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There is a very simple reason for this, you always get more information in person. If you're interacting with a text-based chat interface you get one thing, pi

There is a very simple reason for this, you always get more information in person. If you're interacting with a text-based chat interface you get one thing, pieces of text, not only that's all you have to make decisions, but you have no idea how much effort and time went into designing those messages for you, this translates into the simples human interactions. If you are talking on the phone, you get words and maybe a tone of voice, you get more timely information, but that is all. If you are doing video chat, you get to see the persons expressions, which is a plus, but not much more(and how many times have I seen audio/video data issues). But, if you are meeting in person, you get all of that and then some, plus it signals commitment and effort to allocate time to physically attend a meeting considering how much other options you have. These do not have precise metrics, but it drives people gut decisions.

kwindla 9y ago
In a startup sales/bizdev context, the point you make about signaling commitment and effort is particularly important. "The founder (or CEO) showed up in person" can make a lot of things happen more quickly than they otherwise would.
- iagooar 9y ago
  That's a very fair point. Might be that to a certain degree people feel in debt with the person who offered them their time, thus making a positive business decision easier.
tlb 9y ago
After spending years building next-level video conference systems, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that even perfect video and audio, with the ability to move around independently, didn't come close to being there in person. A hypothesis I haven't seen falsified is that smell or pheromones are part of the human bonding mechanism, even for business relationships. Another thing you lose through videoconference is the potential for violence. Even though it almost never happens in business meetings, perhaps there is a part of our evolved brain that's active when interacting with someone who could, in principle, punch you if you offended them, and even business relationships are affected by this. Underneath our sophisticated neocortex lives the brain of a small mammal.

kwindla 9y ago

In a startup sales/bizdev context, the point you make about signaling commitment and effort is particularly important. "The founder (or CEO) showed up in person" can make a lot of things happen more quickly than they otherwise would.

iagooar 9y ago
That's a very fair point. Might be that to a certain degree people feel in debt with the person who offered them their time, thus making a positive business decision easier.

tlb 9y ago

After spending years building next-level video conference systems, I reluctantly came to the conclusion that even perfect video and audio, with the ability to move around independently, didn't come close to being there in person. A hypothesis I haven't seen falsified is that smell or pheromones are part of the human bonding mechanism, even for business relationships. Another thing you lose through videoconference is the potential for violence. Even though it almost never happens in business meetings, perhaps there is a part of our evolved brain that's active when interacting with someone who could, in principle, punch you if you offended them, and even business relationships are affected by this. Underneath our sophisticated neocortex lives the brain of a small mammal.