We needed a reason to sell tickets and get people using our app, so we threw a party. In Tacoma. A city in a state I had never once set foot in.

It became “Valevo’s Battle of the DJs.” We held it in a massive former armory downtown. We recruited three DJs through a local radio personality and a casting call. The stage and the room were built out from concept art I commissioned, with lasers and banners and big screens. To get in, you bought a ticket and loaded it into our app, which was exactly the thing we were trying to prove could work.

Here’s where it almost died. Ticket sales were slow. Few in Tacoma knew us, and a DJ battle wasn’t really a thing the EDM scene was asking for.

So I went looking for the local scene. I found Electric Taco Tuesday at the Airport Tavern, a regular EDM night run by the people who were already bringing Tacoma’s dance crowd together. I made them partners. With some (a lot of) free tacos, VIP passes, and tickets to hand out, we brought them into the planning instead of just asking them to help promote it.

It was partnership at its best. We didn’t just throw an event in Tacoma. We became part of a community, and I’m still in touch with people from it today.