

Ask YC: Should we launch our startup at a conference? - shafqat

Is it worth doing a splashy launch at a conference? We're going into private alpha this week and thought we could launch it to a wider audience. Was thinking about the NextWeb conference in Amsterdam, but paying money to present seems lame.<p>What do people think about 'event' launches... Should we just launch quietly and let the product do the talking?
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thomasswift
Speaking from my own experiences with my own little startup. I have thought
about doing something like this, but it relates to even when I am talking
about it at networking events.

I would say you should do it if you can afford it and if your site has instant
gratification/wow factor. I think peoples attention spans are limited in
conference type settings, with many things going on at once it hard to take it
all in, if you can wow them quickly I'd say it be worth it. My site is more
community-based (user-generated blah blah), so the instant gratification
factor is sort of low.

just my thoughts :)

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shafqat
I think we have enough instant gratification elements to capture attention
spans, but its the money aspect that bothers me. It goes against all our
bootstrapping principles, but at the same time, I understand that distribution
is key. Torn...

