It started with a very uncommitted meeting at ACATE (Brazilian startup incubator), a lot of people talking about their businesses and a group of investors sizing them up, and then suddenly we were one of the best startups to invest in in Brazil. Which is how we ended up at a conference in São Paulo, where the big companies and the investor groups go to talk about opportunities and demands. Now we had to be a little bit more committed.
The conference started on Monday morning and we turned up without any information about the schedule, because they were still closing the meetings and the talks. Our first problem, or challenge, caused by that lack of organisation, was the size of our poster. We had printed an enormous one and the space they gave the startups was small. Everybody else had printed a poster about a quarter the size of ours. I was a little embarrassed putting our monster up next to them, but there it is, and Paulista Avenue on the Sunday had already taught me that diversity is beautiful.
The next challenge was finding the big companies who were interested in our business. Our first meeting was with IBM. They have an innovation department and they’re looking for new markets, which is what we read in their meeting proposal. What actually happened is that after we talked about our business, they sadly began selling their products to us. 🙁
The day had only just started and our expectations were already going down.
Selling huge solutions to startups is like selling houses to homeless people. They really do need a comfortable, safe house. For now they’re out on Paulista Avenue and what they need is a job and some food.