Framework
Host the party, don't attend it
Shaan's recurring theory: you get little reward for attending an event, but capture huge goodwill, relationships, and opportunity by being the one who organizes it. Summit, HustleCon, and Web Summit all started by convincing a few legit people to come, then letting the dominoes fall.
“You get no rewards pretty much for attending the party, or very little rewards for attending the party, but you get all the rewards if you host the party. And Sam, you did the same thing with HustleCon, where if you do the sweat to organize and you can convince just that first couple people of legit players to come in, there becomes this domino of legit people who will come in”
Steal thisStop attending events. Host one: convince a few legit anchors first, then let them recruit their peers.
Story
Summit started by cold-calling 19 people
Begelman recounts that Summit Series began with just 19 people they cold-called. Those 19 invited their friends, who invited their friends, snowballing into a few thousand attendees.
“Summit started with just 19 people. You know, we cold-called them, and those 19 then invited their friends, and then they invited their friends, and, and it just snowballed until it was, you know, a few thousand people getting together.”
Story
Tony Hsieh's 'meet your parents' guest filter for Summit
At a White House event, Tony Hsieh told the Summit founders to ban anyone they wouldn't invite into their home to meet their parents, no matter how impressive. That 'kind-hearted, participatory people' test became Summit's second guest criterion.
“is there anyone here who like you wouldn't invite over to your house, like meet your parents. And we were like, yeah, of course, like there's some really incredible venture capitalists and people here that we think are kind of dicks, but you know, they're here because everyone wants to meet them. And he was like, nope, they can't come back. He's like, if you want to build serious culture and you want to have people that, you know, like hold the values of this, then you need to only have, you know, a certain kind, like you need to have kind-hearted participatory people.”
Tactic
Send the host the guest email you wish you'd received
Shaan preps for a podcast appearance by emailing the host in advance with how to pronounce his name, a one-line positioning of who he is, 5 controversial beliefs, and 3-4 crazy stories the host can pull from. Treating yourself like a product you must explain to a customer made the show much better.
“And so I sent him the letter that I wish I got from a guest, which I was like, hey, I'm pumped, you know, here we go. Here's some things that'll help you, you know, make this a good show. And I was like, you know, first, like, my name, here's how you pronounce it, because that's always a thing. It's like, here's what your listeners need to know about me kind of in a nutshell. It's like, I'm the guy who blank.”
Steal thisBefore any podcast or pitch, send the other side the brief you wish they had: name pronunciation, your one-line positioning, 5 hot takes, and 3 stories they can pull from.
Fact
Powder Mountain is the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the US
Bought by Summit in 2012 for $40-50M, Powder Mountain spans 10,000 acres and is the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the United States — bigger than Vail — yet runs on just 7 lifts. Its first chairlift was built by a sheepherder in 1972.
“It's actually the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the United States. And I think now Canada as well with Whistler. So it's huge. It's bigger than Vail, but it's got 7 lifts.”
Fact
Powder Mountain is the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the US
Bought by Summit in 2012 for $40-50M, Powder Mountain spans 10,000 acres and is the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the United States — bigger than Vail — yet runs on just 7 lifts. Its first chairlift was built by a sheepherder in 1972.
“It's actually the largest ski resort by skiable acreage in the United States. And I think now Canada as well with Whistler. So it's huge. It's bigger than Vail, but it's got 7 lifts.”
Billy
The chartered-Boeing pitch: fly 50 people to a mountaintop and ask for $1M each
To raise money for Powder Mountain, Summit gave 50 hand-picked attendees a card telling them to cancel their flights, then chartered a Boeing with a comedian onboard, bused them to the mountaintop overlooking four states, and pitched them on putting in $1M each for the future home of Summit.
“And on that final day, we chartered a, a big Boeing aircraft and we had a bus ready and we took everyone onto this plane where we had like a comedian perform on the plane. We did this whole fun kind of experience and we brought everyone to this crazy place, Powder Mountain, drove up to the top of the mountain.”
Story
Summit Series raised $50M to buy a mountain by pre-selling land
After building Summit Series into an elite conference, Begelman convinced attendees to pre-buy land, collecting $50M to buy Powder Mountain so the community could continue year-round.
“And so he somehow convinced all these people to pre-buy land and he collected $50 million and went out and bought a mountain in which he turned into a— this thing called Powder Mountain.”
Story
One operator, four ventures: BizNow, Summit, Powder Mountain, and a $30M fund
In the same week he sold BizNow, Begelman co-founded Summit (which became a ~$20M revenue business), bought Powder Mountain, and built a $30M venture fund plus a nonprofit — all run as an operator without outside capital.
“we, uh, co-founded Summit, which became also like a $20 million revenue business with, you know, thousands of customers. And, um, and as you mentioned, we bought Powder Mountain, which is the largest ski resort by acreage, 10,000 acres of skiable terrain in Utah with 7 lifts and hundreds of employees in the winter and a development team. And, and we've sold, you know, I think, uh, like $160 million worth of real estate at the project. We also built a $30 million venture fund called Summit Action”