Very interesting advice on how to make the most of the DemoPit. It seems like a complete scam to me - anyone not accepted into TC50 is invited to pay $3,000 for what will likely be nothing of value.
But if you take the approach this startup did, practice your pitch until it's rock-solid, then innocuously latch onto each passerby with a unique presentation, then you may actually end up with something of lasting value.
Even so, it's likely to end up a bitter disappointment for most, who I suspect are expecting much more from it.
Actually, a ticket to the event is $3k so we give these DemoPit tables away as a GIFT to the startups. They get a demo table for one day and TWO tickets. So, it's $6k worth of value...
HOWEVER, you have to be under $500k in angel startup to get them. so it's not like IBM or Google can buy them and put out Google Maps API or something.
Anyway, I understand being skeptical... the event business is filled with crooks like the DEMO conference which charge startups $5k for two minutes on stage or $20k for six minutes!!!
Mike and I started TechCrunch50 to destroy DEMO and that payola model. As a four-time startup founder/CEO I HATE folks asking me to pay... i came up with the idea for TC50 and pitched it to MIke to solve this problem.
But if you take the approach this startup did, practice your pitch until it's rock-solid, then innocuously latch onto each passerby with a unique presentation, then you may actually end up with something of lasting value.
Even so, it's likely to end up a bitter disappointment for most, who I suspect are expecting much more from it.