Good work is the best business development. Hope is not a plan.
Most client services firms do great work and then hope the phone rings. Their biz dev strategy equates to "Waiting Super Hard." Clutch is for the real ones ready to put their hands back on the wheel, with a real framework for building business on purpose, not by accident.
Ben & Jerry's·Harvard·Nintendo·PUMA·Khan Academy·Herman Miller·Warby Parker·Riot Games·Gates Foundation·Viacom·Trek Bicycles·Twilio·Google·Yale·Papa John's·David's Bridal·MTV·Pitt·Harvard Business School·W.L. Gore·Coldwell Banker·League of Legends·AMC Theatres·The Annie E. Casey Foundation·Black Hills Energy·Canon·Kaplan Test Prep·Longwood Gardens·Einstein Healthcare Network·Lagunitas·Georgetown·Philly.com·McGraw-Hill·Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center·Ben & Jerry's·Harvard·Nintendo·PUMA·Khan Academy·Herman Miller·Warby Parker·Riot Games·Gates Foundation·Viacom·Trek Bicycles·Twilio·Google·Yale·Papa John's·David's Bridal·MTV·Pitt·Harvard Business School·W.L. Gore·Coldwell Banker·League of Legends·AMC Theatres·The Annie E. Casey Foundation·Black Hills Energy·Canon·Kaplan Test Prep·Longwood Gardens·Einstein Healthcare Network·Lagunitas·Georgetown·Philly.com·McGraw-Hill·Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center·
Your biz dev challenges aren't about effort. They're about architecture. We diagnose what's broken, prioritize what moves the needle, and build the systems that keep it running without you holding it together by hand.
Eight sessions. One hour a week. A small group of five to six teams and leaders learning biz dev like a craft. Not a pep talk, not a firehose. A framework you can use the next day, built alongside people who get it.
The people you do business with matter as much as the playbook. Slack, alumni network, and curated events grow your surface area for opportunity by becoming best friends with the best people.
Good work is the best biz dev. Hope is not a plan.
What's Open Now
The next move is yours.
Cohort · 2 of 6 spots filled
Biz Dev Classes
You Can't Lose! biz dev classes are eight sessions, one hour weekly. The next cohort is forming now. We keep the group small on purpose. Five to six people who are serious about building the muscle, not just talking about it.
Consulting · Now booking
Consulting
Need help fixing what's stuck in your biz dev system? We diagnose what's broken, prioritize the highest-leverage moves, and help you build a sales process you can actually run and sustain.
What People Say
Sean Blanda Service Business Owner
"It was like the college course I wish I had before I started. I tightened up my biz dev process and now I'm booked out until 2026."
Mark Skala Skalawag Productions
"It wasn't 'do all this cold emailing with AI and win 400 new clients tomorrow.' It was a common sense, human approach to sales — and extremely actionable."
Chris Cashdollar Cashdollar Design
"His class guided me to see beyond the fear and identify manageable methods — even for those of us already stretched thin."
Stay in the Loop
Updates on cohorts, events, episodes, and the book.
No noise. Just the good stuff, when there's something worth saying.
01
MAKE SALES A VERB
For agency founders, consultants, and small client services teams ready to stop waiting super hard and start building on purpose.
Your biz dev challenges aren't about effort. They're about architecture. We dig into where things are breaking, prioritize what actually moves the needle, and build the systems and habits you can run yourself long after we're done.
This isn't theory. Every engagement is grounded in the real work: proposals, pipelines, client relationships, outreach, presentations. We make biz dev a verb.
Every engagement starts the same way: we need to understand you. Not just your sales numbers, but your team, your history, your clients, and how you actually work. We do this through questionnaires, direct conversations, and a review of your proposals, pitches, and marketing materials.
From there, we deliver a Diagnostic Report: a clear-eyed read on what's working, what isn't, and the 3 to 4 highest-leverage moves you can make right now. Then we get to work together implementing them, through weekly strategy calls, office hours, documentation, and playbooks you'll keep.
Research and intake questionnaire
Review of proposals, pitches, and existing materials
Diagnostic Report with ranked recommendations
Weekly strategy sessions to implement
Documentation, playbooks, and process artifacts
Team coaching as needed
The Work
Where we get into it.
Winning (Closing)
Winning starts with the first email. It peaks in the proposal, but it happens in the little moments along the way. We build a closing process that feels authentic to your culture, addresses prospect concerns before they're raised, and helps you win for the right reasons more consistently.
Account Leadership
The easiest money in your pipeline is the clients you already have. We help you move from account management to account leadership: proactive, strategic, and built to deepen relationships and expand revenue from your existing base before chasing anything new.
Mining Your Old Gold
Your network is full of people who already know you, trust you, and have budgets. Past clients, near-misses, warm contacts who went quiet. Mining old gold means working that list strategically, with the right cadence and the right message, before you ever send a cold email.
Warm Outbound
Outbound is wish fulfillment: you only invest effort in the relationships you actually want. We build a repeatable, human-centered outbound approach, primarily through LinkedIn and direct outreach, that doesn't feel like spam because it isn't spam. Long game. Real payoff.
Content Credentialing
Content doesn't create awareness anymore. It validates it. Most clients won't discover you through a blog post, but they'll absolutely use your content to vet you. We help you build a credentialing strategy around being smart in public: making your thinking visible in the places your future clients are already paying attention, so when they hear your name, the proof is already there.
Collaborative Selling
Sales shouldn't live with one person, and it shouldn't live with one firm. We help you spread the revenue mindset across your team and build real partnerships with other agencies, freelancers, and collaborators. Shared language, defined roles, and a culture where everyone understands how their work connects to the next client. Whether it's your internal team or a trusted partner bringing you into their deal, a firm that sells together wins together.
Sales to PM Handoffs
Most firms leak value the moment a deal closes. The client relationship is warm, expectations are set loosely, and delivery starts from scramble instead of strength. We design the handoff so that what you sold is what gets built, and the client relationship only gets stronger from there.
Engagement Shapes
Pick your shape.
Every engagement starts with a conversation. We'll figure out quickly what fits.
Sales Diagnostic
Fixed-fee · Starting at $5,000
Research, doc review, and a Diagnostic Report with 3 to 4 ranked recommendations. Followed by four weeks of office hours to get them implemented. The fastest way in.
Weekly strategy sessions across a full quarter. Embedded support across all five areas of biz dev, built around your priorities and adjusted as we go. A real collaborator, not a consultant who disappears between calls.
The full treatment. Twice-weekly calls, team coaching, playbook development, and rolling implementation across your whole biz dev operation. For firms ready to overhaul the engine while it's running.
I came here to chew gum and make new friends. Now, which of my new friends wants a piece of gum?
About
About Joe
People connector. Community builder. Sales strategist.
Through Clutch, Joe has helped 70+ digital agencies, design studios, dev shops, branding agencies, ad agencies, PR & Comms firms, global commercial architecture firms, client services teams, consultants & coaches, video production studios and more develop customized sales and business development processes, implement them, and evolve them as their industries shift.
In addition to his consulting work Joe led business development at Happy Cog during the some of the legendary agency’s formative and explosive growth years (working with clients ranging from Ben & Jerry’s to Harvard to Google). While consulting he simultaneously led business development at SuperFriendly (working with clients like Puma, Mailchimp, and Herman Miller), similarly as the firm 5x in size and revenue. Currently he’s getting the old Happy Cog band together with his friends and partners at Pine Works.
Joe always keeps one hand in directly selling to clients, in addition to his coaching and consulting. Your biz dev knives get dull in a matter of months if you’re not actively selling directly to clients. If a sales consultant is only selling their consulting services to people like you, and not also working with live clients, you’re prey.
Joe is a consultant and connector, and the Coach K of teeball. He studied illustration at SCAD, served as VP of Business Development and later President at Happy Cog, taught as an adjunct at Drexel University, founded PhilaMade, and, most formatively, served as a cadet at Commander Mark's Imagination Station (for fun you can check out his nerdy-ass illustrations at www.joerinaldi.art and buy stickers at 3rd & Godfrey).
The throughline in all of it: helping good people do better work together, build stronger relationships, and create a business development practice that feels human on purpose.
Eight sessions. One hour a week. Five to six participants. Dozens of implementable tactics.
A framework for building and evolving your biz dev and sales foundation. The kind of cohort where the conversations are as valuable as the curriculum — because the group is that good.
Each session runs one hour and covers one major topic — with context, tactics, examples, and a short homework assignment to apply it before the next week.
The cohort is capped at five to six participants on purpose. That's a working group, not an audience. Conversations go deep. Everyone gets time.
Every session is recorded. You get the notes and a playbook chapter covering the topic. You're also added to the cohort Slack and alumni network when you complete.
8 live sessions, one hour each
5–6 participants per cohort
Weekly prep homework
Session recordings + notes
Playbook chapters for each topic
Cohort Slack channel
Alumni network Slack access
Foundational biz dev grammar
Dozens of implementable tactics
Curriculum
Eight sessions. Zero filler.
01
Kickoff & Grammar
Foundational biz dev language, mental models, and a shared framework. What "winning" actually means for your kind of business.
02
Winning
Augmenting your closing and sales process. How to shorten cycles, improve close rates, and stop leaving decisions in limbo.
03
Warm Outbound Sales
Getting in front of real prospects without cold emails. Relationships, referrals, and warm signals — the outbound that doesn't feel like outbound.
04
Mining Your Old Gold
Former clients, stalled conversations, dormant relationships. The pipeline hiding in your existing network that most people ignore.
05
Account Leadership
Turning current clients into expanding accounts. Deepen relationships, find upsell, build accounts that stay and refer.
06
Content Credentialing
Using what you know to show up where buyers pay attention. A credentialing strategy built around expertise, not volume.
07
Collaborative Selling
Getting your full team into the revenue conversation. Shared language, shared ownership, a culture where everyone helps win.
08
Open Skate
Q&A, AMA, grab bag. Bring live situations, current deals, sticky problems. This one goes wherever the group needs most.
Pricing
Priced for the way you work.
$500
Per Person
Individual
Solo consultants, independent practitioners, and individual contributors looking to sharpen their biz dev craft.
$1,000
Per Lead
Project Team Leader
Leaders who build ad hoc project teams. Covers the lead — with the understanding that the cohort shapes how the full team operates.
$2,000
Per Agency
Small Agency
Agencies of 2–8 people. One price for the team. Everyone gets access, recordings, playbook chapters, and Slack.
What Alumni Say
Monica Sanchez DEEO Studio
"What Joe built was more than a workshop — it was a small community. Even after the sessions ended, we were still talking, working, hashing things out. By the end, Yianni and I felt a renewed sense of clarity and confidence."
Chris Cashdollar Cashdollar Design
"Joe's You Can't Lose! class helped me move past neglect and fear with practical strategies I could actually sustain. It gave me a clear way to take the reins on selling instead of waiting for leads to land in my inbox."
Mark Skala Skalawag Productions
"It spoke to the relationship side of sales — balancing that with outreach, tech, and value. Overall extremely actionable and easy to digest. Something that's missing from a lot of biz dev courses."
Apply
Interested? Tell us a little.
A few questions so we can make sure the cohort is the right fit. Spots fill fast — we'll follow up within a day or two.
03Coming Soon
You Can't Lose!
The business development book for founders, consultants, and client services teams who are tired of waiting and ready to build.
Not a pep talk. Not a firehose of theory. A real framework with the strategy, tactics, and mindset to make biz dev feel less like a chore and more like a craft. Written for the people who do great work but haven't yet built the muscle to consistently win more of it.
Good work is the best biz dev. Hope is not a plan.
A lot of agencies were born into a rising tide. Inbound leads poured in, referrals kept the calendar full, and the bar for standing out was low. It worked. Until it didn't.
When you rely only on inbound, you're at the mercy of your inbox. You're sitting in the driver's seat with your arms tied behind your back, moving 65mph down the highway without a hand on the wheel.
You Can't Lose! exists to fix that. Not with secret formulas or magic solutions. With a real practice, one you can actually sustain.
The Foundation
Three principles. Everything else follows.
Every strategy, tactic, and outreach decision in the book runs through the same filter: Does it fulfill the three principles? If not, it's not worth your limited, valuable time.
Intentionality
Without intentionality, biz dev feels like driving with your arms tied at your sides. You're moving, but you're not in control. This is about putting your hands back on the wheel, deciding where you're going and building systems to get there.
Authenticity
Clients can smell insincerity and it is a smelly cologne. You can't fake authenticity, you can't outsource it, and no amount of automation will replicate it. The most powerful message you can send is the real you.
Sustainability
Biz dev isn't a sprint you run once and then recover from. It's a practice. What you need is a "just enough" approach you can actually maintain alongside everything else you already have to do.
Inside the Book
13 chapters. Zero Filler. Here Are The Highlights
You Can't Lose!
The mindset that makes everything else possible. You can't lose clients you don't already have. You have nothing to lose! Embracing this attitude and freedom unlocks everything.
Winning (Closing Leads)
What it actually takes to go from interested to signed. How to shorten cycles, improve close rates, and stop leaving decisions in limbo.
Account Leadership
Squeeze the orange juice out of the oranges you already have. This chapter is about building accounts that expand, stay, and refer. The kind of relationship depth that turns a project into a long-term partnership.
Mining Old Gold
All of the future work you could ever need is in your existing network. Past clients, near misses, dormant contacts, and the people on the edges of your orbit who've been quietly waiting for a reason to reconnect. How to find them and what to say.
Warm Outbound
Fishing with a spear, not a net. Getting in front of real prospects without cold emails, mass sequences, or other bullshit. Never sell a thing! Outbound that doesn't feel like outbound. Because it isn't.
Content Credentialing
Most clients won't discover you through a blog post, but they'll absolutely use your content to vet you. We help you build a credentialing strategy around being smart in public: making your thinking visible in the places your future clients are already paying attention, so when they hear your name, the proof is already there.
Experimental Positioning
Positioning doesn't have to be sacred. Treat it like a hypothesis. Run content sprints, track what resonates, and let your positioning reveal itself through the experiments you run, not the manifestos you write.
"Waiting isn’t work, and waiting isn’t working"
You Can't Lose! — Chapter One
Who It's For
Written for the people doing the work and trying to win more of it.
You Can't Lose! was written for independent consultants, agency founders, client services leads, and anyone who sells their expertise to clients and needs a more intentional approach to building the next chapter of their business.
Get notified when it drops.
Sign up and you'll hear when the book is available, plus occasional excerpts as we get close to launch.
Recommended Reading
Best Books on Agency Biz Dev
A short list of books worth your time if you want stronger sales fundamentals, better leadership, and more durable growth habits.
You're My Favorite Client
Mike Monteiro
The field guide to healthier client relationships and better agency boundaries.
Elite engineers are compressing four weeks of work into four hours with Codex. AI doesn't flatten talent — it amplifies it. What this means for agencies, pricing, and the next 12 months of client services.
If someone is telling you positioning is the best way for all agencies to improve sales, they probably sell positioning consulting. Beware of experts — they're usually most expert at selling to people like you.
An uncommon rash of sales opportunities and energy at the end of the year. Quick context and advice for making the most of end-of-year momentum before the calendar flips.
Why creative work and life is more about steady contact than home runs. The art of doing less but better, resisting the urge to please everyone, and finding meaning in risk, friction, and imperfection.
The myth of constant creativity, the beauty of the average Thursday, and why resistance is the doorway to real growth. Cycles of work and rest, and learning to find meaning in the 80% of life that's not the highlight reel.
The Nanas in the Village: Hospitality & Anticipation as a Superpower
Convening the right people, the right way, and letting uncommon outcomes happen is a skill developed over decades. Applying hospitality to clients and relationships can yield profound outcomes.
Richard and Devon launched Second Harvest in Austria. Behind-the-scenes details, the philosophy behind the event, how it went, and where it goes from here.
The difference between community and alliance: "An alliance is going someplace — it has direction." Are your businesses behaving like nouns or verbs? What if your lease is your marketing strategy?
Solid Diagonal Line Up: Anthony Colangelo & MECO's Origin Story
Anthony Colangelo — partner at Pine Works, host of Main Engine Cut Off — on how sincere passion and strong opinions built a space flight podcast empire, and the power of authenticity in building an audience.
eHouse Gets Acquired: Reaction Pod + The Philadelphia Experiment Starts!
Breaking down the conversation with Chris & Aaron Quinn, more details about agency acquisitions, private equity vs venture capital — plus the beans on The Philadelphia Experiment.
Apr 7, 2025w/ Richard Banfield, Chris & Aaron Quinn
Little By Little, Then All At Once: eHouse Gets Acquired
Chris and Aaron Quinn share their experiences creating, growing, and ultimately scaling eHouse through an acquisition — candid and informative about every stage of the journey.
What's more important — that you achieve your objective, or that you're properly credited and then achieve your objective? The purpose of job titles and the way identity gets in the way.
Brown M&M contract requirements, TNT (takes no talent) success factors, responding to leads shockingly fast, and why "Waiting Super Hard" is the accidental biz dev strategy of most agencies.
How managing communication patterns within a community — conducting some conversations in person and others online — creates powerful contextualization that prevents online discussions from cannibalizing the real ones.
Zero Forecasting & Overinvesting in Biz Dev Seasons
Why pipeline forecasting is 0% reliable until the check clears, why tracking sales quarterly sets you up to fail, and how agencies chronically under-invest in sales and biz dev.
In the ongoing "Parenting Advice That's Not For Everyone" series — the benefits of arming your kids with humor, letting them funny their way out of trouble, and why this is actually a biz dev metaphor.
The value of showing a client a glimpse of the far future state of their project — how casting vision ahead dramatically improves a client's ability to be attracted to novel ideas rather than poke holes at constraints.
Revisiting previous versions of yourself can reinvigorate your current status quo. How to overcome the urge for perfect by embracing small experiments in progress — sparked by old Happy Cog notebooks.
Reinforcing change with repetition, positioning your agency as a talent incubator, leveraging alumni networks — and how AI is reshaping search behavior and client decision-making.
The challenge of inexperience, the mistake of seeking permission, the risk of not taking risks, and why owners tire of running agencies after 7+ years — plus Joe takes shots at luminaries in the agency consulting space.
A Work/Life Additive Approach to Mid-Life Opportunities
Blending work and life, midlife as reinvention rather than decline, and why turning 50 is an opportunity to live more creatively and intentionally — not a reason to slow down.
Not the end — but a conversation about how the podcast's focus will evolve. A discussion of "Second Harvest" and the opportunity to make the next 50 years better than the first.
When the kids load onto the school bus and Richard and Joe are left alone in their houses — some bigger picture ideas that might harbinger a new direction for the podcast.
Life hacks for business travel that also fill your cup. Spend one additional day wherever you travel and put up a Bat Signal to attract serendipitous meetings. The full breakdown inside.
Finding the right balance between creative side projects and work. Joe on turning art into a successful Etsy shop. Richard on setting up your workspace to support creativity without burning out.
Gell's Law, complex systems built on simple ones, and the dangers of the Middle Management Cummerbund. Getting foundational systems right influences everything — and sometimes you need to throw a match first.
The balance between math and qualitative insight in consulting and lead flow, the limitations of small sample sizes, and the dangers of imitating others' success without understanding context.
Richard's angle on agency viability and purpose in an age of highly competitive digital products and tools. A fresh perspective on the promise of client services in 45 minutes.
After decades in client services, Adam Kurzawa's conclusion is unambiguous: sales success comes down to trust. Clients have to trust you. Your team has to trust you. Ownership has to trust you.
SEER Interactive founder Wil Reynolds on how good citizenship of your community equals equity in both business and in life — a content marketing machine and example of showing up for real.
Richard fresh off Config in San Francisco on what the demand for this event reveals about the value of live connection — and a long conversation about why people need to meet in person.
Adeo CEO Tracey Halvorsen on a lifetime of client services experience, value pricing, the value of relationships, and the secret to a long and successful career.
Plank founder Warren Wilansky on 25 years of agency growth: don't think about leads or marketing or sales. Cultivate authentic relationships and boom — you're an overnight 25-year success story.
Comparison shopping and keeping up with the Joneses focuses on outcomes instead of the journey. Ways to stop measuring yourself against others and start focusing on the lessons along the way.
There are no books that solve all your problems. No operating system to save you. What will serve you is the ability to see through remedies to the underlying principles they're built on.
First Dog to the Bowl Wins & Agency Life Expectancy
A deep dive into account leadership — how to grow your most valuable accounts, and why establishing process is an act of generosity. Plus: would owners be happier if they embraced the idea that agencies are finite?
Applying base principles of client services sales to B2B, SaaS, and small businesses. How to punch above your weight, break through competitor noise, and employ Richard's "Oprah" strategy.
Teams that embraced distributed work during COVID now reconcile remnants of their in-person culture with distributed staff. Remedies for the existential friction — and the myths that cloud judgment.
While enterprises force return-to-office, agency owners can't convince staff to come back. The moral: in-person interaction is worth fighting for. You may need to manufacture it deliberately — but the value is irreplaceable.
How to run an agency? Richard has notes. Colocation over distributed. 12-year strategies. Apprenticeships. No bonuses, no profit share, no exits. Suburban campuses over city offices. This episode packs heat.
Agency owner, e-commerce founder, enterprise design leader Jay Fanelli on what it was like living through 2021's most successful IPO, and design leadership with a splash of F1 talk.
Are your daily standups really valuable, or do you just not trust your team? An unloading on performative meetings, managers who mistake "managing" as a measure of success, and how to fix your goddamn calendar.
The conscious and unconscious decisions that shape work culture. Why does your team use Slack? Figma? Notion? Intentionality — one of the central themes of the podcast — examined through the lens of every tool choice you make.
Former Meta VP of Product and Teehan+Lax cofounder Jon Lax on what it was like at Facebook, the Meta spatial computing team, how T+L turned a corner into value-based billing, and what Wilford Brimley has to do with any of it.
Kin CEO and We Are Mammoth founder Craig Bryant on the total person — why "work/life balance" implies two distinct lives when the truth is they enmesh and influence each other. A more complete mindfulness about how we work.
3rd Horizon's Dan Ostrower on enterprise and consulting agency perspectives, cultivating innovation, and designing 3-party agreements where the client, the agency team, and the agency business each fill their cup.
Tracey Halvorsen on Art, Relationships, and Kicking Ass
Tracey unpacks how relationships inform client engagements, how her perspective as a painter informs her views on people, and plays Joe's dumb game of guessing client budgets. You'll laugh. You'll cry.
How unexamined structures force ideas like "scaling" and "growth" onto otherwise smart people. A case for intentional, thoughtful solutions over lame-ass motivations — and what events like Phebruary Happy Hour actually do.
A deep dive into male friendships, personal growth, and the evolving landscape of professional relationships. Two friends talking about friendship and about being friends. Plus: plans are hatched to organize an event.
Frankford Hall · Tuesday, April 7, 2026 · 6:30–9:00 PM
Let's spring back into happy hours at our favorite haunt Frankford Hall. Knock the dust off and bend an elbow with your PhilaMade friends and colleagues.
Two days. Carefully curated humans, genuine conversations, and the kind of serendipity you can't manufacture. $100 covers admin. The value is in the room.
A curated retreat for higher education thought leaders. Four days of connection, stillness, and space to think. Made possible by presenting sponsor Snap Inc. Space is limited.
May 21, 2026 · deCordova Sculpture Park · Lincoln, MA · from $695
Led by Richard Banfield and Devon McDonald. A one-day summit for anyone at an inflection point, personal or professional, ready to design what comes next. Facilitated sessions, workshops, and an optional VIP dinner.
The best work of your career won't come from a conference badge or a LinkedIn DM. It'll come from the right people in the right room at the right time. This is that room.
Below you'll find the schedule, your fellow attendees, where to stay, and the stuff nobody thinks to ask about until they're already on the plane.
Last April, a handful of hand-picked friends gathered in Philadelphia. Some needed a reset. Some were eager to help others find their next thread. Some were longtime friends. Others fell in like instantly. What proved out was something worth repeating: put interesting, willing, amazing people together with just enough structure to connect through, and the outcomes are unexpected and occasionally profound.
The premise is simple:
The best professional opportunities of your career are unlocked through collaboration with people you'd never meet on your own. Clutch Spring Meetings exist to create those collisions on purpose.
What that looks like:
Curated small groups matched by shared context, interest, or the creative tension between different perspectives.
Jawnts — walking field trips through Philly: architecture, history, a record store run, lunch somewhere good. Different crew, different route, same city.
Lightning teaching — short, punchy sessions taught by your fellow attendees on what they know best.
Structured 1:1s so you don't leave without meeting the people you most needed to meet.
The Schedule
Two days. Loose grip.
Wednesday, March 18Welcome Night · Frankford Hall
6:00–9:00 PM
Happy Hour
Frankford Hall is the go-to for PhilaMade meetups. All-weather beer garden, ping pong, Jenga. A good place to arrive jetlagged and leave with three new best friends. Website · Map.
Thursday, March 19Full Day · Think Company
9:00–10:30A
Coffee & Greetings + Opening Remarks
Get settled, say hello, find your people, then gather as a full group to set the tone for the day. Brought to you by Chris & Aaron Quinn!
10:30–11:30A
Small Groups
Curated cohorts matched by shared context, challenge, or creative chemistry. You might be seeking help, or qualified to provide it. You may have the kernel of an idea and others can add fidelity. You'll find out which group you're in when you arrive.
11:30A–2:00P
Jawnts
Walking field trips in groups of ~7. Maybe you're headed for an architecture tour, a walk through history, a record store run, or a pizza party. Different crew, different route, same city. Lunch is baked in. Details revealed Thursday morning.
2:00–3:00P
Lightning Teaching
Short, punchy sessions taught by your fellow attendees. Last year's ranged from self-defense to thinking like a painter to writing emails people actually read. The best part of having a hand-picked room is everyone in it has something to teach.
5:00–6:30P
Happy Hour
Location TBD. Decompress, compare notes from the Jawnts, meet whoever you haven't yet.
6:30–9:00P
Dinner
Back at Think Company. Group dinner will be catered by Chef Kurt Evans — a Philadelphia chef, organizer, and social entrepreneur who uses food to build community and advance social justice. ChefKurtCooks.com. Thank you to Brian McIntire and Think Company for sponsoring dinner from Kurt.
9:00P–?
Afterparty
Late night options listed below for the committed.
Friday, March 20Day Two at Think Company
9:00–10:00A
Rolling Start & Grub
Come when you can. Eat something. No pressure. Sponsored by Warren Wilansky and his team at Plank!
10:00–11:00A
A Jen Dary Experience
More info soon, but the Jen Dary workshop last year was the star of the show for many, thank you Jen!
11:00A–12:00P
Speed Dating
Structured 1:1s to make sure you don't leave without meeting the person you most needed to meet. This was born from the first gathering, where people kept saying the best moments were the unplanned side conversations. So we made space for more of them.
12:00–1:00P
Lunch
Details TBD.
1:00P–?
Free Skate
The time is yours. Pick up a thread from Thursday, grab coffee with a new best friend, or just wander. We're running out of time with all the new friends we made at sleep away camp, so find your lanes and make it count.
Your Fellow Attendees
The room is the product.
Every person here was hand-picked. Founders, creative directors, product leaders, coaches, engineers, and operators from companies like Atlassian, Duolingo, Cornell, Shopify, Ford, and Syracuse University alongside independent studio owners and agency leaders from across the country.
The mix is the point. You might sit next to a leadership coach at breakfast and a CMS co-founder at lunch. That one person you can't believe you never met before? They're on this list.
Aaron Quinn
eHouse
Abby DePrimo
Think Company
Adam Gesuero
Image Conscious Studios
Alex Gilbert
Independent
Andi Graham
Big Sea
Anthony Colangelo
Pine Works
Ashley Budd
Cornell University
Brian McIntire
Think Company
Bruce McMahon
Think Company
Bryan Angelo
Olegna Group
Chris Cashdollar
Independent
Chris Free
RevenueCat
Chris Quinn
eHouse
Chris Reif
Armor
Dan Hughes
Armor
Dave Look
Chromatic
Dayana Kibilds
Ologie
Duran Goodyear
Alphex
Dzuy Nguyen
Big Sea
Faith Hurley
Pinpoint Collective
Jamie Fontaine
adeo
Jay Fanelli
People Problems
Jen Dary
Plucky
Joe Rinaldi
Clutch
Jon Lax
Independent
Justin Flax
University of Pennsylvania
Katie High
Independent
Maribeth Rayfield
adjacent
Mark Llobrera
Upstatement
Mark Skala
Skalawag Productions
Monica Sanchez
DEEO
Nancy Lyons
Independent
Nate Rook
adjacent
Pete Andrews
Earls Brand + Supply
Pete Gaioni
iFactory
"PK" Pradyuman Kodavatiganti
Proscia
Richard Banfield
Second Harvest
Ricky Muller
Bom Bom
Rob Rayfield
Syracuse University
Ryan Irelan
Pine Works
Sara Wachter-Boettcher
Active Voice
Tim Quirino
Threads
Tracey Halvorsen
adeo
Tripp Clemens
Scale
Wale Olaleye
Railsfever
Warren Wilansky
Plank
Wil Reynolds
SEER Interactive
Yianni Mathioudakis
DEEO
Where to Stay
Philly is lousy with great options.
Book sooner rather than later. March in Philly fills up fast and the good spots go first.
The Notary Hotel
Center City · Recommended · ~$289/night
Best mix of price, location, and transit. Walk to most venues, easy Uber to all of them. Amazing views of City Hall the tallest free-standing masonry building in the world.
A reliable Center City hotel with easy access to transit and a quick ride to the event venues. Located in the old PSFS building, Brian McIntire says it boasts the best city view.
Admin, coordination, food, and making sure the experience is worth showing up for. Drinks and hotels are on you.
What should I bring?
Something to write with. Your honest self. An appetite for real conversation. Leave the pitch decks at home — this is not a networking event. It's the opposite: a room where you can drop the act and talk about what actually matters in your work and life.
Getting around Philly
Uber and Lyft work well. The SEPTA subway connects Center City to Fishtown/NoLibs quickly and cheaply. If you're staying in Center City, most of Day One is walkable.
Questions or changes?
Email Joe directly: [email protected] No ticketing system, no support queue. A real reply from a real person.
After Hours
For the night owls.
F1 Arcade Philadelphia
Late-night option
Racing simulators, drinks, and a strong group option. Website.
Hop Sing Laundromat
1029 Race St · Chinatown
No shorts, no sandals, no hats, no phones, no joke. A speakeasy that's either a Philly urban myth or the best bar you've ever been in. Usually both.
Ray's Happy Birthday Bar
1200 E Passyunk Ave · South Philly
Classic Philadelphia neighborhood dive bar. Legendarily divey. Go at least once.
Yakitori Boy
211 N 11th St · Chinatown
Private karaoke rooms and a great general bar. Deeply recommended for groups. Book a room ahead of time if you're going with more than four people.
Sky High Lounge at The Four Seasons
1 N 19th St · 60th floor of the Comcast Building
The highest point in the city. You don't have to be a guest to drink here. Worth the Uber just for the view.
Submitted
You're in the queue.
Joe will follow up directly — no autoresponder, no drip sequence. Just a real reply when he's had a chance to look at it.
