What gives startup IDCEE 2013 Startup Alley

October 10-11, 2013 IDCEE 2013 was held at the Olympic NSC (Kiev). The event consisted of conferences on various stages and Startup Alley.

I want to share information - that gave us a presence on Startup Alley. It’s too early to draw conclusions, but much has already changed.

We have long decided to go on IDCEE. Before that, we had never been to such events and absolutely did not understand the format. At first, there were doubts about “what it will give”, there was no understanding of the audience, it seemed that “our product is still raw and it is too early for us to go,” etc.
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In reality, everything turned out to be just the opposite.

I will try in the form of short facts to describe what we are faced with and what you should pay attention to:

• Startup Alley had 150 different projects, most from Ukraine and Russia. Honestly, we expected more foreign startups.
• By default, all communication took place in Russian. Only a couple of times in English.
• During the exhibition, about 100 people a day approached our stand. The event lasted 2 days.
• The most frequent questions from visitors: “tell me about your project”, “what is your chip”, “what do you offer”.
• The most frequent questions from investors are: “how much money you need”, “how much you have already earned”, “how many years your project”, “what are you looking for here”. (Objectively, we were not ready for some of these questions.)
• Each visitor asks about the same questions, and you have a unique opportunity to check how people react to your explanations.
• You need patience to answer the same questions. Even experienced sales can go crazy with such a load.
• During the expo we tried to adjust our answers and explain the essence of the project in different ways, it greatly changed our understanding of our project, we understood how people see us.
• For all the time before viewing the demo version, a maximum of 10 visitors reached, everyone else takes promotional materials or a link to the demo.
• Some projects had demos in the form of images on tablets or phones.
• We had a working draft, but weak marketing. For most, the opposite: good advertising, promo, but there could be no project yet.
• There was an understanding of how investors and investments work, what they want and how they need to communicate.
• The influx of people to the stand was such that it was not possible to step aside and walk through all the halls.
• Almost all projects were presented at a very high level.
• Get ready for the fact that the Internet (including WiFi) will not work well and is not stable. Some are on fire.
• We didn’t calculate the number of promotional materials - they ended 2.5 hours after the start and we had to give out some business cards.
• Initially, IDCEE positioned itself as a get-together of startups and investors, and we prepared for that. In reality, most of the visitors turned out to be potential customers or partners.
• Dating and contacts obtained during the IDCEE turned out to be much more valuable than we could even imagine.

The event is worthwhile, not only for a start-up startup. Our project is almost 2 years old, and we are a little sorry that we did not go before.