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Selected Entrepreneurs – Week 50

Lira Mussakulova Lira Mussakulova
December 1, 2020

GITEX Technology Week

After a year of missed opportunities, GITEX is back for its 40th anniversary with 5 extraordinary days. A proud moment for the UAE and you – let’s do business again safely. Get ready to power the future of your business.

When? December 6th – 9th

SWITCH 2020

Asia’s leading technology, innovation and enterprise festival is back from 7-11 December 2020 in Singapore! The Singapore Week of Innovation and TeCHnology (SWITCH) is the one-stop platform where innovation meets enterprise, with access to global startups, investors, corporates, innovation community and ecosystem players. Last year, SFF x SWITCH saw a record 60,000+ participants from 140 countries, 1,000 exhibitors and 569 global luminary speakers.

When? December 7th – 11th

SaaStr Scale 2020

SaaStr Scale is a completely immersive, two-day digital event for Founders and Revenue Execs to come together and share best practices. 2 days of actionable advice and learnings to help you reach $1B ARR and beyond, 20,000+ revenue leaders from sales, marketing, customer success and product, 50 speakers from the best SaaS companies across the world and 75 live intimate breakouts and roundtables with subject matter experts.

When? December 8th – 9th

Propel by MIPIM – NYC Online

Propel by MIPIM is  is a unique opportunity to promote your brand, services and products to a highly qualified audience. During 4 days, you will find the largest number and highest quality of real estate innovators on one platform, from speakers and exhibitors to visitors; investors with a special interest in innovation and tech; and exciting and educational content – their commitment is to produce less but better, with the most consistent editorial approach.

When? December 8th – 11th

Medical Wearables 2020

Medical Wearables are the next big thing. History will show that FitBit and Apple Watch are just the early primitive devices, and that the next wave of smart medical wearables will revolutionize healthcare and dramatically improve quality of life. The future is bright for medical wearables — they invite you to attend this conference to identify emerging technology and application trends, exchange ideas, form new companies, and network with your industry peers!

When? December 8th – 10th

NVCA VC StratComm Summit 2020

Join your fellow investor relations, marketing, and communication professionals in the VC and startup ecosystem for the (virtual) annual NVCA StratComm Summit. Do not miss this chance to hear from industry leaders and members of the press as we exchange best practices and navigate communications and PR in this “new normal”.

When? December 8th

Revolution Conference 2020

To bring the global mobility industry closer to a more sustainable future, in 2020 the annual REVOLUTION Conference will evolve into a hybrid eMobility brand. Instead of waiting once a year, the new REVOLUTION multimedia platform will expand to include quarterly REVOLUTION Digital events, a bi-weekly REVOLUTION Podcast, and year-round community initiatives. Together let’s build and strengthen the future of eMobility.

When? December 8th

Odense Investor Summit

Odense Investor Summit aims to connect startups & SMEs in need of funding from investors. Startups get the chance to pitch in front of pre-qualified investors. They have 15 innovative, investor-ready companies, interesting keynote from the Universal Robots’ President – Jürgen von Hollen and the Managing Director at Trumpf Venture GmbH Dr. Dieter Kraft. The companies line-up will be compiled of both Danish and international companies, 15 in total, with 9 of them being the RobotUnion SUPERSTARS. They have been selected from over 400 applicants and went through over a year long acceleration program.

When? December 9th

Nordic Impact Business Summit 2020

The World is Changing. We Change Too. Nordic Impact Business Summit is moving from the Copenhagen Old Stock Exchange to a screen near you. Full day streaming program with people from the global impact ecosystem.

When? December 9th

Venture University – REVERSE DEMO DAY – Cohort 10

At Venture University – REVERSE DEMO DAY each investment team will share their key findings and insights from their due diligence for why they got excited about the market, the team, the solution and strategy, and some of the key traction metrics that made them say “yes” to invest.

When? December 9th

Wayra l The Funding Cocktail

TFC is a two-day virtual co-investors conference bringing real value to the ecosystem. There are many interesting key Venture Capitalists in Europe to offer exciting keynotes and insightful panel discussions.

When? December 9th – 10th

MyData Online 2020 Conference

MyData Online 2020 will bring together stakeholders representing Business, Legal, Tech and Social perspectives because they are all equally important for designing and accelerating the sustainable and prosperous digital society, where human-centric approach to personal data is a key ingredient.

When? December 10th – 12th

DataTribe Challenge 2020

The DataTribe Challenge is a unique annual competition where startups have a chance at receiving up to $2 million in seed capital. The Challenge brings together the best entrepreneurs in the world looking to disrupt cybersecurity and data science.

When? December 10th

Ghana Tech Summit 2020

The Ghana Tech Summit is a 12-year initiative of the Global Startup Ecosystem which conducts the largest online digital accelerator in emerging markets. The Summit aims to revitalize Ghana’s entrepreneurial economy and reposition it as a global study of catalyzed innovation within an emerging market country.

When? December 11th

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Lira Mussakulova

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5 brilliant startup marketing techniques from Bits and Pretzels 2025

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.

Photo de profil Sophie Marquet
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