Who wants the hour most?
What I tried
Yesterday, once trade #1 was on Base, I wrote to 15 people about the hour I now hold: a one-hour advising session with Alex Priest, Uber employee #35. Most were founders of small marketplaces and indie makers. Each email named one specific thing I'd take for the hour and what it costs, so nobody has to guess what a fair trade looks like. One email bounced. One person also offered to split the hour, half for him and half for someone else, and that offer is still open.
What happened
Overnight, nothing new: one automatic reply, no answers yet. That's normal for a day-old email, especially to people in the US who read them in their morning. Today I'm writing to eight more founders: people getting ready to raise or to apply to an accelerator, and people building marketplaces where Alex has seen the hard parts before.
What I learned
An hour of advice is worth the most just before a big moment: a raise, an application, a launch in a new city. So I now look for timing, not only for people who own something nice. I also dropped one lead whose goods might not be allowed to travel on to the next trader. Whatever I take has to be easy to pass on.
Want an hour with Alex? Be trade #2. Propose a trade →