{"id":18616,"date":"2023-06-09T22:16:16","date_gmt":"2023-06-10T02:16:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/?p=18616"},"modified":"2023-06-10T23:34:32","modified_gmt":"2023-06-11T03:34:32","slug":"how-to-launch-your-startup-at-sxsw-for-460","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/how-to-launch-your-startup-at-sxsw-for-460\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Launch Your Startup at SXSW for $460 by fake Larry Chiang"},"content":{"rendered":"

Larry Chiang\u2019s 5th book, WTDTYASBS, launched at a Harvard Law School keynote, so he knows about grand openings (He even attends and promotes the ones he isn\u2019t invited to also). As CEO of Duck9, he leads an army to help college student\u00a0consumers get a FICO<\/a>\u00a0over 770. Post H.L.S. keynote, Harvard Business wrote: \u201cWhat They Don\u2019t Teach You at Stanford Business School<\/a>\u201d (his latest Harbus post: \u201cSetting an intention for SXSWi\u201d.<\/p>\n

Originally, I wanted to call this article \u201cHow to Launch at SXSW on a Shoestring Budget,\u201d but it wasn\u2019t specific enough.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow to Launch @ SXSW for $460\u201d has a tactical, granular sound that resonates with what my mentor (see his\u00a0book cover picture here<\/a>) taught me about promotion at a real world event. It\u2019s an example of \u201cWhat They Will NEVER Teach You At Stanford Business School.\u201d Having the thesis that it costs just $460.00 definitely puts me in the minority.<\/p>\n

There\u2019s talk about how there is a lot of noise at SXSW and how it will be too crowded to promote anything. That reminds me of the Yogi Berra quote: \u201cNo one goes there anymore. It\u2019s too crowded.\u201d I find it funny that you expect to compete on the Internet, where there is much more noise than at an Austin conference.<\/p>\n

But do not make the mistake that most people make journeying to Austin for SXSW. Showing up and hoping for the best is not a good plan. Whether you are launching, re-promoting, or just pre-entrepreneuring\u2026 Here are specific ideas on how to increase awareness at SXSW for $460 or less.<\/p>\n

1) The Patented Afterparty Maneuver.<\/em><\/p>\n

By patented I mean \u201can awesome thing you can exactly copy.\u201d You take whatever existing event you like and you\u00a0do your own event immediately after<\/a>.<\/p>\n

For example, back when Facebook was rising, they\u2019d do a big party at Pangeae. I did an afterparty across the street. I didn\u2019t do open bar and just had light food. The Facebook party was awesome, but people want a place to linger. The theme I used was \u201crefresh and rejuvenate.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hosting a stand-alone event is hard, but an unofficial afterparty may be much easier and cheaper.<\/p>\n

2) Hack Together a VIP Author Reception.<\/em><\/p>\n

Getting a celeb to your informal gathering can be as cheap as $200. In this day when 13,000 books sold can get you on the\u00a0New York Times<\/em>\u00a0Bestseller list, a few extra copies sold moves the needle.<\/p>\n

For example, Guy Kawasaki is promoting a new book,\u00a0Enchantment<\/em>. If I were a startup founder with a $460 budget, I\u2019d buy 20 used copies of Guy\u2019s OLD book and hand them out March 13 (2 hours after he judges Accelerator). Plot spoiler: used books can cost as little as $0.01.<\/p>\n

3) Infiltrate and\/or Produce a SXSW Film Reception<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Overlapping the SXSW Interactive festival is the film festival. Getting a film celeb to an event is getting a real celebrity versus a welebrity.<\/p>\n

The idea is the same as getting an author, except the cost slide scales up. Instead of pre-promoting a book, the actor is pre-promoting a movie. The last few years Edward Norton, James Marsden, Danny McBride have promoted movies in Austin.<\/p>\n

4) Make Your Audience Pay\u00a0<\/em>You\u00a0to Do Lead Gen.<\/em><\/p>\n

This is the opposite for \u201cpay-for-play.\u201d It means get paid for play.<\/p>\n

generate leads and awareness. Here is how: charge for admission and do not provide free alcohol.<\/p>\n

A. Get a focus and a theme. Lets say you pick #csMajorCEO
\nB. Get an RSVP page up on Eventbrite and Facebook
\nC. Tie in a celebrity component
\nD. Do partnerships with blogs, startups, and personalities to help promote them
\nE. Get and control a venue and book a back-up venue<\/p>\n

5) Pre-network.<\/em><\/p>\n

In this age of \u201ceverything is faster\u201d and Moore\u2019s Law, I think you should get your ROI for the party\/conference BEFORE you even go.<\/p>\n

For example, you can drive the registrations through a Facebook groups page. Having people \u201cFacebook fan\u201d you is presumptuous. Getting people to write on a Facebook group wall (which makes them join) is social.<\/p>\n

6) Get Local.<\/em><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re from California, the best thing you can do is get away from California people.<\/p>\n

In producing an event for $450, you can enlist the help of local Austin-ites. If you\u2019re charging, offer comp passes. If its free, offer comp demo booths so that companies can demonstrate their offerings but with the requirement that they pre-blog the event.<\/p>\n

7) Pre-blog Your Own Event.<\/em><\/p>\n

When someone asks me to blog about them, the first question I have is, did you blog about it yourself?<\/p>\n

Pre-blogging is critical. If you\u2019re only spending $460, preblogging once or twice before your launch is critical. For those founders who\u00a0have never blogged or rarely blog, the bare minimum for a post is simply three paragraphs, two pictures and one focus. It relates\u00a0specifically to event promotion because before you promote an event, you have to elevate you and your brand. An inexpensive way to do this\u00a0is to pre-blog.<\/p>\n

For example, freshman Stanford CS majors with zero budget were encouraged to blog as a way to engineer three internships in a row and gain access to expensive conferences. Kiki Garcia pre-blogged about Peter Thiel\u2019s keynote at Stanford\u2019s NextGen conference. John Yang\u00a0Sammataro pre-blogged a venture capital conference. Both were offered comp passes to attend pretty expensive conferences.<\/p>\n

8) Get Others to Pre-blog Your Event.<\/em><\/p>\n

After your Eventbrite page is up, get someone else to pre-blog your event by offering a secret discount only for their readers.<\/p>\n

For example, to woo the Austin startup community, I offered comp tickets to Bryan Menell\u2019s group via his\u00a0blog\u00a0post<\/a>.<\/p>\n

9) Hack Up an Eventbrite Page.<\/em><\/p>\n

The urban myth about hosting an event is that you need to have all your ducks in a row before you publish an invite.<\/p>\n

This is a misperception.<\/p>\n

Heck, you don\u2019t even need a venue to get started. For example, WordPress is hosting a party March 13. They have a placeholder page up.<\/p>\n

As of this time, they have invited some Dallas people, got the commitment of WP Engine and have a decent looking RSVP list.<\/p>\n

* \u00a0* \u00a0*<\/p>\n

The basic formula I use is<\/p>\n

-Participate,<\/p>\n

-Promote, and<\/p>\n

-Value-addedly hijack.<\/p>\n

This strategy helps to overcome two core problems startups face: no need (for your product\/services) and no trust (people trust people, not websites).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Larry Chiang\u2019s 5th book, WTDTYASBS, launched at a Harvard Law School keynote, so he knows about grand openings (He even attends and promotes the ones he isn\u2019t invited to also). As CEO of Duck9, he leads an army to help college student\u00a0consumers get a FICO\u00a0over 770. Post H.L.S. keynote, Harvard Business wrote: \u201cWhat They Don\u2019t […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-stanford-engineering"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18616"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18616\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18686,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18616\/revisions\/18686"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.duck9.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}