Sesame Summit 2026 – application open

Ben’s List 42

We’re also covering some more classic topics such as the European SaaS benchmark by Serena Capital and a guide to fundraising your Series A from Initialized.

Speaking of Web3, quick heads up that I’m getting ready to write about the impact of the tokenization of everything on the event industry & will publish before holidays

Fundraising

The Metrics You Need To Raise A Series A

“While raising financing isn’t the end goal for a company, some key metrics can serve as a proxy for traction and product-market fit, which is important to demonstrate at the Series A stage.”

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SaaS

2021 European SaaS Benchmark

“Another question we often get asked concerns efficiency metrics, and particularly sales and marketing aspects, to (1) ensure that teams are efficient enough, (2) challenge their business model and organization, and (3) build a realistic business plan.”

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Web3

How We Get To Negative Emissions With Web3

“So how do we get to negative emissions? It’s simple: for every CO2 tonne (or metric ton, the standard measurement for CO2) released into the atmosphere, we need to remove one tonne. That would keep us at a stasis of about 40 billion tonnes emitted annually. But that won’t remove the excess carbon. For that we need to remove 1.5 trillion tonnes before 2050.”

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Introducing $STREAM: A new tokenized research framework for the music industry

“The question at the core of Water & Music’s next stage of evolution is: How do we build a media and research ecosystem that allows our community to capture more of the value they are creating, both for Water & Music and for each other? Naturally, this brings us to the wild world of Web3, which has empowered communities like ours around the world to claim a stake in the digital networks they help build.”

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A beginner’s guide to social tokens

“It is just the beginning when it comes to experimenting with new ways of rewarding community members for their participation and empowering community members through governance. More people will be hired by social token communities in part-time or full-time roles, which will provide an alternative to traditional career paths. Social graphs can be created based on the tokens that individuals hold to help people discover new communities and meet others who share the same interests.”

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The Dao of DAOs

“DAOs sit a level above NFTs — DAOs can own NFTs and create NFTs, plus do a whole lot of other non-NFT things — and have more transformative potential than NFTs. An NFT is a piece of digital media; a DAO could be a whole media company. Because they’re more complex, they’re not nearly as easy to capture in a headline, soundbite, or price tag. But that’s what we’re here for.”

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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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