YoungStart Up ventures/ Florida venture summit…
I attended the Florida venture summit in December 2022. We are a French/ South African company and the marketing material received from Young startup ventures and the Florida venture summit was super impressive. MAN THEY SURE KNOW HOW TO RUN A DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN.
It cost us north of $8000 for flights, event tickets, dinner tickets, accommodation, and subsistence.
IT WAS AN ABSOLUTE TOTAL AND UTTER JOKE.
I have attended conferences and seminars all over the world and this is 100% hands down the worse.
Let's start with the event itself because that's the most important part.
1. There were around 20 start-ups for each investor, just a ballpark figure.
2. Investors and startups were not properly introduced in terms of their industry, offer and the investor's area of interest. So it was like throwing yourself in the air, hoping you land on the right investor. Needless to say, We did not meet a single investor in our industry. Which is SaaS (CRM). The scope of this industry is seriously broad and we met none at the event.
This means you have to fight to get 2 minutes with an investor who
3. The host company charged startups to pitch at the event, they had filled the day with startups pitching, which for none pitching startups is a waste of time. Granted, great to see what's happening but I did not pay 8000 dollars for that.
What's worse is that the investors judging the startups did not provide feedback, so we startups sitting in the room did not even have the opportunity to hear comments, the way an investor thinks nothing.
And let me say, this was like a race. 1 startup after the next.....like a rat race.
4. They charged $185 for the startup dinner. This experience was mortifying. You literally got paper plates, plastic cutlery, and a buffet of what looked like canteen food. You dish your meal, sit and eat and leave. The dinner slot was 2 hours. The beverages on offer were canned soda and bottled water.
5. The networking session was literally, everyone thrown in a room, the CEO of young venture summit jumped on a speaker, said a few words, and then left people to 'mingle'.
Remember, there was no structure.
6. Now let's talk about the venue. The conference center at the Hilton double tree airport is like a little china mall with a hotel. The hotel service was BAD, to say the least. The venue was nowhere near the hype of Miami so even if you wanted to go out for dinner or a drink, you would have to take the uber (+- $30 each way) to downtown and then back to the hotel (assuming you're staying at the Hilton, which I did). Why get all these people to a beautiful city like Miami (again, publicity) only to book a venue.
7. The events team has no clue how to run an event that delivers what their advertising campaign promotes. I know for a fact that many investors on the matchmaking platform were not even at the event. Out of the 50-odd meeting requests I made, not a single one accepted my meeting request.
8. I finally met 2 investors on the 2nd day with who i had a nice chat. Both were in fintech. They told me that they were exhausted with the pitches, people were coming at them like sharks for their time. The dinner was overpriced and underdelivered. Both of these investors told me personally that they did not get what they were looking for. 9 times out of 10, they were speaking to startups that were not in their investment space.
9. I literally saw startup founders walk out of the event. Now, this is a 1 and half-day event for $400. So if people are walking out on the main day (in the middle of the day), imagine how bad this was.
10. We are a startup. We had limited funds to attend events like this. This was sad and an absolute disappointment for me.
Reasons to attend; if you want to see what an environment of startups and some investors could look like. Maybe you're completely new to the funding/startup space and need to get some acquaintances.
Reasons not to attend: if you are looking to meet with high volumes of relevant investors. if you need quality investor leads. if you want to be empowered with investor feedback. if you want to learn something new, If you want to grow your network with relevant colleagues....none of this is available at the event.
Lastly, the comments above aren't just mine. 3 other startups communicated the same issues with me.
I have asked for my money back for the ticket, dinner and some stupid digital book (joke)....they have completely ignored my request.
Serious regret from our side.