Why I Shut Down Plunge Party

“If you don't like something change it. if you don't like your job quit. if you don't have enough time stop watching tv. life is simple. if you're looking for the love of your life, stop. they will be waiting for you when you start doing things you love. stop overanalyzing. life is simple

There’s a popular song going around using this vocal sample. Shoutout Westend for the fire remix

Why the hell did I start my newsletter with a quote from a song? This isn’t a high school graduation talk. Because I didn’t like something. I didn’t feel like there was a community in San Francisco to meet incredible people without it being centered around bars and drinking.

So i decided to change it. I built Plunge Party. Plunge party was the community I wish existed when I first moved to San Francisco. It opened up countless doors for me in the city and turned into something I had no expectation would get as big as it did.

It got so big I couldn’t even believe it. Everyone in the city at least heard about Plunge Party. Not me, Plunge Party. That’s nuts. So we kept growing. People kept coming. Then it outgrew the venues we were using. So I had to find new venues. It was a never ending cycle or run events, promote the events, then find a new place to host an even bigger event. This was a learning on it’s own but I’ll save that for a different time.

Come March (2025) I made the decision to increase the frequency of hosting these once a month to twice a month. I thought “hey people keep coming, and asking for more, so let’s do this more.” This was when I had no committed venues to host at and I was only using backyards. Then we started growing to where I needed to find bigger and more legitimate spaces.

I ran around the entire city trying to convince anyone I could to let me use their open space. I looked at abandoned parking lots, school playgrounds, rooftops, national parks, and even back office spaces. I had interest but everyone got spooked when they heard I was bringing 800 gallons of ice water and a small wood burning stove that would alert the SF fire department. I even reached out to the mayors office asking for help.

Why am I telling you all this? So once I tell you whey I stopped, you don’t sit here and think “well did you try this?” Yes I did. I also had specific location criteria for what would and would not work.

Fast forward to May of 2025 and I was three months into trying to find a larger space for our June kick off event. We graduated from my friends backyard (shoutout Marco) to Wefunder in the Mission (shoutout Ishan). We were locked in to one small place that kept getting noise complains from a neighbor.

I was spending 20-30 hours each week searching for locations to host, coordinating partnerships, and logistics. Devin, Gargi, and Ishan were working full-time jobs while helping with ops and partnerships. It was taking a toll on all of us. (I would have crashed out much sooner if I didn’t have them).

No one in the city (that fit the venue criteria) was open to hosting Plunge Party. I didn’t get it. That’s when my friend Benson came in clutch. He is the co-owner of the Ramp Restaurant and we had somewhere to host our summer kickoff. We hosted that event, it was enormous. 150 people showed up.

When the event ended and the team had our Monday sync up. Something felt different.

Everyone was burnt out. Devin, Gargi, and Ishan were helping out while still doing their own full time jobs. I left my job 8 months prior and I was running through my savings. I didn’t see a world that existed where I could keep spending 30 hours a week on this and having it financially support me.

I had to have a good hard talk with myself about what I wanted to get out of this and if it was worth it to push through. Would you rather be a 10/10 entrepreneur on a 2/10 problem, or be a 2/10 entrepreneur working on a 10/10 problem? I realized I was the former.

In the Monday Sync up, we agreed to change Plunge Party to a once a month series. 7 day’s later I asked myself agian, was worth it to push forward and make it work or close the chapter down?

I know myself too well, it’s really hard for me to balance two things at once. I couldn’t put my attention into getting plunge party into a state where it could be self sustaining and there was no one on the team that I was able to hand it off to. Everyone had full time jobs and this wasn’t at a point where it could be self sustained. Instead of burning out and letting the event series fizzle. I decided to do the opposite. I wanted to go out with a bang.

To make it official I told the team our July 13 event was going to be our last one. Ever. No “we’ll be back in the fall.” It was a hard stop. We were doing this for a year and I wanted to go out on top. I announced it was the last one. 175 people showed up, we secured a sponsorship with a fitness club, and I even rented a massive sauna on wheels. (Still never got that dunk tank 🥲)

People were coming up to me at the event. Angry that I was stopping this. That’s a good NPS, right? I clearly had PMF, I was winning, we were winning. Devin, Gargi, Ishan, and I built the community we wish existed. After 12 months and 1300 people. I looked over 175 people sipping coffee, jumping in cold water, waiting in (a long) line for a sauna, and competing in a plank challenge. And I couldn’t help but feel so damn proud of what it has become.

I don’t even know if people will read this but I need but I wanted to say this would not have been possible without every single person that believed that this could work and helped shape the vision of what it has become. From me begging Dom from plunge to let me borrow one of their plunge tubs, to the partners that came to the events, the venues that shared spaces for us to use, and every single person that put that came to the events and made it what it has become.

And the team that made it possible. Devin, Gargi, Ishan, and all the volunteers.

Thank you. We did it.

Love You,

Jared

Gentlemen’s Agreement 🤝🏻

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Things Worth Clicking

A few gems I found on the internet this week - no digging required

• My First Million shared the trend of cinematic content creators and this video by Ryan Trahan is bananas (YouTube)

• A nice refresher on how media and entrepreneurship come hand in hand: On with Kara Swisher

• The new GTM Speaking of Sydney Sweeney, this writeup by Kat Rosenfield was excellent (Pirate Wires)

I Dig So You Don’t Have To

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