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The Customer-First Toolkit: How I meet 500+ customers a year as a CEO
The Customer-First Toolkit: How I meet 500+ customers a year as a CEO
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Dinner series

Events team: Is the dinner series guest list finalized? Line up an invite from the CEO.

My approach to feedback dinners

To make sure I have a rhythm of feedback, one of my favorite traditions is a near-monthly dinner series that I hold for CS leaders in the San Francisco Bay Area. Side benefit: I’ve eaten at almost every nice place in Silicon Valley.
I have a few core rules for this:
It’s hosted by me and one or two other Gainsters.
We keep it small—10-12 total people.
We always have a private room and one conversation.
We keep it personal and vulnerable by starting with an icebreaker question (e.g., “What’s your secret superpower?”).

Here’s an example of the invite and reminder we send to the guest list:
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How to line up a dinner invite from the CEO

Logistically, we’ve made this pretty easy. My event team keeps a list up to date of client execs in the Bay Area. They book a private room. We then email the list and tell folks that (accurately) the dinner will book up fast.
Events team: When you have a finalized guest list, add it to the table below. Then choose the
@Monthly dinners
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template, and click create draft. I’ll take care of the rest from my inbox.
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Apply all templates
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Create all drafts
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Clear list
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Recipient First Name
Recipient Email
Sender first name
Event time
Event date
Event address
Email template
Apply template
Email body
Email subject
Preview
Create draft
Reset
1
Kianna
kianna.pham6@scottech.com
Nick
​6:00 PM
Fri, Sep 24
Protégé - 250 California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Monthly dinners
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2
Kiersten
kiersten.lange8@groovestreet.com
Nick
​6:00 PM
Fri, Sep 24
Protégé - 250 California Ave, Palo Alto, CA 94306
Monthly dinners
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