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.
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