Owner of a new start-up or in general, would you pay $2500 to have lunch with a billionaire?

i had an opportunity at a silent charity auction for $2500 to have lunch with a member of a famous new york billionaire family.
Considering i just literally started a small start-up, did i miss an opportunity here? and if i did how would any of you savvy businessman (fran ) take advantage of this lunch, or if anyone has had an experience such as this please share!
I'm starting to feel like i should've gone for it

Not knowing who the billionaire is (make their money from a startup too?) I'm inclined to think you saved yourself some money. Since you say it's a famous billionaire family, sounds more like it was inherited. Don't know what kind of wisdom they could give you.

loews, a member of the tisch family

It might have been a good way to get introduced to the guy, He probably hears pitches all the time, and that would have been a waste. And these types of things are usually just an onerous obligation for the guy, but if you show yourself to be an interesting person (to him) it might have been a good way to get to know the guy socially... maybe. That said, you probably saved your money.



LA Guy said:

It might have been a good way to get introduced to the guy, He probably hears pitches all the time, and that would have been a waste. And these types of things are usually just an onerous obligation for the guy, but if you show yourself to be an interesting person (to him) it might have been a good way to get to know the guy socially... maybe. That said, you probably saved your money.

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I'm a pretty good people's person, so i think socially he wouldve enjoyed the conversation, i wasnt looking for an investment per se , just maybe get him interested enough to earn me some solid contacts, with his name attached to it.

also i should note, my start-up is heavily charity oriented so i thought it would definitely strike a chord since hes giving up his time for this charity.

What was the exact deal? 2.5k at a venue already selected? Why was he doing this/what charity was this for? Does it align closely with yours?



Piobaire said:

What was the exact deal? 2.5k at a venue already selected? Why was he doing this/what charity was this for? Does it align closely with yours?

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its a predetermined venue i believe, but not sure on that, the charity was for disabled kids, my company is actually going to be aligning itself with as many charities as possible

Huh.. I can't work out why a real billionaire would even want to do this. Ignoring that the power of money, is that it allows you to make more money really fast.... If he was worth $1b and dropped it into a stock standard savings account at 5.25%, which is what my local bank is offering (http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/accounts/savings-accounts/netbank-saver/rates-fees.aspx) He would be making $5,993.15 per hour in interest.

Why would someone like that (who I assume is earning waaaay more than plebian bank savings account rates) be bothered having lunch with someone for $2.5k? $10k seems reasonable.



johnaus said:

Huh.. I can't work out why a real billionaire would even want to do this. Ignoring that the power of money, is that it allows you to make more money really fast.... If he was worth $1b and dropped it into a stock standard savings account at 5.25%, which is what my local bank is offering (http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/accounts/savings-accounts/netbank-saver/rates-fees.aspx) He would be making $5,993.15 per hour in interest.
Why would someone like that (who I assume is earning waaaay more than plebian bank savings account rates) be bothered having lunch with someone for $2.5k? $10k seems reasonable.

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Nobody with decent money would dump their billion in a savings account are you actually serious?



As for the lunch, I'd say it's not really worth it. You have lunch and have a slight chance of getting some help, but you could get more press / momentum from a startup competition or getting a blog like TechCrunch or NYTimes tech to talk about your start up. There is a silicon valley startup called Let's Lunch that does something similar. A better deal would be to go to a political lunch / dinner, senator ones don't cost that much and if you want the big guns it's like $35k a plate for Obama. You could network better there and have more opportunities



johnaus said:

Huh.. I can't work out why a real billionaire would even want to do this. Ignoring that the power of money, is that it allows you to make more money really fast.... If he was worth $1b and dropped it into a stock standard savings account at 5.25%, which is what my local bank is offering (http://www.commbank.com.au/personal/accounts/savings-accounts/netbank-saver/rates-fees.aspx) He would be making $5,993.15 per hour in interest.
Why would someone like that (who I assume is earning waaaay more than plebian bank savings account rates) be bothered having lunch with someone for $2.5k? $10k seems reasonable.

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its for charity!



eddievddr10 said:

loews, a member of the tisch family
...
its a predetermined venue i believe, but not sure on that, the charity was for disabled kids, my company is actually going to be aligning itself with as many charities as possible

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If you want to speak to a member of the Tisch family, apply for Techstars New York and a lunch meeting with David is part of the application process.



eddievddr10 said:

i had an opportunity at a silent charity auction for $2500 to have lunch with a member of a famous new york billionaire family.
Considering i just literally started a small start-up, did i miss an opportunity here? and if i did how would any of you savvy businessman (fran ) take advantage of this lunch, or if anyone has had an experience such as this please share!
I'm starting to feel like i should've gone for it

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Will it be 1 on 1 or ...?

Unless he is self made I would say no with out considering it and if he is self made I would reed up on him and see if he could tell me something, that would relate to me and what I do.

you just started a startup, save every penny you can. you are going to need it.



eddievddr10 said:

its for charity!

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