparently I don’t watch enough TV.
You may have to settle for “one of the more interesting people in Boston.”
Sorry about the confusion! I figured folks would go to my blog or our company website. Guess they were probably pretty disappointed to see that I’m not all that interesting.