6 event tips from founder who raised big at Web Summit

CodeAlly raised a substantial pre-seed after meeting investor Sunfish Partners at Web Summit 2019. Here, CodeAlly founder Adam Żaczek shares his tips for getting the most out of the event.

CodeAlly is a developer hiring network offering a “post-jobs-for-free, pay-for-hires” model, through which developers get cash for referring friends and landing jobs. More than 40,000 developers have already created a profile on codeally.io and are open to career advancement.

The company’s initial funding – US$640,000 – was raised after the founders met an investor from Sunfish Partners at Web Summit in 2019, where they will also be exhibiting in 2022.

“On average, even good startups still need tens of VC meetings to raise money. It’s easy to see all the articles about funders raising pre-seed and seed rounds and think that raising money is easy. It’s not. From my experience, good startups attend conferences prepared and use their time wisely,” said Adam Żaczek, co-founder of CodeAlly.

With that in mind, check out Adam’s advice on how to make the most of Web Summit:

1. Update your app profile early on

Attendees will visit your profile on the Web Summit app. Having a concise description and a photo uploaded goes a long way. The profile information isn’t only useful for discovery… Large events like Web Summit attract tens of thousands of people, and your profile helps your new connections recognise you.

2. Investor pitches, matchmaking and gatherings are all great for making connections

There are a ton of opportunities to meet investors, other founders and clients that don’t require messaging. If you have an opportunity to apply for matchmaking [through activations such as Mentor Hours, investor to startup meetings, and more], it’s highly recommended. Such events let investors pick interesting startups, which creates a good initial investment dynamic.

Remember that, during more casual gatherings [such as Happy Hours], everyone is trying to pitch to investors. What worked best for us was just having fun during the party and pitching only if the investors asked us to do so. This way, you still have fun, regardless of whether you get to pitch to someone or not.

3. Narrow down the list of VCs and clients to contact the absolute best matches first

Investors and business owners are busy people. They have hundreds of startups looking for their attention. Most investors are focused on specific round sizes, markets and geographies. Even a very promising business will easily be overlooked if your message is generic and does not clearly show that you’re a good match. Use tools such as Crunchbase to filter out VCs based on the types of investments they make.

If you match a VC’s focus and message them a few times, they will be likely to respond. Help them to find out about you by being concise, following up, and personalising the message.

4. Follow up

If you did your research, following up will be easy. You should know who your investors are, what kind of companies they invest in, where they’re based, and what growth stage they invest in.

All this information makes following up easy. At Web Summit, there are thousands of startups. Many of them try to contact any investor they can. Because of this, your messages might easily get lost, so it’s worth it to follow up. Sending 10 messages is probably pushing it, but it doesn’t hurt to send three or four.

5. Send messages before the event

Everyone is busy during the event. You will rarely see people reading messages, let alone replying to them. The time to start sending messages is before the event even starts.

6. Prepare a pitch deck before the event

Investors, if interested, will ask you about a pitch deck so they can learn about your business a little bit more. Let’s face it – you probably won’t be able to create a good pitch deck in one night. If you could do it, you wouldn’t need to be reading articles like this one.

If you’re looking for investors, you want to have a pitch deck ready right away. Use Docsend – or a similar service – to measure your pitch deck’s performance. You’ll be surprised by what you can learn based on which slides capture investors’ attention.

Our startups programme is sold out for Web Summit 2022. To exhibit at Web Summit 2023, sign up for our startup programme today.

Main image of Adam Żaczek: CodeAlly