A former crisis negotiator.
How high-stakes negotiation actually works: tactical empathy, mirroring, calibrated questions, using your real situation as the case.
Guest Preview · NYC Beta · 2026
Face-to-Face is back.
A new way to sit down with the people in your city worth meeting in person.
SEYA · Guest Deck · May 2026 · hello@seya.world
The shift
Information is everywhere. Presence is scarce.
The internet made people easier to find. It did not make them easier to meet.
You can search almost anything. You can read almost anyone. But not every curiosity needs another search. Some need a real conversation with a real person who has lived, made, learned, or seen something up close.
Face-to-face is the next step after the feed.
What SEYA is
A reason to sit down with someone worth meeting.
SEYA helps you sit down with people worth meeting in your city, over coffee, lunch, or a deeper one-on-one.
- 01
You browse people, sessions, and subjects that make you curious.
- 02
You choose the format that fits the social weight of the ask.
- 03
You meet in a pre-approved public place. SEYA handles the awkward parts: who, why, where, when, and what to expect.
Not dating · Not networking · Not a course · Not another feed.
Who you could meet Archetype · 01 Archetype · 02 Archetype · 03 Archetype · 04
Meet people you would cross town to sit down with.
A few examples of the range SEYA is built for.
A grandmaster of chess.
A game across a coffee table. They play, narrate their thought process in real time, and quietly dismantle the way you think about strategy.
A 90-year-old New Yorker.
Nine decades in this city. What they would have done differently. What mattered, what didn't, and what to listen for in the next ten years.
A photographer who teaches you how they see light.
Bring your camera roll. Leave with three new ways to look at composition, light, and the moment that makes a picture worth keeping.
Plus a curated long tail · founders · writers · designers · operators · craftspeople · historians · city natives.
The sessions
The kind of session SEYA is built for.
Imagine sitting down with one of these in a quiet corner of a café this week.
Everyday curiosity
- Bring an early pitch deck to a founder who has shipped before.
- Pressure-test your career story with a recruiter who has seen the room from the other side.
- Bring your camera roll to a photographer and learn how they see light.
- Ask an AI operator what is actually worth using this year.
Worth telling a friend about
- Play chess with someone who narrates strategy move by move.
- Learn a close-up magic move from a working magician.
- Ask a city historian what your neighborhood used to be.
- Sit with a 90-year-old New Yorker and ask what mattered.
Representative examples · NYC beta curation underway.
How you find them
Browse by curiosity, not category.
You don't pick a service. You pick a person, a subject, or a session that makes you want to leave the house.
NegotiationFirst-year founderTasteCity historyAI workflowsMoneyChess strategyHow they see lightCareer pivotVintage styleWedding vowsCooking technique
A question you've been carrying for months.
A project you want pressure-tested by a sharper eye.
A craft you want to watch up close, at the table, not on a screen.
Or just a person whose time you would value more than another scroll.
Every session has a subject · a setting · a reason to meet.
How it works
From URL to IRL in three steps.
01 · Browse
Browse.
Sources, subjects, and sessions with context: knowledge, perspective, craft, taste. Not categories of services.
02 · Book
Book.
Choose a time and place. The session has a clear subject, format, place, and time before you confirm.
03 · Meet
Meet.
Sit down in a pre-approved public place. Show up. Have the conversation. Leave feedback. Book again if there is more to explore.
The depth dial Coffee chat · 15–30 min Lunch conversation · 45–60 min Full session · 60–90 min
Start light. Go deeper if the conversation earns it.
Format is the commitment level, not the conceptual structure. You pick the person and the subject first.
The lowest-friction start.
Public, brief, low pressure. One question, one perspective, a clear beginning and end. If there is more to explore, you can book lunch or a deeper session.
More time, more context.
Fuller exchange. For the subject that needs more room than one cup of coffee.
The deeper face-to-face session.
Feedback, practice, guided expertise, considered conversation. For when you want the session itself to be the thing.
Coffee is the easiest start · it is not the whole vision.
Where you meet
Trusted, public, and pre-approved.
Every SEYA session takes place in a public setting approved by SEYA.
Sessions happen in pre-approved cafés, lunch spots, hotel lobbies, and other trusted public places. The session uses a suitable public setting from the approved set. Some partner venues may be marked in the app when SEYA has worked with them directly.
A SEYA venue is
- Public and staffed.
- Working and laptop friendly.
- Strong internet, comfortable seating, manageable noise.
- Easy to enter, easy to stay, easy to leave.
NYC beta · curated public settings.
Why it feels normal Who. What. Where. Why.
Know who, what, where, and why.
Before you book, the session makes the basics clear. Before the meeting, you know what support paths exist if something feels wrong.
A real profile with context.
Knowledge, craft, perspective, lived experience. Sources complete identity verification before their first listing publishes. Not an anonymous profile.
Every session has a subject, a format, and a clear end.
There is a reason to meet on the page before you agree to one.
A pre-approved public place.
Chosen from the curated set. The venue is part of the trust.
A clear reason on both sides.
SEYA is not for “let's hang out.” It is for a conversation worth having.
Profile context · reporting · support paths.
The invitation
The first SEYA sessions are being curated now.
Curated. NYC-first. Small on purpose. Each Source is chosen. Each place is pre-approved. The first people in are invited from the early list.
If you want to be one of the first people to sit down with the kind of Source SEYA is curating, add your name now and help shape what this becomes.
- Early access when the first sessions open.
- A first look at the first curated Sources.
- A chance to help shape the first season of SEYA NYC.
Face-to-Face is back.
Waitlist · NYC · Summer 2026 · hello@seya.world · Download the deck (PDF)