A couple of weeks ago I organized a “Friends of StatSheet” open house where I invited 40+ people from RTP that I’ve met over the last 3 years since I started StatSheet. These people have been supportive of me in one way or another and I wanted to celebrate StatSheet’s official funding announcement with them. We had a ping pong tournament, pizza, and StatSheet T-shirts to giveaway. It was a great time.
Every startup should create a “Friends of” Club. The power of this concept crystalized for me back in 2005, before I started StatSheet, when I was invited to the 2nd-ever Friends of O’Reilly (FOO) Camp. FOO Camp is an exclusive event for interesting technologists, developers, entrepreneurs and authors that Tim O’Reilly invited to camp out at O’Reilly HQ in Sebastopol, CA. At the FOO Camp I attended, I had 1:1 chats with folks such as Larry Wall (my hero at the time) and Paul Graham (Founder of YCombinator). I stood next to Jeff Bezos in a tiny, overly crowded office room where someone was giving a talk. Jeff was stuck behind the door and every time someone came in the room the door would open on him–an odd thing to see happen to a billionaire. FOO Camp became a badge of honor that all the cool kids wanted to attend (and led to formation of the inclusive Bar Camp).
With StatSheet’s version of FOO, I invited over 40 venture capitalists, technologists, and entrepreneurs from RTP. I didn’t expect everyone to show up. It was the beginning of August so there was a high chance that lots of people would be on vacation or unavailable. But that’s besides the point. I sent a personal email to each person to invite them to the “Friends of StatSheet” event. Essentially I was signing them up as members of the StatSheet Club without saying as much. Even if they didn’t attend the event, they know I consider them part of an exclusive club of supporters. Hopefully they feel appreciated for their involvement with StatSheet.
Employees get compensated, investors and advisors get equity in the company, but other supporters of your company typically don’t get anything. Recognizing them in some way, even if small, can make them work harder for you down the road.
