The Dinner Bill
Three Things I Learned From A Dinner We Couldn't Afford With NHL Partners in 2009
The Dinner Bill
We were broke and bootstrapping the first two years of TicketManager.
We went months without pay. When we did get paid, it wasn't much (I made about $900 a month for the first two years).
Every single penny mattered.
At the end of 2009 we were starting to get traction. We had a few teams nibbling around working with us to introduce us to their customers - something that would never have happened if not for the hard economic times we were in. Remember, in 2009, everyone was cutting everything. Companies didn't want to be seen entertaining customers during such hard times and some sponsors even took their names off of events they already paid for.
There was an NHL league meeting in Las Vegas, and our new friend Jeff (who is a dear friend today and one of the best people I know) worked for the league and offered to help us with some intros to teams at the meetings.
We scraped together what we had, and Aric and I flew to Las Vegas. We were going to join their happy hour and then take Jeff and his teammate Beth to dinner as a thank you at a nice steakhouse.
The happy hour couldn't have gone better. Multiple teams showed up, and we made friends we still have today.
Jeff started inviting others to join us for dinner. It was great, and we encouraged it. Only one problem: It was too great.
We had less than $75k in the bank for our entire company. That's payroll, insurance, everything. And now we were having dinner with nearly twenty people at Strip Steak in Mandalay.
The dinner was terrific. As the bill went up, we got more nervous.
Aric texted: "That's a $1k bottle of wine."
I responded: "That Japanese Wagyu for the table is going to be $2k."
Aric: "I hope this works"
Tony: "Me too."
We were going all in. Unplanned. In the moment.
I know that sounds silly, but that's the way it was then. The tab ended up being just north of $7k. Roughly 10% of all the money we had!
Jeff had paid the bill. He was insistent.
What I learned from the dinner bill and the long two hours of wondering if we could afford it:
Do it.
That dinner was three years’ worth of work for us. And Jeff is special. It literally was the food off our table, but those are the stakes. When the moment comes, we have to be ready to bet on ourselves and the good ones.Pay it forward
What Jeff and Beth did for us helped change our business. Whenever I help new companies, they always ask what they can do to reciprocate. Nothing. I owe it to Jeff. It's his tab.
I'm not very smart, but I have made a lot of mistakes, and I know how hard it is to get started. At the very least, I can help people avoid making the same mistakes.Keep receipts
Build a good product, get it in front of good people, and look out for each other with honesty and integrity. It works. The good ones often rise to the top for a reason. Find them.
It's a fun story to think about today, but man, did we sweat out that tab!