How Andrew Wilkinson Landed a Meeting With Mark Zuckerberg

22 Oct 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

0:43

In this short YouTube segment, the speaker recounts how entrepreneur Andrew Wilkinson sent a cold email to Mark Zuckerberg proposing a dinner. Zuckerberg responded positively the night before, but Wilkinson was unable to leave his island due to lack of transport and ultimately had to cancel, becoming the only person to stand up Zuckerberg. Despite the missed meeting, the cold outreach opened numerous doors for Wilkinson, illustrating that even without big financial resources, strategic cold outreach can be an effective way to connect with high‑profile individuals and generate opportunities.

Cold emailed Mark Zuckerberg. He asked him to, if he wanted to do dinner. It was like a super quick cold email 'cause he was going to Vancouver or something like that. Victoria, where Andrew lives, is a 30-minute flight. Didn't think anything of it. Never heard a response until the night before. Mark said, yeah, sure, let's do it. And then the funny thing is, this is why Andrew's legendary. He couldn't get off the island to go to, he couldn't catch a flight. There was no flights to catch. He couldn't get a ferry. He was trying to see if he could rent some rich guy's boat. Yeah. To like carry him over. So he actually, then he emailed Mark. He's like, I can't actually do dinner.
I'm so sorry.
So he's like the only person who's ever stood up Mark Zuckerberg But the amount of doors that have opened as a result of his cold outreach is wild, and it's still something he practices to this day. So if you can't cut a big check, then, then cold outreach is, is a great option.