I cold emailed Steve Schwarzman and landed a 30-minute meeting in his office. Here’s how it happened, and what we spoke about…
One Friday afternoon I created a post on LinkedIn documenting the story of how Blackrock had spun out of Blackstone in the early 1990’s, attaching an original picture from 1992 of a few senior exec’s at an office party to celebrate the newly formed ‘Blackrock’ company.
Pic: Larry Fink (left) and Ralph Schlosstein. I searched Google Lens for the cap they were wearing.
In the pic, some exec’s were wearing a distinctive baseball cap with a ‘Blackrock’ logo, the kind of merch start-up’s companies create in the early days. As a finance memorabilia fan, I used Google Lens to reverse image search the picture, selecting the cap only.
One single result came back…
Someone was selling the original Blackrock cap from the picture on the German version of Craigs List. It had a few marks of wear and tear, the description read: “Old baseball cap. Made in the USA. Price 30 EUROS”.
Instantly, it was obvious the seller didn’t know what they were selling.
I bought the cap, and it sat on a shelf in my home office for a few weeks, gathering dust.
Pic: The cap in all it’s glory.
It quickly occurred to me that this cap was wasted with me, and would be much more appreciated by people who actually lived through its origination.
So, I speculatively cold emailed the Founder and CEO of Blackstone – Steve Schwarzman – offering to ‘drop off’ the cap to him when I was next in New York.
An hour later he replied: “A great idea!”
At that point that it dawned on me that even though I’d proposed the ‘meeting’, I had no idea what was in store. In my head, it would be one of two scenarios: 1) hand over the cap to one of Steve’s assistants in the lobby then leave, or 2) hand over the cap directly to Steve, shake hands, smile, then leave.
But, I also prepared for secret third scenario: the 5% chance that I hand the cap to Steve and he then sits down with me for a discussion. Despite a near certain chance this wouldn’t happen, I prepared for it anyway by watching 20 hours of Steve being interviewed, reading his book ‘What It Takes’ cover to cover.
The day arrived.
A reminder popped up on my Outlook so strange I doubt it’ll ever be topped: “Drop off baseball cap to Steve Schwarzman”.
I had a light lunch at The Plaza, then made my way over to 345 Park Avenue to see one of the most powerful and influential people in global finance. This all felt very far away from my first job: taking orders in Window 1 of McDonalds.
I entered Blackstone’s enormous HQ and was greeted by the lobby team who asked who I was there to see…
“Steve Schwarzman”.
The lobby team glanced to security. Security glanced to the concierge team, who glanced back to security. At the conclusion of this non-verbal approval dance – and after checking my ID – I was given the nod and made my way to the elevators.
The client floor at Blackstone was magnificent. Incredible views, a kind of mahogany, classic style and tons of sculptures and paintings.
The elevator doors opened: “Joseph Cass to see Mr. Schwarzman? Right this way…”
One of Steve’s team led me to an impressive meeting room, where I was asked by another team member if I wanted a drink. Crucially, I was advised “Steve usually likes to sit here, so maybe go for the seat opposite”.
Less than a minute later – Steve arrived.
Softly spoken, he gave a zinger of a first line:
“So, what have you got for me?!”
Steve invited me to sit down, and took a seat in his usual spot.
He asked me how I got hold of the cap, how I even knew about the cap, what I was doing in New York, what I was doing in my career, what I enjoyed about my work. Then we spoke about the Leaders podcast, who I’ve interviewed – including his number 2 Jon Gray – plus a bunch of other people he knew. We discussed his career, what it was like building Blackstone, deals he’d done in the UK and his broader personal experiences and life in the UK.
No phones on the table. No laptops out. No distractions.
Just me and him talking, with no real agenda.
Pic: Steve and I in his office. I intentionally bought a white collar, blue pinstripe shirt and wore a Hermes tie to match his usual style. Very sadly, I don’t think he noticed. Gutting.
After 10 minutes a Blackstone colleague entered and handed Steve a post-it note. We kept talking.
After 25 minutes Steve was handed another post-it note. We kept talking.
Then at 30 minutes his colleague opened the door and gave him a nod, and with that our meeting ended.
I asked for a quick photo, he obliged and – as is customary – remarked on how tall I am. Steve then walked into a seemingly secret door from the meeting room to his office, literally cap in hand. I headed back to elevators, stunned by how genuine, polite and moreover generous he was with his time.
In his book, Steve describes the difficult early days of Blackstone, when trying to hustle support, raise funds and build connections, and in my opinion it couldn’t be more true:
“People in positions of power are much more open to meeting with you than you might think. If you ask, you often get.”
Pic: The framed pic of Steve and I, plus the $1 he paid for the cap. I made a promise to myself to start documenting when interesting things happen, and to start printing physical copies of cool photos. This interaction ticked both those boxes.