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Back to Can You Engineer Serendipity?, with Evan Baehr & Chris Taylor.

Why Do Big Spenders Love the Free Golden Ticket?

Evan Baehr runs a for-profit membership with a very high price and a free version called the golden ticket for extraordinary people under 25. High price point people love the golden ticket people. The early worry was that someone paying an insane amount would be annoyed that a kid gets a golden ticket.

Talking with someone who studied Bohemian Grove closely reaffirmed the pattern. Titans of industry pay a fortune to be part of Bohemian Grove. Creatives and musicians have a separate application and usually come for no fee. Patrons found incredible sources of inspiration and creativity from the musicians and artists. Sometimes an artist stipend in places like Soho came across as a way to put cool-looking people in the photography, the quarterly magazine, and the bar. Bohemian Grove worked as an inspiration loop: be inspired, then go build. The membership tests price discrimination down the list, taking as much money as feels appropriate from people able to pay. They find the value, and the prices are built all the way down.

Grokipedia·Bohemian Grove·Soho

Transcript

Can You Engineer Serendipity? ·

Austin Next

More from this episode

  1. What Is Rosedale?Rosedale is a physical room Zac Solomon runs for serious, non-dogmatic argument. The project started very niche.
  2. Why Do University of Texas Grads Work in the Bay?Evan Baehr says top CS students at UT and the Austin companies that want engineers keep missing each other.
  3. What Is Serendipity Manufacturing?Chris Taylor says serendipity manufacturing is mostly the room.
  4. Why Did Less Writing Make a Writing Club Happier?Zac Solomon says a writing club is really about talking to other people. People use the writing as the excuse for showing up.
  5. Why Is Fridge Starting to Charge Event Hosts?Chris Taylor says a big benefit of being a Fridge member is throwing events in the space for free once the group is above 10.
  6. Why Did a Member Mop the House Floors Unasked?Zac Solomon is the only employee, and the members already got the picture.
  7. Why Does a Small Austin Club Survive Losing Half?Zac Solomon calls a small rented room probably the most sustainable way to run a community in Austin. He is a little younger and takes very minimal risk.
  8. Are Sweet Greens the Way of Texas?Evan Baehr says an experience of Texas made of Sweet Greens and La La Land is not the way of Texas.

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