Social Networking is a term thrown around preeeettty losely these days.  We here at TechFaux are in no short supply of Twitters, and Friendsters, Dogsters, or even Facebooks to talk about.  There are so many that, to be honest, this humble blogger tends to avoid the topic whenever possible.  But, there are always those diamonds in the rough, those ones that stand right out and scream: a million dollars, a million f*cking dollars!

Such was the case when I sat down with social entrepreneur John Thompson in Corning, NY, where he and his company, LazyBean, have set up what turned out to be quite the social platform.

TF: So, how did you guys get started?

John: Well, it was a pretty simple concept really.  Get people to interact with each other in ways they weren’t accustomed to, with the end goal of improving their quality of relationships, and quality of life.

TF: A noble cause.  What kind of ideas did you guys have in mind then?

John: Well, the first thing we did was play better music then the other guys.

TF: So, you were a music centric site?

John: Well, no. I mean, this has always just been a place to hang.  We thought playing good music would encourage people to take off their headphones, that was the first step.

TF: Alright, so what was step two?

John: Well, we just talked to them, and encouraged them to talk to one another.  It wasn’t easy at first, we did have to actually make a few introductions and show some kids how to shake hands.  It was pretty hard to unglue them from those keyboards.

TF: I see- so your users “friend” one another by “shaking hands” and then “talk” via a profile centric chat board?

John: We don’t really have users… we call them customers.

TF: Ha ha, good one!

John: I’m confused.

TF: I’m sorry what? I was checking my Twitter account.

John: Ok.

TF: DAMNIT! F*CKING FAIL WHALE!
So, customers. That implies money. I like the sound of that, what’s your monetization strategy?

John: We sell coffee. This is a coffee shop.

TF: Interesting. Offering goods in addition to services. Unique angle.

John: Look mister, you’re going to have to pay me and move now, there are other customers waiting.

TF: I thought this beta invite was free?

John: That’s a latte sir. Not a beta invite.

TF: This is preposterous, can’t you simply defer the cost?  What kind of VC are you guys raising anyway?  Have you even heard of open source?

John: One-seventy five sir.

TF: Will there be an API?