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Las Jellys: Home & Event Cocktail Bar Experience

Spherification is a culinary technique you may associate with haute cuisine and cooking contests, but it is coming to the rest of us, too. Case in point: Las Jellys and its solid cocktails encapsulated in a gel sphere.

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This time, no need to go to El Bullí or any waiting list to experience this innovation. Las Jellys does have a physical store in Barcelona, but also sells its cocktails through delivery apps and direct-to-consumer via e-commerce all across Spain.

According to its cofounder, Daniel Roig Canelles, the Spanish startup came up with this sales strategy as a response to evolving consumer behavior. 

Las Jellys: Reinventing the Cocktail Experience at Home

“My partner and I are cocktail enthusiasts, and during the COVID-19 pandemic, when all the bars were closed, we realized that people were changing their consumption habits. We set out to bring the cocktail bar experience to people’s homes,” Roig Canelles said.

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Creating the Perfect Mix: The Science Behind Las Jellys’ Spheres

With combined expertise in business management, creative food development, and technical innovation, Las Jellys’ cofounders also wanted to get the exact right mix for its spheres.

In competing products such as gummies, Roig Canelles said, “the experience is nothing like, for example, having a margarita, and is disappointing for the consumer.” That’s because “alcohol level is usually very low and does not reproduce the complexity of a real cocktail in the mouth.”

Las Jellys differentiates by offering higher alcohol content in its cocktail spherifications — 19º. But it also caters to the rise of non-alcoholic beverages with mocktails.

Beyond drinks, Las Jellys is also inspired by desserts. “My partner Pablo is Mexican, and gelatin desserts are very common in his country, so we decided to combine this tradition with modern molecular mixology,” Roig Canelles said.

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Despite this nod to tradition, Las Jellys’ growth is driven by the fact that its format is new and fun. This drives organic word of mouth, but the startup has also relied on influencers on Instagram and TikTok, targeting users of these platforms aged 28-40, predominantly women. 

“The most popular occasions for consuming the product are parties, or gifts for couples,” Roig Canelles said, adding that this celebratory aspect also works well beyond B2C. “In the B2B market, we are beginning to find that the product is perfect for all kinds of people and attracts a lot of attention at any brand event or celebration.”

This led Las Jellys to start selling its products to event and catering companies, a segment in which it hopes that its strong customization options will be a differentiator.

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Las Jellys’ Future Plans: Expansion and Product Development

Having generated almost $100k in revenue last year, the startup is now seeking to close a round of funding that will help it scale and begin its geographic expansion in 2025, Roig Canelles said. “We want to turn Las Jellys into a popular new commodity worldwide, and to achieve this, we must be able to seize the short window of opportunity before us.”

The team sees France as an ideal market for the first step of its expansion, and it plans to use its participation in SIAL to connect with potential investors and partners who can help it grow internationally.

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Las Jellys will also soon have more to showcase, Roig Canelles said. “At the end of the year, we will launch the new version of the product, which addresses all the shortcomings of the MVP, allowing us to target retail, HORECA, and international markets.” 

The main difference of this new version is that it won’t need to be refrigerated, giving it more distribution flexibility thanks to a much longer shelf life. A longer shelf life: That’s the best we can wish for Las Jellys, which is working hard to make sure its spheres become a staple, not a fad. 

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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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