Life starts off real simple, but it gets weird. We let people judge us for trying. We follow a script in fear of failure. We put so much pressure on ourselves to do something great that we do nothing at all. But we’re grown ups now, and part of being a grown up is realizing that it’s your life. And that we owe it to our current- and childhood- selves to live the most fulfilled versions of that life, to rediscover the twinkle in your eye.
I found that I was hyper indexing on working on an idea that was good, and it was paralyzing. I’d have an idea I liked, pick it apart until nothing was left, and repeat this cycle for months on end. I had no momentum. Recently I’ve taken the focus away from building something that had “product market fit”, and put it into doing something that simply excited me.
Maybe you want to write and publish your first song on Spotify. Maybe you want to start a candle business. Maybe you want to design a chair. Maybe you want to knit a silly little hat. Maybe you have no idea what you want to do. Whatever it is, know that I’m trying right along with you.
My journal entries will often be about the curiosity that I’m following and engaging with. Maybe the project I’m working on is rooted in something meaningful in which case I’ll give some lore… or maybe it’s just something that popped into my head. I’m not an expert at anything so it’s likely that I’ll ask for advice, feedback, or help.
The overarching thing I’m trying to do is build a community of people based on three principles:
You define your own success.
You don’t define anyone else’s success.
Trying your best is the coolest thing you can do.
I have no idea what you love doing or what makes your skin buzz from excitement- but I hope you figure out what that is and try your best to do it. If you feel stuck, want to chat to jumpstart the process, or want to collaborate on a project, reach out to me on twitter/instagram/LinkedIn!
June 19, 2024 - hosted my first event(s)!
I’ve always wanted to host something big. My whole life I’ve been a driver of friend trips and hangouts, but I wanted to take a crack at organizing something bigger than my group. I went to a bunch of events during NY Tech Week in October last year, which was a fun gateway to meeting a lot of people in the space. At the beginning of May I got an email that NY Tech Week was happening again in June 2024, and went through the list of events that have been planned. One caught my eye- NBA finals watch party.
nba watch party
My first thought was “why don’t I host something like this?”. I wanted to create a place for people here for tech week to watch the game and bond over it, rather than create another networking event. Game 7 of the Western Conference Finals was going to be on the first day of tech week, so I threw together a Luma page and filled out a survey (under the regretful alias “Jason Loi Events”) to get onto the official NY Tech Week page. Within a few days, I got approved.
I reached out to companies for sponsorship but there were no takers. I called a few bars to find a place to host, and luckily one was happy to let me book out the space for free. Everything was pretty much set. The NY Tech Week page generated a ton of organic traffic- I had almost 500 sign ups in the first two weeks. But the thing about Game 7s is that they only happen if the teams are tied 3-3 after 6 games. The Dallas Mavericks eliminated the Minnesota Timberwolves in 5 games.
I had to pivot, and I had to pivot quick. I originally didn’t plan the watch party for Game 1 of the NBA Finals because there already was one, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I didn’t want to throw away all of the signups that I already had, so I changed the event to Thursday.
By the time of the event we had almost 1000 sign ups! I wanted to host something that was first and foremost for NBA fans, so I bought name tags and some basketball stickers for people who wanted to identify as “NBA experts”. People cheered when the Mavs scored, and groaned when the Celtics hit another open three. Throughout the night more and more people showed up, with close to 200 people at its peak. Success!
climate panel
After my application to host the NBA watch party during Tech Week got accepted, I thought about hosting another event that was more in line with my work. I had momentum. Given that there were also lots of climate tech folks that were visiting for the week, I saw an opportunity to host a panel with experts for climate tech founders. I slacked my manager for approval to plan this event, which she agreed to and gave me a small budget for it.
This panel was far more complicated to plan than the NBA watch party- I’d say it required 10x the time and mental effort. I needed to find panelists, an appropriate venue, cater food and drinks, and all of the logistics that go along with it. Most of all, the outcome of this event was going to affect my reputation at work, so this had to go well.
I enlisted a friend at work to host the panel and for help finding panelists. We invited panelists in our networks, our friends/coworkers’ networks, as well as did a bit of cold outreach. We locked in our first speaker within a week, and slowly filled out the panel with three more climate specialists. We used our office for the venue, which made our lives easy. We worked with our building manager to order food, drinks, and make sure that we had IT for our tech set up. We had most of the logistics figured out, and now we just needed to make sure that panelists weren’t going to speak to a room full of empty chairs.
This was, by far, the most stressful part of planning this. We were hoping to get around 60 attendees. We had put in a ton of effort that would all go to waste if people didn’t show up. We had to wait until only 10 days before the event to post it on the NY Tech Week page, and even when it was up, registrations were much slower compared to the NBA watch party. We had maybe 75 sign ups a few days before the event, which we predicted would result in a 25 person turnout. To make up for the deficit, I cold-messaged people in NY and in climate tech on LinkedIn, inviting them to the event. This worked really well, and I probably got close to 20 additional sign ups. These sign ups were more likely to show up, so I estimated that we were around 40 people. In the last two days leading up to the event we got 100 additional organic signups and ended up with 70 attendees!
By the end of the week, I had pulled off two separate events for over 250 people. I met a ton of really cool people in tech, created a space for new connections and friendships, and gained some credibility and experience to host something else in the future.
Does hosting something sound fun to you? Do you have thoughts on what can make a gathering special? What are some events you’d want to attend in the future? Let me know on twitter/instagram/LinkedIn!