The future of acceleration
The accelerator ecosystem has changed in the last five years, so where will it be in another five years? This diverse panel will discuss different models, trends and how accelerators can effect change. Will there be consolidation, a movement towards seed funds and how will that change the way companies raise funding?
Positioning – Defining a space you can own in a noisy world
In a world where we are bombarded with thousands of brand messages a day, clear positioning can mean the difference between life and death of a startup. This panel will feature 4 successful entrepreneurs that have achieved success by defining a market space where that they can break through the noise and dominate. In this session each panelist will share their best lessons learned around how to find a winning market position for their offerings, how to use that positioning to accelerate growth, and where they see the opportunities and challenges of positioning offerings in the future.
When consumer apps meet the enterprise
Consumer behaviours drive technology adoption in the enterprise. This panel will talk about how technologies and business models evolve from the consumer space to be forces in the enterprise – and how the enterprise is evolving its motus operandi to follow consumer principles.
How to find your traction channel
Traction co-author Justin Mares will cover how you can find your traction channel, tests to run to figure out which traction channels make sense for your business, and touch on each of the 19 different channels you can use to acquire customers.
New business models for hardware
For the past two decades, software has dominated the startup ecosystem. New types of hardware products enabled by software are revolutionizing the customer experience and opening up a slew of new business models. Learn how these models are allowing hardware startups to compete for venture dollars and customer attention, ushering in a new generation of hardware.
Grow or die trying
Paul Graham says growth is everything. When you haven’t found product market fit, new users are oxygen, helping you learn and test. As you bring in revenue, those users become fuel, helping you grow and build. But once you’ve hit scale, things change. High-growth companies are different. Once you hit the hockey stick, scaling is everything, and creating the customer, revenue, and organizational systems to handle rapid expansion requires different, more rigorous, more formalized thinking.
The power of good
As a business model, affiliate marketing is a proven way to scale your sales and distribution. Can this model evolve, and produce social good? In this session, Sponsor Energy’s Carolyn Martin looks at rethinking affiliate sales with a win-win approach that benefits both nonprofits and end users. Carolyn will look at traditional sales and distribution approaches, their challenges and strengths, and how rethinking your go-to-market strategy can reveal new tools that get past prospects’ resistance and create real social benefits.
