This weekend, over 70,000 people will descend on Black Rock Desert, Nevada, to sweat, dance, and find themselves at Burning Man.
The 30-year-old counterculture gathering has become a go-to destination for the Silicon Valley elite, including Google's Sergey Brin and Larry Page, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, and startup founders looking for capital and mentors.
Attendees may have more in common than just an affinity for tech. Location intelligence company Foursquare and its "lifelogging" spin-off app Swarm looked at location data from "burners" to figure out where they like to shop and get their grub. The company's data team used both visits from Foursquare and the background location awareness built into Swarm, which people can use to check in and win free stuff.
Not all burners use Foursquare or Swarm, so the results aren't completely representative of everyone who attends the event. However, the techie spirit of the festival (Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk once said "Burning Man is Silicon Valley") makes the data worth checking out.
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Burning Man attendees are 12 times more likely to visit Blue Bottle Coffee than the average Foursquare user.
The venture capital-backed, high-end coffee retailer turned coffee into a religion with its vintage brewing machines and artisanal roasts. It's a favorite among the Silicon Valley elite, and companies from Warby Parker to Ideo allegedly drink it in-house.
Burners like to catch dinner and a show at the famous Alamo Drafthouse.
Burning Man attendees are nine times more likely to go to Alamo Drafthouse, a destination arthouse movie theater chain where guests snack on popcorn topped with truffle parmesan butter and wash it down with local craft beer.
They get stuff done at WeWork.
Burners are six times more likely to visit or work out of a WeWork location. The $16 billion company rents office space to startups, but these are no ordinary digs: The suped-up coworking spaces feature chic décor and benefits like community events and free food.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider
