Community Guidelines

Two strangers sit down over coffee because a third party vouched for the format. That only keeps working if everyone behaves well, so these are the standards we hold members to. They form part of our Terms of Service.

1. Be who you say you are

• Use your real name and a current, recognisable photo of your own face.
• Describe your role and company accurately. Ambition is fine; inventing a title is not.
• Do not apply on someone else's behalf, or send a colleague in your place without telling us.

Every introduction rests on the other person being real. Misrepresenting yourself is the fastest way to lose your membership.

2. Show up, or say so

• If you accept an introduction, treat it as a commitment.
• If you cannot make it, say so as early as you can — more than 12 hours ahead and it costs nothing.
• Arrive on time. If you are running late, message your match.
• If something genuinely urgent happens, just tell us. We are reasonable about real emergencies.

3. Professional, not personal

Network Coffee is not a dating service and must never be used as one. Do not make romantic or sexual advances, comment on someone's appearance, or ask a match out. Do not use a meeting to get someone's personal contact details for that purpose.

If two people meet through us and later become friends, that is a good outcome. The introduction itself is professional, and the person across the table agreed to a professional meeting — nothing else.

4. Respect the person across the table

Not tolerated, at any level:

• Harassment, intimidation, or threats of any kind.
• Discriminatory or demeaning remarks about nationality, religion, gender, race, age, disability, or anything else about who someone is. The UAE is one of the most mixed professional environments in the world, and that is its advantage — treat it that way.
• Persisting in contacting someone after they have asked you to stop.
• Photographing or recording someone without their agreement. The check-in selfie is the exception, because both of you consent to it.
• Sharing a match's contact details, messages, or anything about them with anyone else without their permission.

5. Don't turn it into a pitch

Plenty of members join to find clients or investors, and that is legitimate — say so, and your matches will expect it. What does not work:

• Multi-level marketing or pyramid recruitment. Not permitted, at all.
• Unsolicited hard selling to someone who came for something else.
• Asking for money — a loan, an investment, a deposit, a transfer — at a first meeting.
• Collecting members' details to build a mailing list, database, or competing service.

6. Keep it confidential

Assume that what is said over coffee stays there, unless you both agree otherwise. People talk candidly about hiring plans, funding, and whether they are thinking of leaving their job. That candour is the value of a 1:1, and repeating it outside the meeting destroys it.

7. Staying safe

• Always meet in a public café or similar venue. Never at a private residence, and never in a car.
• You can leave at any time. If a meeting feels wrong, end it — politely or not. You will not lose your deposit for leaving a meeting that made you uncomfortable.
• Do not share financial or identity details — bank details, Emirates ID, passport copies, card numbers — with someone you have just met.
• Never transfer money to someone because you met them through Network Coffee. We will never ask you to, and neither should they.
• Tell us what happened. Reports are how we keep the bad actors out, and we take them seriously.

8. Respect the café

Venues host these meetings, sometimes as our partners. Order something, tip reasonably, and do not occupy a table for three hours at the busiest time of day. If a venue asks us to stop sending members, everyone loses a good meeting spot.

9. How to report a problem

Contact us through this website with what happened, when, and who was involved. You can report anything from a no-show to serious misconduct.

• We acknowledge reports within 2 business days, and urgent safety reports the same day.
• We do not tell the other person who reported them unless you ask us to.
• We will not match you with that person again, whatever the outcome.
• Reporting someone in good faith never counts against you, even if we end up finding no fault.

10. What happens when someone breaks these

Proportionate, and a real person decides:

A first, minor lapse

A conversation, and a note on the account. Most things end here.

A pattern, or a serious lapse

Introductions paused while we look into it, and a formal warning.

Two substantiated reports

Membership ends.

Harassment, threats, fraud, misrepresenting who you are, or anything unlawful

Removed immediately, without warning, and permanently. Where someone may be at risk or a crime may have been committed, we will cooperate with the authorities.

If we remove you and you think we got it wrong, reply to us and say why. A different person will look at it.