How I Learned from Gary Vaynerchuk and Jab, Jab, Jab, Right Hooked My Way to a Startup VIP Dinner Experience Worth $10,000, For $0

This is the quick story on how I hustled my way to a free conference ticket ($500), a front row seat and VIP dinner invite ($2,000 — face value anyway — I’d value it at least 5X), and got on the radar of at least half a dozen true players/founders (ones who have at least one “score” of note) in the startup ecosystem. Plus a few ideas for you to do it yourself on day two of Launch Scale or whichever conference you attend next.

Or TL;DR Notes from that “Note Taking Guy”

The view from the front row listening to @basevc and @tooshort discuss #steroidalhustle.

First you have to know this wasn’t an overnight success. I’ve been planting the seeds for months. Here’s what I did that led to me being brought up to the front row and given a VIP pass and invite to the VIP dinner:

1. Going back to May, I’ve followed Jason closely on Twitter (push notifications to my phone closely) and jumped when he said “jump” for a chance at a free Launch Scale Founders pass ticket. He did many of these giveaways via Twitter since he was working hard to give them away, but IIRC mine was “Download the Inside: Drones app and take a screenshot of it and tweet it back to me.”

2. Twitter stroke the ego — I don’t remember which TWIST episode it was, maybe an Ask Jason one, but Jason admitted to the fact that stroking the ego of Angels and VCs really does work. I’ve sent out a half-dozen tweets to Jason including one complimenting him on his recent weight loss and new slender look. Sucking up works when you don’t over do it. Numerous other times I’ve retweeted and tweeted out congrats on stuff like news of Jason’s investments doing well or helping build awareness for the conference.

Outside of trying to get on Jason’s radar through Twitter, I’ve also tried to add some value to the Launch Scale conference. I call these Find Ways to Add Value And Get Attention:

1. Tweet speaker and demo company recommendations — when they asked I sent Jason and the Launch Scale team a few recommendations for speakers or demo companies.

2. When Jason sent out a pre-conference email with a link to the wrong conference (Mobile, Wearables, and IOT instead of Scale), I quickly sent him a message to alert him.

3. Be helpful to your peers — I did my best to be an active Slack participant as soon as it was launched which including responding to people, connecting with some(ex: those with a Midwest connection), etc.

4. On Sunday night I made sure to send a Thank You to each of the Launch Scale Partners on Twitter. Thanks again Gigster, IBM, inVision, Localytics, Lever, LiquidSpace, Orange Fab, WSGR, Red Bull, and Braintree!

5. So this is the one you know since it was the one that broke through. I took high-level notes in the Launch Scale Slack channel. Normally I tweet this type of stuff out as much as I can at conferences, but as Jason asked to keep the content here and no press, I threw it all in Slack in hopes it would be helpful to other attendees. And now I’m the guy that was taking notes and got upgraded to the VIP pass.

6. Even after getting moved up, I stayed active and worked hard to ask questions for the speakers in Slack — stay engaged! Side note: there were only 5–7 of us asking the questions every time Jason asked for them. Jump in!

7. Finally I made sure to send a Thank You to the speakers on Twitter for sharing their content and stories.

So what could you do on day 2 (or at your next conference) to out hustle me and get your own upgrade and invite to the VIP pass??? Because you best believe I’ll be working for another VIP dinner invite today, but I can’t do it all. So here are some of my ideas to add value:

1. Write a recap on Medium of Day 1 at the conference with the best piece of knowledge/nugget of wisdom you took from each speaker — get Jason’s approval first since this is a closed event, but I bet he would love someone to help communicate the value of the conference and give a sneak-peek behind the curtain without giving it all away. I mean this is far and away the best conference I’ve ever attended so there should be a lot of highlights to write about.

2. Make yourself the unofficial photographer of Launch Scale. Take a few pictures of the speakers and the halls during talks, take pictures of people meeting and connecting anywhere and everywhere, get one of every booth in the demo pit engaged with attendees and tag them in a tweet, take pictures of the gorgeous location in and around Fort Mason. Tweet em, Instagram them, blog them, post them all over the web. Sure everyone else has an iPhone or Samsung Galaxy in their pockets, but be the one that does something different with it to add value.

3. Write a short blog post recommending the best things to do with your 1-2 hour Launch Scale breaks or evenings. Where to eat lunch, grab dinner, best thing to do with one free hour. Offer value to the attendees. Make yourself the conference Scout Travel guide so to speak. Better yet organize a dinner in Slack around a common theme (see Midwest area founders, those in the B2B sales space, etc.)

4. Offer speakers a free Uber ride to the airport after their session via Twitter. Most are killing it with their businesses and as such can’t stay long and head to the airport soon after they present on the stage. Do Jason and Ashley and the rest of the A+ Launch team already have rides for them covered? Without a doubt! But you never know when one might respect your hustle and say sure, and boom you’ve got 30–60 minutes in the back seat of a car to connect with someone who has made it enough to be speaking at the event.

5. Speaking of the kick ass Launch Scale team, ask Ashley or another team member if they need any last minute volunteers to do something. Shit happens during a conference and something unexpected ALWAYS happens. “Need an extra set of hands Launch team? Come grab me when you do.” Who knows, maybe you’ll end up manning the checklist at the VIP dinner that night or carrying Jason’s fresh cup of coffee or tea up on to the stage.

6. Respond to all of Jason’s haters on Twitter with some knowledge bombs on what’s really going on at the conference. Jason posted in the Slack chat some guy that was trying to misrepresent attendance and engagement of the conference on Twitter. Take up the Launch Scale flag and explain to him and others how wrong he is.

7. Take better notes or different notes than that PatrickH guy. Because I did all the things I did before taking notes, odds were greater I’d be rewarded for taking the notes. It also helped I was first to market in the Slack chat and got lucky. As my business partner said when I got bumped up to VIP, “What the hell man, I’m taking really beautiful notes in my Moleskine notebook!” “Well no one else can see them Judson, maybe you should take pictures next time and post them.” A couple of fellow conference attendee hustlers were taking even better/more detailed notes than I was by the end of the day. Keep working at it and maybe they’ll get thanked/highlighted too. But find a way to be different. Take visual notes like sketch effect or doodle a quick portrait of the conference hall mid-talk or something else to stand out.

So what did I do once I hustled my way to the VIP dinner last night? I hustled some more of course! I connected directly with 7 of the speakers at the party, 5 from day one (3 of which I attended, 2 I missed on the other stage) and 2 from day two. I sent a few tweets out based on the conversations we had and hopefully connected with each of them enough so that when I reach out via LinkedIn or Twitter they’ll connect and even more so, hopefully when I travel nearby them (3 were NYC, 3 were near the Bay Area, and one was LA) the next time I might at least have a chance to grab a coffee/lunch/happy hour if their schedule allows. Additionally I’ll follow up with each of them in the next month or two with more ways I can try and add value with each of them, such as potential synergies we might have discussed at the dinner, relevant news articles to their sector/space, and even a business idea or two they could run with.

So what are you waiting for, hit that Hustle Mode button and add some value!