Somebody complained that I’m not filling up the Internet with more junk about sxsw. So to rectify that, these were my thoughts on the session.
The panelists were the leader of tech stars NY, a signage startup and an agency.
One interfering fact was the high percentage of media or advertising startups coming through tech stars. It almost makes you wonder if there are two guys in a coffee house in NY trying desperately to build a SASS Internet security company, but getting no traction with investors because they don’t sell ads or clothes.
The rest of the panel was straightforward. Pitching to brands and agencies effectively is to find a champion for your startup within the organization, explain how the collaboration can help them, and help them explain to the organization why they should do it.
Finding responsive organizations is a matter of looking around and seeing who is having events in your space or launching campaigns similar to what you provide.
The organization’s biggest fear is that they will end up looking stupid, so try to avoid going out of business while the campaign is ongoing. The risk to them is further mitigated by demonstrating measurable short term results, instead of relying on a future “cool” halo (ie “you could be first brand on the next twitter”).
