Why CES Is a Bad Scene For Startups

Nerval's Lobster writes "If you're a small-to-midsize tech company, CES isn't exactly the best place to get noticed. Every January, thousands of developers and startup executives flood Vegas with dreams of a big score. But they're not headed to the poker and blackjack tables in pursuit of that filthy lucre—instead, many of them have dropped thousands of dollars on a booth at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), arguably the highest-profile technology conference of the year. (In addition to the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to reserve a space on the convention-hall floor, that money goes to demo units, flying employees to Vegas, and much, much more.) If they haven't managed to secure a spot in one of the Convention Center's massive halls, they've set up a demonstration area in a suite at some hotel on the Strip. And if they're too under-capitalized or unprepared for a hotel, they're lurking in the Convention Center parking lot. Seriously. It's a little insane. But in a certain way, you can't blame the startups: at some point, someone told them that CES is the best way to get their company noticed, even if it means blowing the equivalent of three employees' yearly salaries. On paper, the get-a-booth strategy makes sense—aside from SXSW, CES hosts possibly the greatest concentration of tech journalists in a relatively small space. What many first-timers don't realize (until it's too late) is that startups have a hard time standing out amidst the chaos: there are too many companies at too many booths attempting to sell (at top volume) too many variations of the same core ideas. If that wasn't bad enough, a fair portion of those companies are trying to draw attention with flashing screens, giveaways, music pumping at top volume, and other gimmicks. (Hey, it's Vegas.) So not only does your Nike FuelBand knockoff need to compete against a hundred other 'smart bracelets' on display, but you somehow need to make yourself visible despite the plus-size Elvis impersonator belting out 'Don't Be Cruel' in front of that chip-vendor's booth a few steps away. That's just the sort of quixotic endeavor that would drive even the most stalwart startup founder to drinking before 9 A.M."

Re:If CES is bad, where is good?

[iMadeGhostzilla]

I think that is the point of the article -- CES represents the overall technology market, and most startups don't make things for the entire technology market but for a niche. So instead of putting money into trying to crack the general market, it's much better to try to crack the niche market. Eg. if your startup makes best-ever noise cancellation headphones, it's better to show them at a DJ trade show or whatever you pick as a niche than at CES.

I presented my product at CES 2012 as I was invited to show it as a guest in the booth of another company's booth whose technology I used, and all that for free, so my only expenses were my personal plus hiring a demonstrator/dancer and a videographer. About 6-7 reporters approached me and seemed very excited about the software and wanted to write about it, but in the end nothing happened -- I imagine there were just too many things going on for them to actually follow up on it. (CNET ened up showing a picture of the product but without the product name, so there was no value from that either.) A few visitors bought the product after the show but they were just as likely to find it at a more specialized trade show that I went to later. All in all it was great fun but I'd never pay to exhibit at CES.