

Hacking the system: how to land meetings with anyone you want - jmtame
http://venturebeat.com/2011/06/16/hacking-the-system-how-to-land-meetings-with-anyone-you-want/

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spolsky
Good GOD this is a terrible system.

As a person that many people want to get in front of, I can hereby certify
that this fellow would have been blocked by a bayesian spam filter by email
#2.

The trouble here is his attitude. It's all about demanding and demanding and
demanding. Gimme. Gimme some time. Gimme some attention. Then gimme some
mentoring, gimme some money, gimme an investment. You know what? Ef you.

The solution to landing meetings with anyone you want is fairly easy and has
been understood since Dale Carnegie explained it
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influenc...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/How_to_Win_Friends_and_Influence_People))
in 1936.

You have to stop demanding things from people and start doing things for them.

Comment on their blog posts.

When you find out they have a new puppy, mail them some homemade puppy treats
with a nice note.

When they ask a question on Twitter, move mountains to find an answer and send
it to them.

Find out what charities they work for and make a donation. Or volunteer.

Write a blog. Give freely of your own knowledge. I did that and went from
anonymous to internet-famous in 2 years. When I wanted to raise money,
everyone knew who I was, and I got meetings with anyone I wanted with a one
sentence email. Not because I was lucky and not because I was blessed and not
because I was in the right club, but because I had been making a contribution
for years before I started demanding things.

~~~
jmtame
Hey Joel, thanks for commenting. Yeah, I don't want to come across as this
Wall Street banker type of person saying "you need to get people to meet with
you instantly! Demand time from them!" I think this is more of a trick to use
if you've already been e-mailing someone (as Evan mentioned he was doing for 6
months) for a while, you think there's a great mutual fit, but the other
person isn't responding. People are busy, sometimes they might need nudged,
and you need to be respectful, but it's also easy to send a one-line response
and say "Sorry, but I can't do this right now. I'll reach out to you in the
future if that changes." Sure that'd be annoying to do with lots of people,
and you'd think everyone reading this advice will do it, but I would guess
that a total sum of 5 or 10 people might use this tactic in the next month.
People rarely act on any of the advice I ever write about in my own blogs--
nobody has reached out interested in writing the follow-up book I suggested
someone write in my first post. Only one person has actually tried the method
for "Infiltrating Any Startup." I think it's more of a nudge to the
entrepreneur if they were already thinking about it.

To follow up on some of your points: I don't know how easy it would be to get
someone's mailing address--in my case, even getting their e-mail address
correct was difficult. It's definitely possible to help them with something on
Twitter or comment on their blogs, knowing that it takes a bit longer--and you
have to wonder, at what point do you make the ask? You can compliment and help
someone for a while, but at some point you have to ask them what you want to
ask them. I'd be interested in hearing how you transition from being nice and
giving to asking.

The problem with my own advice is that it's public in a large blog that is
read by lots of people. This is exactly the same advice I'd give to any person
who came and asked me "There's this investor, he's perfect for what I'm doing,
but he isn't responding to my e-mails for the past 3 months." I could see
people skipping that first part, which I would not do--you can't just start
off by saying "Hey I'm going to e-mail you every day for the next 30 days." I
sent nice, well-thought e-mails (VentureBeat edited out that part because the
original post was too long) and got no response. Everyone who agreed to do the
interview enjoyed it though. If I'm trying to get your attention, it's not
like letting you invest in my company is only going to benefit me, remember
I'm going to make you rich(er) some day! At least that's what I think, and
that's what you're betting on when you invest.

I doubt I'll ever see a busy person support this advice openly. This is mostly
targeted to the few people out there who are trying everything and it's not
working. I'd use a combination of what you've suggested to build up some
rapport, and eventually do what you could (using this tactic) until you're
satisfied knowing you tried everything you possibly could before you quit and
give up. I can't sleep at night knowing that I could have been just a little
more persistent, but I gave up instead.

~~~
SiVal
No, the problem with your advice is that it is simply spamming. Insisting that
you will continue to annoy me unless I do as you demand is not the way to make
points with me, and I can't imagine the rich and famous have lower standards.

I have people doing what you suggest to my mobile phone. They call every day
with a recorded message offering to solve my "money problems" and telling me
that the only way to get them to stop calling is to give up and talk to them.
If I could control the policies on my mobile phone the way I can on email, I'd
send their calls straight to the trash without passing through me, as I do to
anyone who attempts your suggested email spam strategy. I can't recall any
case of someone successfully spamming me into submission.

------
Construct
Tread very, very lightly if you plan on going this route.

Be absolutely sure that your e-mails have real content in them (i.e. this is
progress we've made, we just closed X deal, etc.) that can be easily digested.
The goal shouldn't be to make contact and then explain yourself. The goal is
to generate interest, which will lead to the contact.

Also, if this technique catches on and hordes of desperate entrepreneurs
everywhere start spamming every VC and investor they can find, it's all over.
The HN crowd, of all people, should know just how easy it is to create a
filter to immediately trash messages from a specific address. This is why it's
important to have excellent content in your very first e-mail.

------
Xk
This reminds me of Randy Pausch's method of getting someone to sit down for
lunch. [1]

"And he asked a question. And I was like, I’m sorry did you say you were Tom
Furness? And he said yes. I said, then I would love to answer your question,
but first, will you have lunch with me tomorrow? And there’s a lot in that
little moment. There’s a lot of humility, but also asking a person where he
can’t possibly say no."

Although, admittedly, that's after you got them to say a few words to you and
you're in front of a large group of people.

[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo> 19:40

Edit:

For those who don't know, here's the setting of this talk:

This talk is one in a series given at CMU called the "Last Lecture" series
with the hypothetical setting of 'what if you had one last talk to give?'.
Randy Pausch, a professor at CMU, didn't have to pretend. He was diagnosed
with pancreatic cancer, and in August of 2007 (when he gave the talk) was told
he had three to six months left to live.

If you haven't seen it, watch the whole talk. It's really good.

~~~
spleeyah
I just watched the whole video and all I can say is wow. That guy was truly a
smart man.

I watched it all the way to the end without losing focus for a second. The
head fake at the end really hit hard.

Great video.

------
rdl
By far the best trick I've found for getting marginal meetings (where you
might not otherwise) is "I'm going to be flying through <town>, could we meet
up to discuss <thing relevant to them>?" Usually the artificial time/distance
limit makes it happen; then you end up flying there just for the meeting.

------
maratd
This is only a partial answer and if you don't fully understand what's
happening and why, you'll get your ass handed to you.

You need to know what YOU are bringing to the table and what THEY are bringing
to the table. You need to have the full picture in your head. If you fully,
passionately, believe that value will be created for both of you through a
relationship ... all you have to do is convince the other person. If it's
obvious for you, it'll be obvious for them too. They will, of course, meet
with you.

On the other hand, if you're just bullshitting and you have nothing and you
just desperately want to meet them because you're hoping that they will figure
out how value will be created through a relationship ... well, they'll know
what you are from the very first hello and you'll end up in the SPAM folder of
their mind.

------
tejaswiy
The problem with these systems is that they're okay when only a really few
people do it. But imagine if you're a VC and every aspiring entrepreneur keeps
spamming you every single day. The novelty wears off quickly.

~~~
coryl
Actually if you're a VC and entrepreneurs are emailing you with information
about their traction, you've just reduced your search costs and increased
opportunity. All you have to do is then filter those applications, which can
easily be done by human or software.

Its like running Harvard. Yes, under-qualified students will apply and try to
get in, and so you'll have to spend time filtering them out. But if you have
so much demand and more students have made themselves accessible, then on
average, you will have a better selection of applicants to choose from. At
least that's one way of seeing it.

------
dollar
This has to be one of the lamest things I have ever read on hacker news.
Hacking the system? Its called persistence. Yes, sometimes it can work, other
times it can get you shitlisted. Is this the kind of crap they teach Urbana-
Champaign? No wonder I rarely hire a recent college graduate.

------
int3rnaut
coincidentally, this is the same hack that celebrity stalkers use to get free
restraining orders.

------
catshirt
" _There’s always a fine line between persistence and desperation, and you
don’t want to cross over into desperation._ "

I think you cross that line right about when you decide it's a good idea to
email someone every day to get their attention.

------
blhack
The article says one of the likealittle people turned $2k into $200k? 10,000%
profit?

Is there more of an explanation on this somewhere? That seems incredibly far
fetched to me.

~~~
JacobAldridge
It's only 10,000% profit if you assume his time had no value.

There are plenty of startups who began with a meagre cash investment, but
bucket loads of time and effort, that turned into multi-million dollar
companies, in some cases without additional funding. So it's not as far
fetched as it may seem in a one-liner that makes it sound like an overnight
result.

~~~
emreas
Correct. It took numerous years (although did substantially outperform the
market).

~~~
crasshopper
Why didn't you continue trading?

------
tomtom101
Anyone else noticed lots of VC's and Angels tweet when they are flying
somewhere? How about driving to the airport they are flying into and waiting
for them to come through the arrivals gate holding a sign with their name on.
A free ride to wherever they are going in return for hearing your pitch.
Considered doing this, but my gut tells me this is just too stalker like to
work. Think it would freak me out if someone did it to me.

~~~
earbitscom
That is an awesome idea. As long as the person wasn't creepy and I didn't
already have a ride, anybody trying to get my attention for a business
proposition could get it this way. But I agree that it would be better if they
emailed..."I see you're hitting LAX tomorrow. I know you've been busy. Can I
give you a lift to wherever you're headed from the airport and get that 10
minutes I've been looking for?" Awesome.

------
jim_h
The author should write another article after he gets a meeting with Bill
Gates.

------
mikendn
This reminds me of a story I read about Grant Achatz, the great chef of
Alinea. When he started out of cooking school, he sent a resume every week to
Thomas Keller at the French Laundry, until Thomas Keller finally called him in
and interview him. Persistence does payoff

------
kevinskii
This strategy is what led to the first date with my wife.

~~~
jmtame
Really? Can you elaborate?

~~~
kevinskii
I saw her profile on a popular online dating website. I liked it so much that
I started writing her a personalized letter every day. I told her that I would
stop if she asked me to.

This went on for almost a month before one of her friends finally convinced
her to respond. We got married a year and a half later.

I guess women are just like other super important people: An early lack of
response doesn't necessarily mean they're not interested; it just may take a
while for them to detect the signal in the noise.

------
mikeleeorg
I was curious about who it was that Evan Reas had been emailing, and found
this list:

[http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/the-full-very-impressive-
li...](http://techcrunch.com/2011/05/02/the-full-very-impressive-list-of-
likealittle-investors/)

Since Andreessen Horowitz was part of their angel round, perhaps Marc
Andreessen or Ben Horowitz were one of their initial targets.

------
mahrain
Steve Jobs is going to hate this thread!

------
devski
One of the best methods in meeting a person of importance was show on the
Crime and Investigation Network cable channel by a prolific con artist. Not
only did that guy meet with almost anyone, he became friends and was invited
to parties, dinners, etc.

