Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Ben’s List 4

They say CEOs read a lot. Like 50 books per year… there are several apps dedicated to this market, providing summaries of books, bookmarking, read-later, etc. But is it actually a good thing to spend so much time reading when you’re building a new company? It’s also a distraction from your market and customers.

Unsurprisingly, I can’t find a main topic in this week’s list because I read a lot of different things. So what’s in my brain in February 2021?

As usual, several resources for entrepreneurs, creators and marketers about community. You can check what I think communities are (and are not) in this article.

There’s also a bunch of articles about remote work and company culture. Some tips for founders raising funds and investors handling a small fund. These topics are also regulars.

From time to time, I find some interesting news in healthcare, food and music too; a perfect combo to nurture your body and soul. These are also areas that I’d be investing in if I was an angel.

We also cover the legendary annual report from Benedict Evens – a must read!

The Great Unbundling

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Slide 51

Fundraising

The Non-Obvious Guide to Fundraising

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Venture Capital

Our Stack at a $10M Fund

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WeekendFund

Work

1. State of Remote Work 2021: Remote is the New Normal

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2. Why We Work

As we emerge on the other side of the most transformative year of our lifetimes, might identity, community, inspiration and purpose — principles we’ve traditionally tied to our personal lives — be what the new hybrid workplaces of the future most need to grow into?

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WorldPositive

Community

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Tribe

2. Creating a Community Commitment Curve

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CMJ

3. Markets and Communities

In a sense, the internet killed communities, but it’s also rebuilding them, for the people perfect for you.

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Health

1. It’s Time to Heal

These new tools and technologies are already changing how we approach everything: what we develop, how we develop it, and how it’s deployed to patients. Now, it’s time to build.

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2. Three ways AI will change healthcare in the next decade

Not only has AI enabled policymakers and frontline health workers to trace and limit the spread of Covid-19, but it has also accelerated the process of developing effective vaccines.

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WildHealth

Food

The A-Z of Foodtech Incubators, Accelerators & Grants

Shoutout to all our foodtech BFFs this one is definitely for you!

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Reading List

There’s so many keepers on this list, it’s definitely worth bookmarking and coming back again (& again)

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Music

America’s Secret Playlists

…we find it hard to believe, in a world where people are so moved by the emotional realism of deep and dark emotions in their playlists and Netflix shows, that they won’t soon come to expect the same from companies, advertisers, government agencies, HR departments, and other so-called “professional culture” organizations.

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Names of actual playlists on Spotify

you might also like

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Events 2 days ago

Last week, I spent three days at Bits and Pretzels in Munich — a startup-focused event with a distinctly Bavarian flavor. Think Oktoberfest meets startup conference, complete with dirndls, lederhosen, and more beer than you might expect. As someone building an AI-powered event platform, I went in with a specific mission: Observe how startups actually market themselves at events. Here’s what I discovered: GoodBytz: The power of good demos What they did: Robotics startup GoodBytz set up a booth where its robots prepared kaiserschmarrn (a traditional German dessert) all day long. Why it worked: Nothing beats seeing a product in action. While other booths had brochures and demos, GoodBytz’s robots were actually cooking. The smell, the movement and the end result stirred together an experience that people will remember and talk about. The lesson: If you have a physical product, show it in action. The old writing adage generalizes well: Show, don’t tell.  Let people see, hear and touch the product. WeRoad: The bathroom hack What they did: Posted “Missing Investor” flyers in bathroom stalls with QR codes pointing to their website. Why it worked: Pure genius. Every startup at the event was looking for investors, but the “Missing Investor” headline, while a bit on the nose, proved irresistible. Plus, bathroom stalls are one of the few places where people have 30 seconds to actually read something. The lesson: Think about where your target audience’s attention will remain undivided. Sometimes, the most effective marketing leverages the most unexpected places. Emqopter: Visual impact matters What they did: Designed a bright orange booth that displayed their drone prominently. Why it worked: In a sea of grey, white, beige and brown, Emqopter’s bright orange booth was impossible to overlook. The drone was real, too, and proved a real conversation starter. The lesson: Your booth is competing with hundreds of others. Make it visually distinctive and ensure your product is the hero. Quests: Community building using the product What they did: Created a busy, branded booth with accessories (toy car, traffic cones, a bulletin board) and used their anti-loneliness app to build communities among founders at the event. Why it worked: Quests used their product to solve a real problem right at the event, and the busy booth design generated energy and curiosity. The lesson: Use your product to solve a problem at the event — if it’s possible, of course. Demonstrate your value in real time. Dyno: Event-themed marketing What they did: Distributed branded electrolyte packs with the tagline “Your hangover ends. Your pension lasts – with Dyno.” Why it worked: Dyno aligned its messaging perfectly with the Oktoberfest theme. Every attendee was thinking about beer and hangovers, so Dyno’s goodies were quite relevant. The tagline was clever, memorable, and directly addressed a pain point most people at the event might have to deal with later. The lesson: Tailor your marketing to the event’s theme and culture. The more you tie your messaging and product to the context, the more memorable you become. So, what did I learn? Event marketing is about more than just showing up and setting up a booth; you have to understand your audience and create experiences that people will remember. Here’s what really struck me: most startups and even big companies don’t know how to leverage events properly. They book the booth, show up and hope for the best; maybe they bring some branded pens and a pop-up banner. Then they’ll go back home and wonder why they spent €5,000 in exchange for 50 business cards that never convert. The startups that stood out at Bits and Pretzels understand something fundamental: event ROI isn’t about booth size or location; it’s about strategy, creativity and planning. None of the startups above improvised on-site, or planned something the night before the event in their hotel rooms. They laid everything out 4-6 weeks before the event. A solid pre-event strategy is what separates successful event marketing from expensive booth rental.  But what matters most for early-stage startups is that you don’t need a massive budget to stand out. WeRoad’s bathroom stall hack probably cost €50 to print the flyers. A standard booth package at Bits and Pretzels would go for €3,000 to €5,500. The ROI difference is staggering when you compare the cost per meaningful conversation. That’s the difference between simply spending money and investing smartly. Building Sesamers has taught me that helping startups find the right events is only half the equation. The other half is helping them understand how to maximize ROI once they’re there. Good props aren’t a marketing expense; they’re opportunities to meet customers, investors and partners, and strike up engaging conversations.

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New Materials 3 days ago

Lios Group, the Irish startup behind SoundBounce, was a winner of JEC Composites Startup Booster 2018, and has been making significant strides since taking home the award.

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New Materials 1 week ago

Tree Composites aims to accelerate the energy transition with innovative composite joints.

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