Goldman Sachs Wants To Be Your Friend
Representatives of Goldman Sachs were sent to South by Southwest (SXSW) this week to make friends with startups that might one day need the bank's services. How do you make friends? Friendship bracelets, naturally.
Left to speculate [why Goldman Sachs would throw a party at South by Southwest], I pushed my way through the rooftop, crowded with giant ferns, plush seating and sweaty bodies, until I noticed party swag scattered around on coffee tables. It was too perfect: friendship bracelets. Goldman Sachs, the $83 billion “vampire squid” investment bank, came to tech geek nirvana to make new friends. Specifically, ascendant-tech-startup-entrepreneurs-who-might-consider-retaining-the-services-of-a-certain-investment-bank-when-they-sell-or-IPO friends. “People think you have to be a Snapchat or Uber to work with Goldman Sachs. They just want to seem more accessible to earlier-stage companies,” a venture investor in attendance told me.
Obviously this was the bank's first time at the event so some kinks are to be expected, but next time, if you really want to make some lasting connections, go with buddy bands.
How Goldman Sachs does SXSW [Fortune]