There are 5+1 Canadian companies on the slate at DEMO08 today and for the next 2 days.
- Standout Jobs, Inc., Montreal, QC
- Cozimo (some of the team is in Montreal, QC)
- HealthPricer Interactive, Ltd., Vancouver, BC
- Rove Mobile, Inc., Ottawa, ON
- SceneCaster, Richmond Hill, ON
- xtranormal, Inc., Montreal, QC
DEMO is a sort of launch pad for companies who want to make a big splash with a launch or an announcement. It boils down to 2 days of pitches.
Up front, DEMO has never made a lot of sense to me. You pay ~$18,000 just to get up on stage, and spend at least another $10,000 getting yourself ready. So, $20,000 to get up and pitch to a room full of people there to see a few dozen other presentations as well, all from difference industries and disciplines. The place probably isn’t crawling with customers, and my guess is that most of the presenting companies are funded already to some degree.
That said, have spoken to a few people who have presented, or will be presenting this week, it is more obvious what DEMO is selling.
Polish – To demo at DEMO, you have to have a polished and perfected pitch. You have 6 minutes to make a huge auditorium more excited about YOUR launch than all the others who will take the same stage.
Exposure – Everything at DEMO is recorded and available on the web. I can personally admit to watching almost ALL the DEMO pitches every year. Some of them are just incredibly terrible while others inspire and impress.
A Deadline – Once you launch at DEMO, you are going to get enough exposure that you have to have something for the public that is worth talking about. It is better to release early, and DEMO seems to drive a lot of startups to do that.
Good luck to all the Canadian startups. I will post links to their presentations here when they are online.
I’ve been to DEMO with a presenting company (I wrote and produced our Demo but didn’t give it onstage) and the three elements you note are important, but even more important are the fact that two of the key audiences are VCs and media. The top rung of tech media are there, and paying attention. As well, for some companies the other exhibitors are a key target audience – and as such are pretty well qualified leads (they have enough money to spend to be there, they have launched, they are generally still small).
I was there with an enterprise software company and frankly was a bit worried when I noted that 90% of the other companies were consumer web plays – but my fears disappeared when my CTO had an hour-long conversation with the senior tech VP from Sun and several other conversations of that nature. The audience is amazing.
The other point to make is that it explicitly is NOT a pitch. No slides – none. No boring crap about the addressable market in the billions around the world blah blah. At DEMO you must demo your site or software or device, period. It must be live, it must work, and its value proposition has to come across by showing, not telling.
An aside – thanks for coming to startupcamp Montreal – your comments and questions were really fantastic.
I’ve been to DEMO with a presenting company (I wrote and produced our Demo but didn’t give it onstage) and the three elements you note are important, but even more important are the fact that two of the key audiences are VCs and media. The top rung of tech media are there, and paying attention. As well, for some companies the other exhibitors are a key target audience – and as such are pretty well qualified leads (they have enough money to spend to be there, they have launched, they are generally still small).
I was there with an enterprise software company and frankly was a bit worried when I noted that 90% of the other companies were consumer web plays – but my fears disappeared when my CTO had an hour-long conversation with the senior tech VP from Sun and several other conversations of that nature. The audience is amazing.
The other point to make is that it explicitly is NOT a pitch. No slides – none. No boring crap about the addressable market in the billions around the world blah blah. At DEMO you must demo your site or software or device, period. It must be live, it must work, and its value proposition has to come across by showing, not telling.
An aside – thanks for coming to startupcamp Montreal – your comments and questions were really fantastic.
Great line up, SceneCaster is also presenting their Facebook Application at FacebookCampToronto3 next Monday. Details available here:
http://barcamp.org/FacebookCampToronto3
Great line up, SceneCaster is also presenting their Facebook Application at FacebookCampToronto3 next Monday. Details available here:
http://barcamp.org/FacebookCampToronto3
Cool. I had somehow missed FaceBookCamp3 completely. Just got a ticket!
Cool. I had somehow missed FaceBookCamp3 completely. Just got a ticket!
They must have money to spare then. Or maybe their best target audience can be easily tapped via DEMO. It’s also a chance to meet other people, know about other companies. I don’t think it’s for everybody though. If you can’t spare 20,000 bucks, then there are other ways to get yourself known.
They must have money to spare then. Or maybe their best target audience can be easily tapped via DEMO. It’s also a chance to meet other people, know about other companies. I don’t think it’s for everybody though. If you can’t spare 20,000 bucks, then there are other ways to get yourself known.
demo 08 will be held january 28-30 in palm desert. as hinted by tris hussey over at maple leaf 2.0 a couple weeks ago, five canadian companies have made the list.
seo services
demo 08 will be held january 28-30 in palm desert. as hinted by tris hussey over at maple leaf 2.0 a couple weeks ago, five canadian companies have made the list.
seo services