Britton O’Dalley was visiting rural British Columbia for her wedding on Sunday as investment bank Goldman Sachs ended a free cold beer offer it previously offered at its New York City headquarters. A friend sent him the news and made a joke.

O’Dalley, a special projects manager at Cometia, a coffee startup headquartered in Gloucester, Massachusetts, thought it was both an interesting proposition and a great idea. So, about 16 hours later, the team set up a table with Autry oat milk, cups, straws and hundreds of cometia his coffee his capsules just outside the Goldman Sachs building. They custom-printed a sign advertising the sample, “Free Coffee for Goldman Analysts!”

At first the employees seemed wary. “Some people started coming, but a lot of them were looking at us strangely like a trap,” he says O’Daly. Understandably, some feared they’d step into a Nathan Fielder-style prank or engage in an activity that would piss off upper management, but gradually, Goldman’s employees became more and more interested in coffee. I accepted the startup service.

Between about 8:45 a.m. and about 10:30 a.m., they served about 100 people with freshly made cold brew, even after security guards moved workers across the street.O’Daly considers the Guerrilla pop-up a success, but says the only way the team was able to pull it off was because it ran quickly. “This was one of those situations where he was in a situation that didn’t take more than 24 hours or didn’t make much sense,” he says O’Daly. “You have to be the doer.”

This is definitely a sentiment that resonates with entrepreneurs. but, Is doing–well, whatever–for two and a half years it’s been more or less banned. But that is starting to change. A business owner found that Experiences his marketing helped him connect more with his customers and launch his product, especially in a saturated market. Many have even found that face-to-face marketing tactics can significantly increase sales.

For the Cometeer team, the pop-up was a welcome return to grassroots marketing and received plenty of media attention.

But then again, taking advantage of such moments is not for the faint of heart. During a red-eye flight from her home Seattle to New York, Christina Lazarus, head of brand and communications, ordered 15 cartons of Oatley Her Oats Her Milk. Odalley’s plane landed at about 6:00 a.m. However I stop by my house, pick up my Cometeer shirt, unload my suitcase, then go to my office to get a table, tablecloth, cups and as many Cometeer capsules as possible (luckily my friend is driving offered). They also needed to pick up a cooler that another startup had borrowed the week before for an event.When after that They had to stop at Duane Reed to pick up ice.

The New York City office was running out of capsules, so O’Daly asked the team if they could bring any extras they had on hand. For example, Lazarus brought all the capsules that were in his freezer. “It was a complete pageant of tasks we had to do,” says O’Daly. “All the men, women and children of Cometia were mobilized to donate what they had.”

The Cometeer brand promises quick and easy brewing of coffee in less than a minute, but the nature of the product made last-minute setup a challenge. Cometeer capsules contain frozen disk coffee. To brew them, simply pour hot water (for hot coffee) or melt them and pour into cold water or milk (for cold brew). Capsules must be kept in the freezer, so customers typically leave them in the fridge overnight to make their morning cold brew. It doesn’t really go into the equation.

So Lazarus packed a thermos of hot water that could be used to defrost the capsules, ready to pour, and before the light turned green, much to the shock of a Goldman analyst, had fresh coffee. We were ready,” says Lazarus.

O’Daly initially tried to promote the brand by specifically addressing Goldman Sachs employees. But the team eventually made it open to anyone who wanted a cold beer. This earned the confidence of the Goldman analysts we initially targeted. O’Daly even thinks the gimmick has won Cometia a new customer: Instead of business cards, the team handed visitors extra Cometia capsules that they could brew at home or share with colleagues. rice field.