I spoke at NYU Stern’s entrepreneurship club on Wednesday.

Let me repeat that. Me. The dropout memelord shitposter reading on the subway going viral guy was invited to speak at NYU Stern. I know it sounds insane.

But not gonna lie or fake humble here, I called my shot on this one. When I dropped out, I told my Mom the next time I stepped foot in a college classroom I’d be speaking there.

Don’t worry though.

I didn’t tell the kids to dropout (I actually don’t think that’s the right move for most kids).

Here’s what actually went down….

Walk into NYU Stern building.

Can’t enter. ID-gated turnstiles. I ask the security guard lady behind the turnstiles if I can come through and sit in the lobby, I tell them I’m speaking to students in a bit. She says I need the student who invited me to come up and get me. I say ok, I send him an email. He says it will be 10 minutes he’s in a meeting. I stand around check phone. An older woman well-dressed in her 50s walks in. She says she doesn’t have ID and is there for meeting. Security guard lets her in. Security guard doesn’t mind. Woman sits down. Realizes she’s not even in the right building. Turns around and leaves. God I hate academia this ageist bullshit mentality. This is why I left.

I go outside to kill time.

Sit down. Check Twitter. 3 girls walk up to me. That was fast. Man I love college. They ask me to do a street interview. I laugh. I’m usually the one doing the interviewing. I ask what interview is about. They say it’s for energy drink and if it helps me prep for studying at NYU. I say I’m not a student. They ask where am I a student. I say I dropped out. They ask what are you doing here. I say I’m speaking to students at Stern. Coolest fucking feeling ever. Like all the little risks I took were worth it. All the dropout drama and mini “Fuck yous” I had to say to get where I’m at.

We do the interview. They ask me if I had any advice for students. I say to work on side projects. Everything you want to learn is on the internet. Also you should party more. It teaches you marketing. They laugh. They leave. They give me energy drink (which I actually needed anyways). I sit back down, drink energy drink, check Twitter. Wife arrives minutes later. NYU student comes and gets me.

Get let into NYU Stern security. Thank you fat security guard lady! Building is fancy. Modern. Lots of natural light.

Get led down to basement.

Small room. 15 chairs. Circular setup. More socratic discussion, less lecture. I was happy because I didn’t prepare anything. Wife was freaking out about this. Why would I need to prepare? As Taleb says, “If the professor is not capable of giving a class without preparation, don’t attend. People should only teach what they have learned organically, through experience and curiosity…or get another job.”

Start conversation.

I introduce myself, talk about my startup Memelord Technologies, and my thesis around the future of meme marketing for 2ish minutes and how gen-z are gaining market power and why they shouldn’t underestimate their value to businesses.

We all start talking.

1 kid introduces himself. I forget his name. Let’s call him Billy, he looks a like a Billy. He’s wearing stoner attire hippie t-shirt and Vans, but quickly I realize he may be the smartest most well-qualified kid in the room. Reminds me of myself. I would walk around Ross School of Business high as a kite wearing a Grateful Dead t-shirt in a sea of investment banker suits as an act of rebellion.

Anyways, Billy says he’s working on a software for senior assassin, you know that game you play when you’re a senior in high school to try to shoot each other with water guns and whoever wins gets a pot of cash? Fucking sick. His startup went viral last year gaining 500,000+ users with super funny content. Killing it. Problem is senior assassin is a game only played at the end of the school year, so he asks smart questions about achieving predictable growth and revenue. I suggest he builds a media brand and merch line to achieve revenue throughout the year similar to my buddy Isaac who runs a 9-figure samurai sword business.

Another kid introduces himself. He’s working on marketing automation software and how it’ll automate “all your marketing”. I know this can’t possibly be true, but I put on my inquisitive professor cap and listen and talk. Was I about to become automated away finally? As we get talking, it becomes clear he has never worked in marketing and vis-a-vis the software cannot automate any of your marketing. This is not an insult or attack. It’s just a fact. And it’s not a bad thing. The kid is 18.

This is a problem I see a lot of the time with young ambitious founders. They’re working on building software in an industry they’ve never spent any time in. How can you build marketing software if you’ve never marketed anything??? It’s like the tech bros working on agricultural tech who have never stepped on a farm or even gone outside to touch grass in 6 months. That’s what I love about the senior assassin startup Billy is working on. It’s for a community he understands.

I don’t say any of this to the marketing founder, but what I do tell the young marketing founder is instead of rushing to build software, start by offering your automation services to companies. This will teach you about the real problems that marketing teams are facing. Plus you’ll make way more cashflow you can then go invest in solving the problem. This is the path I took. I worked for startups for 3 years as a marketing consultant, found problems, then build a software to solve them. In fact, now thinking about it, I’ve never seen a marketing software be successful where the founder didn’t work in marketing services. Start with services, then build SaaS. That’s what Emery Wells did (see my interview of how we he went from creative agency owner to founder of $1B video review software Frame.io).

Another kid introduces herself. She was a model and now working on software for modeling industry. See this that shit I love. When someone builds products for niche industry they love and understand. She’s trying to figure out best marketing tactics and how to stand out on social media. She has 11k on Instagram, but doesn’t know how to stand out in sea of thirst trap model Instagram. Is it talking about real-world modeling industry experience? Talking about financial side? I say “If every modeling girl is trying to do sexy videos, do funny. Do the opposite.” Maybe I’m biased. But it’s a great way to stand out. In a sea of boring, be funny. In a sea of hot and basic, be hot and weird. Great advice for marketing and for dating I must say.

Anyways, we keep talking for a while. One kid offers McDonalds cookies. It’s only $5 for 13. Incredible deal. And much butterier than Insomnia cookies. If I was a college kid now, that would be the 1 thing I’d go back and do different. Save the money on Insomnia cookies on drunk nights out, go to McDonalds.

Conversation coming to a close. I must impart wisdom.

I bring up someone they all know. Travis Scott. I tell them about this picture of Travis Scott performing at a show with like 15 people from 2013. I say wanna know what people would call him? “Cringe”. That’s what they would call him. But he wasn’t cringe. He was just early in his career.

See, the internet today would call that “cringe”.

No it’s just being early in a career. It’s how every artist, every entrepreneur, everyone gets started. No one cares until they do. Everyone’s cringe until you’re rich and then you’re a genius. Push through the cringe. Just keep fucking going. Don’t stop. If you’re not failing online, you’re not trying enough cool shit.

If you have a little brother or sister or kids in college, consider sending this post to them! They can handle the f-bombs! They’ve seen much worse on the internet! (Also buy them a copy of Memes Make Millions for Christmas gen-zers love it!)

Podcasts + Videos

Want to ditch the corporate normal path? I talked to author Paul Millerd aka “The Joe Rogan for dudes who hate their 9-5s”.

Tech Memes of the Week

(brought to you by memelord.tech obviously)

Thanks for reading nerds.

Create some cool shit this week.

Jason “The Memelord” Levin

Founder of Memelord Technologies, Author of Memes Make Millions

Need crazy marketing ideas? Book a call here.