How Tristan Walker got a job at foursquare and what you can learn from his story

How Tristan Walker got a job at foursquare and what you can learn from his story 54 Flares 54 Flares I read a blog post from Tristan Walker this morning about how he got a job at foursquare.  Its the kind of story that makes a 28 year old man fist pump high in the air.  Its the kind of story I wish more people read, and more people told.  Its the kind of story that Im going to share. Ill be using direct quotes from his blog post, but you can read about his incredible story here on his blog. Tristan had been using foursquare for about 2 months when he sent an email to co-founders Dennis Crowley and Naveen Selvadurai.  His passion for the service foursquare provides, coupled with his intense interest in learning from both co-founders was the driving force behind pulling the trigger.   Here is the email Tristan sent: Hey Dennis and Naveen How’s it going? Hope all is well! My name is Tristan Walker and Im a first year student (going into my second year) at Stanford Business School (originally from New York). Im a huge fan of what you both have built and excited about what you guys have planned for FourSquare. It is an awesome , awesome service. I would love to chat with you guys at some point, if you’re available, about FourSquare. This year, I’m looking to help out and work extremely hard for a startup with guys I can learn a ton from. Dennis, with your experience at Google and the Dodgeball product, and Naveen, with your experience at Sun and engineering in general, I know I could learn a great deal from you both! Before business school, I was an oil trader on Wall Street for about two years and hated it! Moved out to the Bay/Stanford to pursue my passion for entrepreneurship and the startup world. This past spring I had the opportunity to work for Twitter as an intern and learned a ton. Solidified my commitment to working at a startup that I’m passionate about, and FourSquare is one of those startups that I believe in. I know you guys are probably getting inundated with internship-type requests, but thought it’d be worth a shot! I can assure you Im humble and Im hungry! Let me know if you’d be interested in chatting further. I definitely look forward to hearing from you. Stay awesome! Tristan @tristanwalker Tristan didnt hear back right away.  In fact, he sent 8 emails to Dennis and Naveen before receiving one from them.  The key lesson here is that persistence always pays off.    When you do hear back from your target, it might not always be what you want to hear, but it is certainly better than nothing.  In Tristans case, he heard exactly what he wanted. The email Tristan received was from Dennis, who wanted to know if Tristan was ever in NYC.  Here is Tristans response: hey dennis, yeh I was planning on being in ny tomorrow [i was in LA at the time!…and no, i definitely had zero plans to be in NYC] how about we meet up live at your offices? -tristan This is the most fantastic piece to the story.  Tristan had no plans of being in NYC, but he purchased his flight ticket, hopped on a plane, and was in NYC the NEXT DAY to meet with one of the founders of foursquare.  When your opportunity calls, you need to do whatever you can to answer the bell.  If you dont, regret will live in you forever. Tristan ended up working at foursquare, unpaid for over 30 days.  He gained the co-founders trust and further increased his passion in the service they provide.  Two years after sending his first email, hes currently the Director of Business Development at foursquare.  Not too shabby. What are you taking away from Tristans story?