Aawaara

Are startup event organizers just another bunch of startups selling false hopes?

I know that I am putting skeletons in my cupboard with this post and it will come back to haunt me some day. I am still okay with that because it isn’t a deterrent strong enough to prevent me from speaking my mind out…give me something better… ;)

The story goes something like this:

• Someone contacts me at [email protected] and the content has the term “globalization” in it with some other gibberish. Later he suggests to attend startup events (and one event in particular which is due in a week) to get networked and leverage it to take the product to the next level.
• I don’t get any pin pointed or constructive feedback/suggestions despite writing back a couple of times to know the thoughts exactly.
• A few days later I get a ping asking about my plans to attend the event. I try to know the person better and come to know that he hasn’t tried his hands at entrepreneurship yet and has no plans for the near future. “I am learning all” is what I get.
• Final sales pitch says “You can meet evangelists who might be interested in your product” : I didn’t know that it was that easy!
• Then out of curiosity I check whether the person concerned has registered at BillBaba.com. Negative! Now I certainly doubt his intentions.
• Of course, I didn’t attend the event… ;)  I am almost bankrupt and I can think of a zillion better ways to spend that money.

I had been thinking about this for a long long time now, and what pushed my thoughts in that direction is the amount that these people charge for tickets which ranges anywhere from 3000 bucks to 10000 buck in India. Exorbitant by my standards as a bootstrapped entrepreneur who earns a big zero and could use this money on something better like a few months of hosting or some adwords credits. Okay, I may be exaggerating here, but I still don’t get how and why are the tickets priced so high. Why not make it a free event? Does it result in every Tom, Dick and Harry turning up for the event. Does that really defeat the purpose, or on the contrary accomplishes the mission which the event organizers had initially envisioned - get everybody interested in startups. I am sure that they wouldn’t have to pay from their pockets as the sponsors will queue up to get so many more eyeballs.

The soft spot that these events try to hit on is VC money. We entrepreneurs are really emotional about money and will even spend money to get more money. I don’t buy what they are trying to sell here - networking and it’s by products like VC contacts, evangelists, mentors, etc. Does it happen that way? I seriously doubt that. Can I walk up to any VC in that event and pitch right there and then. Even if I do, does that really matter. Will it be any better than a linkedin introduction or an email? Will I be able to find mentors there? A person who is too busy to even answer emails, how will he carve out time for you then. And if someone wants to help, thou shall be helped, and he/she doesn’t care whether you attended the event or not! Okay, I do admit that I am bad at networking, but I will be bad at networking at the event too. Will it be any different there?

Still, I have immense love for startups of any kind as I can connect to them at a personal level. Therefore I have taken extra care to hide/modify the details of the event so that you don’t investigate and try to pin point the event. The story in fact is even more interesting and can be broken into parts, but that gives everything away. I have waited a bit and ensured that the event season is finished so that you cannot take advantage of the timing of the post to point it out. See if you are smart, I am smart too… ;)  Additionally I am not saying that these events are a waste of time (awesome people, talking awesome stuff - I do watch the available videos), and you may find suitable uses for yourself. It also adds great value when you are on stage and doing the talking. You may get more than what is promised in that case. All I am saying is that I personally find it unethical to tap on an entrepreneurs need for money to make money for yourself. Period!

PS: I may be missing something here and will be more than happy if someone can point that out to me.