CertiK’s Post

Here is a simple event format that works: - Mix sports and business - Heavily curate the list of attendees (e.g. founders & investors) - Add some fun elements - Work with partners who support the event for the long run - Keep it simple That's it. This is the format I used for the Startup Padel Tour, which is happening on the 18th of June. It is completely sold out for the 4th consecutive year and thanks to our long term partners Cocoroco.com and Deel we keep improving on the format, the group and the fun. What type of companies are joining... you might wonder? Well, you'll find founders from the likes of Alleo, Billy Grace, BOLDKING, WASTELESS, CarePay International, Crisp, HelloPrint, OpenUp, Payaut, pr.co, Settly, Trengo, Cocoroco.com, Pitchdrive | Early-stage VC 🚀, Deel, Keen Venture Partners, No Such Ventures, Facilitee, TechNative BV, Slingshot Ventures, Whoppah, Tiqets, ENTER, Curiosity VC, @maven11, DFF (Dutch Founders Fund) and more... Overheard last year: "The quality of the people is far greater than the level of the game" and that's exactly how we like it. A shoutout to Merch by Helloprint for providing some awesome swag (ping Sebastiaan Roebroek if you're looking for high quality merch and great service). P.S. if you want to drop by and grab a drink while conversing with founders and investors you can RSVP via the link in the comments.

If you're not going to TOKEN2049 Singapore this year, you're seriously missing out. So, why attend?? 👀 There's already anticipation of 20k attendees and 500+ side events for the week. Every major investor, startup, service provider, and influencer in the space will be there. 🔥 That's why Tobias Bauer and I are proud to be official community partners of TOKEN2049! Looking at the web3 event space, no one drives as much attendance, connections, and value as TOKEN2049. When: Sept 18-19 Where: Singapore So if you're going, we have you hooked up with a discount code of 15% OFF. Sign up link is in the comments. 👇 Promo code: TOBINBRENT15 In addition, we have something MASSIVE planned for all of you. The biggest side event during the week? More announcements coming soon, stay tuned. 😎

Slush 2023 is in the books 📚 Why we went there, even though zone14 decided to avoid overcrowded startup events? Slush is an event organized by students who bring the best of the best in the startup ecosystem to helsinki. But not only from Europe but the whole world from Japan over India, Africa. Even the most prestigious VCs like Sequoia Capital fly Partners over. While its is smaller than Websummit or 4YFN (~10k vs over 80k participants), for us the deciding factor was. no matter who you speak to, they are involved with building, financing or helping fast growing and exceptional startups. Therefore you create immense value with every meeting and coffee chat. And every effort potentially leads to new valuable connections. 🧐 Furthermore the volunteers are aspiring or founders themselves with huge passion for entrepreneurship instilled. It is amazing what kind of atmosphere you can create when bringing all these aspiring talent under one roof and combine it with the world's best investors and startups. 🚀 Our biggest learning from last year was definitely to focus our efforts. 🥅 Do not jump between all the stages or masterclasses, but focusing on meeting the right people and not burning out by hurrying from A to B. 🎯 Kudos to BOLD Community for setting up an exceptional Day 0 Event where we had the possibility to engage with 40 other pre-selected bold minds. Really amazing what Réka, Florian, Verena and the whole team have built since the launch on Websummit last year. 🪣 Furthermore big thanks to Renate and the ADVANTAGE AUSTRIA for organizing a Superconnectors Network event and the opportunity to reverse pitch one of zone14's critical ask: ➡️ Intros to sports marketing exec's with experience in football. ⚽️🙏🏼 Thanks to Lars, Daniel, Esther, David, Eva, 👋 Shaena, Daniel, Annar and of course Niclas for opening your network. 🫱🏼🫲🏽 All in all, Slush is the exception for us and we will now focus on smaller events again. As our experience shows you can make valuable and deeper connections way easier than with 80.000 people attending. Any events we should check out? 🕸

Got some good news from Octy. The first Free Startup Launch Program slot is closed ! We're partnering with svoi. – a platform that's all about connecting expats worldwide and we will be developing their MVP. svoi. is Valeria Chobotok's brainchild. She's been an expat herself and knows the challenges of feeling alone in a new city. She got an incredible team to build it together - expats and professionals who aim to help people find friends and discover local experiences. We're starting this collaboration at the end of December. And here's the fun part - we're going to share our progress with you every week. You'll get to see how we're building the MVP from scratch. This partnership is part of our ongoing campaign to position Octy not just as a Software Agency, but also as a full cycle Product Development Ecosystem for founders and custom solutions. We're here to help startups bring their ideas to life. Want to know more about svoi.?Check out https://lnkd.in/g6Xfpcmd Want to know more about Octy? Check out https://octy.dev You can also follow us on https://lnkd.in/gKWkPTpN and https://lnkd.in/gYDHVDEN And remember, we still have one free MVP slot left. If you've got an idea, reach out to us. We're here to help. #Octy #MVPDevelopment #Startups #BuildInPublic #OctyBuildInPublic

51 donors to Eventably's crowdfunding campaign! Lots of individual contributors, which is awesome. For businesses and conference organizers, the benefits are huge: For businesses At just the $100 level, you get shoutouts on our mailing list (4000 subscribers), as well as on my Twitter account (7300 followers), and my LinkedIn account(11,400 followers). Each of my posts on LinkedIn get an average of 4,000 impressions. But the cool thing about the perks offered by our campaign is that you also get all of the perks from the lower tiers. So at the $500 level, you get a permanent link in our mailing list for 365 days plus the digital recognition above. At the $10,000 level, you’ll have your name and link permanently associated with your company for the first 365 days after the feature is launched. Sure, $10,000 seems like a lot, but what are you paying per digital impressions now? If we’re able to penetrate only 0.1% of the market, that’s 252,000 unique people who will see your name and link associated with that feature, and they will see it every time they use that feature. For conferences and other events organizers If you run a conference, all of the above apply as well. But our other tiers are mostly geared toward you. At the $1000 level, the benefits really start to pile up for you, because not only do you get the perks from the lower tiers, you get a 50% discount on subscription fees and you get “Featured Events” status for all of your events for the first 365 days after launch. At the $5000 level, you’re really getting a huge benefit: 50% off of our service fees. The larger your event the more this tier will save you money. https://lnkd.in/eyu2tEvX

Looking for new (free) online networking opportunities? I've recently rejoined Meeow - if you've heard of them, you may not realise that they have changed substantially since their early days - and I can't wait to join my first 'Meeow' next Monday. Meeow connects people in groups of 4, supposedly the 'optimum' number for conversations, and the biggest change they've made is that there are now several timeslots for different topics, including local groups, creative and marketing, tech and startups, mums in business & marketing, and more. Some are curated by Meeow themselves, others by recognisable partners. Anyone else got some good online networking reccommendations? #uknetworking #onlinenetworking #networking

Always throw my support towards anyone keeping the good vibes going. POSH, the app redefining social experiences, has raised $22 million in a Series A funding round led by Goodwater, with contributions from FirstMark, Companyon Ventures, and EPIC Ventures. Congratulations to Avante Price and Eli Taylor-Lemire and the POSH team. You are in impressive company with your investor networks. POSH has over 2 million users and processed more than $95 million in ticket sales, demonstrating a 1400% year-over-year growth in matching attendees with relevant events. This app offers personalized event suggestions, enabling users to discover and create unique social experiences, from intimate dinners to vibrant warehouse raves. As someone who used to throw events, I resonate with POSH's vision. Avante and Eli founded POSH to address the challenges young event organizers face. Their extensive experience as DJs and content creators gives them invaluable insights into their target market. By democratizing event creation, POSH empowers organizers to curate personalized experiences and helps users build meaningful connections. With this new funding, POSH plans to enhance its platform by launching a "For You" page, using an advanced algorithm to provide highly personalized event recommendations. This will solidify POSH's position as a leading platform for real-world social interactions. POSH's mission hits with its backers, including industry leaders from Sofar Sounds, Reddit, Inc., Lime, OpenTable, and Anheuser-Busch. As Hatim Khety, Partner at Goodwater, notes, "POSH is poised to become the primary destination for Gen Z to discover events, build authentic relationships, and find a sense of belonging." The journey of Avante and Eli showcases the power of perseverance and passion. Despite early skepticism, they built a thriving business by focusing on their strengths and innovating within their domain. Their story offers valuable lessons for other entrepreneurs: prioritize building a great business, engage continuously with investors, and empower your customers to advocate for you. POSH is not just about helping major venues sell tickets; it's about enabling anyone to create and scale their own events, fostering community and belonging. As they continue to grow, POSH is set to reshape the social landscape, proving that real-world connections are key to a happier, more connected society. #SocialTech #StartupFunding #EventPlanning #Community #Innovation #TechNews #VentureCapital #Networking #Technology #ContentCreation #CreatorEconomy

[🚨CHEESY POST 🚨] Today I have visted the 12th EUROCROWD - European Crowdfunding Network CrowdCon which happened to be in Milan. Not many of you know that I basically started my career there. I was fresh out of studies with a thesis on the “brand new” phenomenon that was #crowdfunding (fun fact my thesis still gets quoted by researchers ). I had met Oliver Gajda, the founder, back in 2012 at the European Commission. He was one of the early days experts of the sector and also starting to form a group of players around it. I still don’t know whether he was desperate for help or if he somehow believed in me, but he decided to trust me, despite my total lack of experience. He gave me a job at the new born European Crowdfunding Network, as a markerting manger (aka doing a bit of everything in a company made of 2,5 people) and just threw me out there into European projects, into organising conferences, selling sponsorships, making members happy and so on. I ended up staying with the ECN for 4 years, learning a lot, while working completely remotely - way before the pandemic!!- and I even hired a super intern who is now Deputy Director! ( super Francesca!) Long story short: thank you Oliver for trusting me from day 1. I wish to every new entry into the job market to meet a manager that trusts and empowers them like you did with me! And great to see what ECN has achieved. To many more years more like this! #kindleadership #trust #personaldevelopment

Attending four well-planned events each year, one per quarter is far more beneficial than going to many events with low impact. Industry-specific events yield a higher return on investment, as they offer specialized insights, relevant connections, and opportunities directly tied to our startups’ growth. #startups #leanstartup #venturecapital

Meet The ThinkFISH Executive Team LIVE This is a live event to kick off our new community and get to know each other. All members are welcome to join and participate. If you have questions you would like answered before the session, please email reef@thinkfish.co or feel free to ask questions using the chat feature live on the session. Join Us https://lnkd.in/gQZxZ-RP Founders get; - Free membership to REEF and 4,623 Investors - Free Pitch Deck Review Investors get: - Access to opportunities, startups and founders. - Network with other investors in a private space. We look forward to seeing you on the session and serving you better to successfully raise your round. PANELISTS INCLUDE: Ben Padnos, CEO Clifford "Cliff" Jones, CSO Freizle Abarrientos, COO Connor Nolan, VP Sales and Partnerships Patrick McGuire, CRO (event moderator) hashtag #founders hashtag #investors hashtag #fundraising hashtag #funding hashtag #incubators hashtag #accelerators hashtag #funds hashtag #startups hashtag #business