When attending a demo day, startups and investors all look for one thing: deals. In the EU, closing a deal can require a lot of time. How can we speed up the process? We had a brainstorming session here at Pi Campus and came up with the idea that, mostly, we need two things:
- to provide startups with information about the investors attending the event before it takes place;
- to provide investors with details and video pitches of the presenting startups so they can review them during and after the demo day, share information with investment managers and partners, and take actions.
Wouldn’t it be great if we had an app that does that?
A few months ago, attending the Y Combinator Demo Day, we realized they use such a tool. Thus, we took inspiration from it and developed a similar software for internal use. Lastly, we decided to release it as a free-to-use web app to support the EU startup ecosystem.
Welcome to the DemoDay App
DemoDay app is an online tool that generates web apps. With it, every accelerator can set up a demo day app by filling in a few details such as event logo, name, when and where the event will take place, and who is organizing it. The output is a list of startups from which the investors can bookmark their favorites to review them later. The newly created demo day app is a free white label and works both on desktop and mobile.
Click on the following link to access the demo as if you were an investor.
DemoDay App for Investors
We set up the app so that every investor attending an event has a unique token included in a link that is sent to them as soon as they have been added to the investors’ list (accelerators who want to send the links manually can contact us to disable the automation). With this link, the investor has access to a platform that enables her to:
- review startup pitches and information;
- send a meeting request to startups attending the event;
- propose a deal through the personal client email (no tracking, the app only opens up the investor’s client email and prefills a new message with sample text).
DemoDay App for Startups
When it comes to startups, the founders can only do three things:
- Access the investors’ list;
- Read the investors’ profiles;
- request a meeting with an investor.
We assume accelerators are the best in presenting their startups to investors, so we decided to allow only the event organizer to fill in the startups’ profiles. Every startup profile contains all the information an investor requires during and after a demo day:
- name, website, and founder’s contacts;
- value proposition;
- one page pitch;
- video pitch (optional, the organizer can choose to show it or not).
Who is it for?
We created the DemoDay app with accelerators in mind, but it can be used even in startup weekend lookalike events and hackathons. It has already been used for some events such as the latest Italian Tech Tour and Startupbootcamp Foodtech demo days. We decided to release it as a free to use software to provide the European ecosystem with a tool to speed up the deals between startups and investors.
Allow your guests to meet and close a gentlemen agreement in a few clicks. Create your demo day app in a few clicks: demoday-app.com.
