Every year, thousands of people descend on Austin, Texas looking to learn about the newest gadgets, companies, developments in education, and to hear about the dopest new musicians to hit the scene. 2016 was no different. While I didn’t get an opportunity to attend EDU or Music, I did get a chance to fully experience Interactive. For those who are unfamiliar; basically, it whittles down to a bunch of free stuff, new experiences, and drunken interactions.Last year, I was fortunate to experience SXSW for free with my co-founder, Felix Addison, courtesy of us winning a pitch competition thrown by Scion. This time around, on our own accord, we were able to take a good chunk of our team down to get the full SX experience. All I can say is: this trip was gold. Below, I’ll go over the seven things that made this trip one of which we’ll never forget.
(from left to right: Koley Corte, Herve Sedky, me)
1. Last year’s badge was as good as this year’s
It’s no secret that SXSW is super expensive to attend and participate in. After the announcement that the Obamas were going to attend and speak, the flight tickets, alone, went up 2-3x depending on where you were traveling from. Room and board were crazy. Airbnb definitely made a killing during a time like this. We would know, we paid for one. And, notoriously, the badges to attend the top of the line events, went for anywhere from $1,300 to $2,000, a pop. So, knowing all of this, I tried to cut costs as much as I could. Fortunately for me, I kept 2015’s badge as a memento and therefore, I had an opportunity to test the waters and see just how far it would get me this time around. Let’s just say, I got into literally everything I wanted to. Sometimes you needed a badge, other times you needed extra credibility. 2015’s badge provided me just that. Some door folks told me it wasn’t scanning but figured it was a glitch with their system, others said it scanned smoothly….I really have no idea who was accurate in their assessment, all I know is that an old badge with dust in the threads of the lanyard had just saved me $2000 and gotten me maximum value.
2. We partnered with Uber and Skully for a private SXSW kickoff event
On Friday, the first day of Interactive, I was set to arrive in Dallas, TX (3.5 hours away from Austin). It was a race against the clock. My day started the night before in NYC. I drove from NY to Philly to catch a 6a flight on Friday morning. Once I landed in Dallas, I picked up our rental car and drove it to Austin. The event was slated to begin at 6p, I arrived in Austin at 4:30p. I got out the car, unloaded my stuff at our college friends’ house and then began prepping those same friends on how to pitch WYL to inquirers, investors, normal attendees, etc. Yup, this was necessary because our event was pushed up a couple days and, therefore, my team wasn’t landing in Austin until the following night. All that said, the event was a wild success. We were around people who wrote and cut checks. This meant we were pitching and connecting with potential investors and partners. This was exactly what we wanted. All props go to Laura Mignott and her team at Digital Flash. They did an amazing job bringing three cool, achieving companies together to put on a hell of a kickoff event.
(from left to right: Larry Chiang, me, Celeste Henkelmann)
3. No sleep & the 11-minute party
Following our tag team event with Uber and Skully, I didn't go to sleep until 5a that night (or the next morning, I guess). I got up around 11a and headed to the Fast Company Grill, located in the heart of the SX festivities. While sitting at the bar, drinking a glass of water, I was approached by a 6'3" guy holding a Shih Tzu in his hands. He mentioned that he had heard of my business and then proceeded to talk to me for an hour and a half about life, the power of mentors, and how to approach business. After soaking up the info and writing a bunch of notes, he invited me to the TechCrunch, invite only, party. He said it started at 2:30p so I had to arrive at 2:25p and he'd let me in. He said if I arrived at 2:35p or later he "never met me or knew me." Needless to say, I was on time. After mingling with new people for a couple hours I joined him in the back veranda of the party. A woman joined us so that she could pet the dog. The guy then mentioned that he loved events and had a general question for us. He said, "how can I spend minimal money and have an amazing event which gives back extensive returns monetarily?" We shot out ideas for a little before the woman says "what if you had an 11 min party?" The guy goes, "we're doing it tonight! And, it's going to be a WhoseYourLandlord event." He said that the first thing we'd need to do was raise capital from sponsors in order to throw it. We literally got up and began pitching the concept to people at the party. We closed $250 at the party and then headed for the Google event where we closed an additional $225 from intrigued listeners. Essentially, we raised $475 in 2 hours. We took the money, headed to the guy's house for a quick dinner, planned the social media strategy out, grabbed some balloons, and headed back to Fast Company for their party (the one in which we were now hosting the unofficial after party for). Once it wrapped, we headed over to the Four Seasons Hotel Austin, where our event would be. The snowball effect was in full force, as the event was an absolute hit. We had an 11-minute party (which ran way over btw) and was in every sense of the word: amazing. I thanked the crowd on the mic and told everyone about WhoseYourLandlord and that we planned this in just over 4 hours. In attendance were folks from Forbes, PayPal, Visa, etc...Simply put, 3 people, who had never met until that day, had just hacked SX with determination, execution, and 475 bucks...
4. WYL’s towel takeover
As we were planning our trip, we knew we needed to set some real, attainable goals, or, otherwise, none of this would be worth it. We ordered hundreds of bright orange towels and black and white drawstring bags with our logos emblazoned on them. We figured, Austin is hot as hell, ergo people sweat…a lot. And, at SX, you get so much free stuff, you need a bag to hold it all in. Both our calculations were spot on. We weren’t forcing people to take our swag…they actually wanted it. Like really wanted it. At one point, we took over the Spotify event line. It was so hot and the line was so long, we started passing bags of towels down the aisle and telling everyone to take one and pass it on. The sight was beautiful. In the midst of their Spotify green was WYL orange all over that place. Not only did several of their employees and security guards ask us for the towels, but we even sold some to patrons in other lines. Lit!
(from left to right: Felix Addison, G Jet, me, Andrew Aulenbach, Phil Meyer , photo cred: Durrell Hospedale)
5. Real team bonding
I’ve heard the comment before that “beer” was the first form of social media. Parts of that statement are very true. Whether it’s gatherings around beer or the socially inducing byproduct in which alcohol tends to produce, both ways kind of reflect the nature in which we use social media, today. As a group, we ended up on the music video set of an Austin rapper, G Jet, and even chowed down on some of the best food Austin had to offer….Sam’s BBQ and Torchy’s Tacos, for starters. I say all that to say, sometimes a series of big audacious goals, living in close quarters for several days, a bunch of free drinks and food, and good ole fashion fun, really bring people together. We’re currently prepping our team for complete, full-time roles. So, what better way to get everyone prepped than to go to SX and force them to live and work together nonstop for 4 days straight? Fortunately for us, the net result was exactly what we planned for.
(from left to right: Amber Rose, me)
6. Getting into the right scene
SXSW is the ultimate test of mental fortitude, psychological chess, and nimble maneuverability. The people that get the most out of SX are the ones that go with no schedule and no rigid concept of time management. Trying to get breakfast or lunch with a peer is extremely hard, if you really approach SX the right way, in my opinion. Let serendipity takes its course. Whether revisiting the section about last year’s badge or the 11 min party story, you can see how important it is to JUST GO. Less planning, more execution. I, honestly, never even went into the convention center. Not one time. Although there are more people there than anywhere else, that’s not where the action happens at SX. We ended up at SplashThat’s house parties throughout the weekend. They were amazing. Gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches, fuzzy TV rooms, unlimited bar options, and Quest Love (yes, Quest Love) chilling on a big fuzzy couch, upstairs. We also ended up at several private parties hosted by investors and other companies. Again, free drinks, great vibes, people you only hear about in the paper and on TV, oh and Odell Beckham Jr. (yes, one-handed catch guy) chilling in the corner. And, lastly, even running into Amber Rose at the unveiling of her new character in the Zoobe mobile app (thanks for the connect, Mary Pryor). That’s just how SX gets down. You need to meet the right people, stand confidently at the door, and say you know someone inside. Just understand, if you’re going to flex, you better actually have some heavyweight connections.