Somewhere in Austin there is a room you can walk into and most people cannot, and the concierge fee for getting people in is simply charging for that difference. Capital Factory is the clean example, a startup hub with a real door policy, and knowing the door policy is worth more to an outsider than any amount of cold emailing. This is External API in its purest form, you are not building the room or the guest list, you are plugging someone else into an access point that already exists.
The reason you can charge for this at all comes back to karma, years of showing up, thanking hosts, and returning favors fast are what earned you the standing invite in the first place. Larry’s approach is not to feel awkward about charging for access, it is to attack the money directly and quote a flat fee before you make the introduction, not after. Run PQRST before you bring anyone in, preview who they actually need to meet inside the room, question whether the room is even the right fit, and read the situation before you promise anything.
For anything bigger than a single introduction, structure it like the One-Way Letter of Intent: they commit to specific actions in writing, and half releases once they hit that twenty percent mark. Once you’re both in the room, this is where SuperModel presence matters most, you are the one who is calm, dressed right, and clearly belongs there, which is what makes the introduction credible.
The concierge fee also works as a franchise move, the same access you sold once at Capital Factory can be sold again the next time someone needs the same door opened. Don’t undercharge because it feels like a small favor, a fifteen-minute introduction that saves someone six months of cold outreach is worth real money and both sides usually know it.
Send a thank-you to whoever runs the room after every introduction you broker there, that is the karma deposit that keeps the door open for the next person you bring. The fee is never really for the walk through the door, it’s for the years of relationship that made the door open in the first place.
Details: Capital Factory’s real door policy · 701 Brazos St, Austin, TX 78701
#ConciergeFee #ExternalAPI #Web12