dtangl

The company that pays my bills (Touchring) was invited to the TC50 DemoPit this year. And what an experience it has been.

I personally found the experience itself extremely rewarding.

The energy at this conference is incredible. I can’t say I have been to a lot of conferences… to be honest I have only ever been to one other conference (the Virtual Worlds Conference back in 2007). But the energy at TC50 was off the hook. This place was teeming with entrepreneurs and soon-to-be entrepreneurs. I would have loved to have spent more time just chatting with these guys one-to-one. Getting to know them. Having a few drinks with them. These were kindred spirits. And I ate it up… every single second of it.

I don’t know how many life long connections that I made there. At this point I would be hesitant to even say one, but a few of the connections I made might turn into strong long term relationships in the future. I have my hopes up.

Business Take

The advantages to our startup is a little less clear. Before making our decision to attend TC50, we read Expensify’s take on it. And in short they say that TC50 was well worth the effort. And after having experience TC50 I would say that the majority of their points are spot on. But for us the cost of attending was a major issue. We are based overseas in Seoul, South Korea, so for us expenses were significantly higher than it would have been for a company based in the states.

But with that said we did learn some very valuable things. The most important of which is:

Don’t go to the DemoPit with the mindset that getting that coveted last spot on the stage is the end all and be all of your time their. The stage is a perk… a really nice perk, but it shouldn’t be your sole reason for going. The most important thing that you will get out of this experience is the opportunity to really pitch your idea and get unbeatable, no-punches-pulled feedback from people who know what they’re talking about.

Anyway rather than rewriting many of the same things that Expensify already said in their post, I will quickly run through their ten points and give you my take on them as someone who just got out of the conference.

1. Host locally – Spot on. If your can run it locally, then do it. For us an internet connection was absolutely necessary to demonstrate what our product could do, but I can tell you… more than once we had issues with the internet that made our demo run less smoothly than it otherwise should have.
2. Defend your turf – Can’t relate to this one.
3. Get a solid 3-5 minute pitch. We demoed about 100 times (we maintained a counter). Our pitch was good at the start, but it was absolutely rock solid at the end: there’s a very limited set of questions — by the end you learn them all and will have found the perfect answer to each. In fact, I’d say the #1 benefit to TC50 has nothing to do with press, investors, or anything. It’s the opportunity to practice your pitch in front of real people, again and again. This will pay off a thousandfold when you’re out raising money – This point is golden so I left it all here.
4. Work it – Too true. You gotta hustle. No doubt about it.
5. Get a good business card that doesn’t look like a business – I didn’t believe it until I got there, but now I am a firm believer. Make your card look unique. On a last minute whim, our CEO changed the design of our card so that it folded open to reveal a phone. Everyone complimented the design, and even if they were lying… you can bet they will remember. And that is the important thing.
6. Stay “on” at all times. – Agreed. And I would like to add be prepared. Have your business cards on you and if you have some swag… carry it around with you.
7. Skip the swag. – This is one of the few points that I actually disagree with. To be fair, Expensify was talking about fliers mostly, and on that point I agree. Fliers are a waste. But we brought T-shirts. And those were a hit. Keep in mind the crowd that you are trying to appeal to. These are startup people. They are young. And they work in T-shirts and jeans. Our T-shirts were a hit and if you can afford it I would recommend bringing some. When people wear your shirt, they are endorsing your product… and you can’t get advertising much better than that.
8. 2 people at the booth, no more. Kind of agree. We were running 3 at our booth and for us it worked out great. But more than that would look a little like over kill.
9. Keep going to the very end. Toward the end of the day, just plant yourself at the big-stage exits and keep pitching for that almighty demopit chip. Many people  might have seen you and liked you but never gotten around to deciding. Furthermore, some really great conversations start with “Why should I give you my chip?” – This is part of hustling. You just have to do it.
10. Follow up when it’s over. When done with the conference you’ll have a huge stack of the cards and no idea what to do with them. I’d suggest sending them to Shoeboxed to have them all scanned (even better – buy yourself a NeatCo business card scanner), add them to your mailing list, and then send a “Nice meeting you at TC50, I’ve added you to our mailing list” email. - I don’t know if I am going to be buying a NeatCo scanner, but following up is already something that I have started doing.