Startup Dilemma: Parties, Contests, Events. Should you really be There?

Quote Roller is a project that helped me to learn a lot of things. This is the first time I’ve joined the tech and startup community, participated in all kinds of competitions, events and so on. I’ve travelled a lot in the past 6 months, trying to promote and spread the word about Quote Roller. At the same time, I’m now being frequently asked about the outcome of those events. And not just by myself!

So, for me, there were quite a few pros and cons. Which ones that are relevant to you, will depend on your startup. I’ll just write down what matters to me.

Cons:

It was hell of a damn expensive to travel to those startup events. Usually all the big events are hosted in large cities, where hotels are expensive and restaurants aren’t cheap. Add in airfare and you’ll get a nice total that could have been spent on product development. And finally, some events are not free to enter. Events take a lot of energy and time. When working on a startup, the last thing you want to do is waste time. Both Serge and I have been to Silicon Valley for a month to attend all kinds of events. We thought the development won’t slow down that much without the founders. However, we were wrong. The work on the project took twice as long as it should. Some events promise prizes. However, there is no guarantee you are going to get them, even if you win (I’m not talking about the events I’ve written about here, these were bad experiences elsewhere) Because startup events are somewhat akin to an MTV show, some people start to think that building and launching a startup is similar to being some kind of celebrity (just be awesome, go to events, talk to successful people, find an investor, build something social and then it’s going to go viral). Hell no, it’s much harder than this. Startup events and movies like Social Network don’t really show all the long days and nights of routine work real entrepreneurs put in to their business.