Startups Show Business — Pitching on Stage For Entertainment!

Startups Show Business — Pitching on Stage For Entertainment!

I am attending TC Disrupt in San Francisco, and although I like the good vibe and the inspiring spirit over here, but I am a bit disappointed by the quality of startups pitching on stage for the Startup BattleField. Specially if compared to previous versions of the same event.

However, I was surprised to find really impressive startups in the Startup Alley who decided not to participate in the Startup BattleField.

I attended many similar events in different countries including tech events and conferences as well as accelerators demo days. They are all almost the same now. Quality of startups on stage is going down. Yet, we see great startups pop up everywhere.

I think the problem is not in the startups, it’s in the show business. I believe that founders are sick of being used for the show business! They are not in the media business, they are just entrepreneurs trying to build good companies. So advanced founders prefer to have private meetings with investors and tech editors instead of pitching for entertainment! While new desperate founders go for stage pitches.

When it comes to speakers, you don’t really attend only to hear the talk or the panel! You can watch that online, most of them have already been interviewed many times and videos are all over YouTube. You attend to get a chance to ask questions or meet the speakers. Nowadays, speakers come up on stage from a backdoor, and leave the same way! So you don’t get the chance to meet them at all.

My Dream Event:

I hope that in the future, startups or tech events and conferences will be as follows:

• Prior to the event, participating startups post a 1–3 minutes video to show their product, like a demo, not a pitch.
• Prior to the event, speakers post a 5–10 minutes video about the topic they’re speaking about, or maybe the organizers post a video of the interview conducted with the speakers.
• The event will actually be only two things: a “Startups Ally”, and a “Speakers Ally”. I mean startups and speakers will have small stands/booths to interact with visitors.
• Visitors watch the videos before the event, and during the event days visitors just go to speakers or startups they are interested in and ask questions or have conversations with them.

What do you think?