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Ben’s List 8

This week there’s more music than usual. I worked in the music industry before technology and I’ve always thought that the disruption of the recording market from the times of Napster would come to other industries, sooner or later. Covid-19 was the Napster moment of the event industry.

Little did I know that musicians’ revenues would continue to evolve so dramatically in recent years, paving the way for more disruption of established businesses (labels, radio, promoters, etc.).


Entrepreneurship

The list of lists for founders & operators


Marketing

Experiential websites are coming! Are you ready?

“Either way, we’re all (probably?) gonna end up in the metaverse, shopping for cyborg groceries inside Animal Crossing after a long day of selling digital turtlenecks or other untangible goods.”

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Owning the funnel

“As the war for the user’s attention and wallet rages, the funnel will be a good predictor of the capabilities each player will be looking to build in the coming years.”

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Productivity

ASMR for productivity nerds | fun experiment (headphones on)

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Politics

Adam Curtis Explains It All

“At the end of the binge-watch, he sent Curtis a postcard, comparing his work to ‘the kind of dream where we become aware that we are dreaming and can thus attain agency over the torrent of nonsense.'”

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Science

Scientists break through the wall of sleep to the untapped world of dreams

“And who knows? Perhaps the idea of conversing with someone from within a dream may one day be as routine as sending a text message on your phone”

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Space

Mars Rover Footage Compiled Into an Astonishing 4K Video That Reveals the Surface of the Planet

“The Mars 2020/Perseverance rover is designed to better understand the geology of Mars and seek signs of ancient life. The mission will collect and store a set of rock and soil samples that could be returned to Earth in the future. It will also test new technology to benefit future robotic and human exploration of Mars.”

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Music

Portugal. The Man: Why Cryptocurrency Is the New Rock & Roll

“Community-driven itself, Rally is pioneering a next-generation virtual economy that empowered us to engage with our fans through cryptocurrency. Our combined experiences were ultimately able to build the bones of what we believe is the future of fan clubs.”

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How Patreon is helping electronic music survive during the pandemic

“…with an artist membership on Patreon, it’s possible and quite common that the main benefits for members have nothing to do with the actual end product of the music, and more to do with going behind the scenes in the artist’s creative process, or peeling back the layers on the artist’s personality and perspective on creativity.”

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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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