The harsh truth about startup events: nobody remembers your roll-up
You spent weeks designing the perfect banner, agonizing over your tagline, and cramming QR codes everywhere. Hate to break it to you: nobody remembers it. At events, your booth is background noise unless your story cuts through. We saw it firsthand at two very different gatherings—Tectonic in Ghent and RENT in Paris—and the contrast made one thing painfully clear: clarity beats design every time.
1. Tectonic (Ghent)
Picture the heart of Belgian tech all coming together to connect, pitch, and dream big. Tectonic, part of the Slush’D movement, is about leveling up local ecosystems, and Ghent showed up with serious startup energy.
From early-stage founders to seasoned investors, it’s where Belgium’s entrepreneurial spirit is thriving. We saw founders trying to explain big, ambitious ideas in two-minute bursts: some nailed it, others got lost in the noise.
Takeaway: great products don’t pitch themselves. Clarity and confidence matter just as much as vision.
2. Salon RENT (Paris)
Fast-forward to the City of Lights, where we waded into 100+ proptech and AI startups reimagining real estate. RENT is basically where real estate tech gets its yearly glow-up, with AI in the spotlight: predictive analytics, property management on autopilot, digital twins: you name it.
It was fascinating to watch how differently startups and incumbents told their stories. Some leaned too hard on buzzwords. Others managed to make complex AI ideas instantly understandable.
Takeaway: in crowded spaces, your message decides whether people lean in or walk past your booth.
Why this matters for startups
Events like these aren’t just networking. They’re real-time pitch labs.
For founders, the challenge isn’t only building something great—it’s getting strangers to understand it in seconds. Your roll-up, your one-liner, your two-minute pitch… they all compete with dozens of others happening at the same time.
That’s where product marketing comes in. At ++addmore, we help founders find the right story, sharpen their message, and own the room, even if the room is just a booth at a trade fair.
Because in the chaos of events, clarity is the one thing people remember.
