Investors sign up at www.boost.vc/rsvp
——-
7 weeks ago Boost VC started working from home and one month ago we saw the writing on the wall… Tribe 13 demo day would be all digital, and the duration of the session would be operated from quarantine.
Fortunately my team comes alive when problems are big and identifiable. The core question was “How do we build and replicate the Demo Day experience online?”
We did research and attended a few digital startup days, but they all were attempting to still create companion database of presentations for a demo day, as if the Demo Day had still happened in the real world. Which meant we had to attempt something through our own lens, how can you mimic the real world experience without shaking hands with people in person, which begged the question:
What is a Demo Day?
Having done 12 other demo days over the last 7.5 years, fortunately, we have a clear understanding of what a Demo Day is and why it is important.
A Demo Day comes in 3 parts.
The Presentations
This is how the information and personality of the founders shines. This is a simple transfer of information. This is replicate-able online, whether in real time video or pre-recorded. There are representations of this all over.
Investors meet the companies
Replicating the “Serendipity” of who is there, and how to connect people, is much more difficult online. The “wandering” aspect of demo day isn’t there. However giving the investors the tools to discover the information that would intrigue them, there are a lot of ways to do that.
Investors meet other investors
This is something that I believe happens naturally in the demo day setting. The setting of a demo day gives context for investors to talk to other investors about. I believe the most important part of this is making sure that the investors are seeing the companies at the same time, so having an event at a specific time, whether online or off is important.
At Boost VC, we took these as goals for our digital demo day. How can we achieve these pieces and deliver on the promise of creating a great experience for investors and startups to openly communicate?
And that is why tomorrow is such a big deal for Boost VC. We believe that we have created something new. A format that will deliver on what we believe a Demo Day to be all about. It’s amazing what a small team of individuals can accomplish in a month. I’m very proud of the Boost VC team.
I’m excited for the future of what this will become. Could all investments be made online?
If you are an investor, sign up here: www.boost.vc/rsvp