Startups

Five excellent reasons to attend TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing & Fundraising

Comment

Image Credits: TechCrunch

There’s no crying in baseball, and there are certainly no shortcuts in building a successful startup. But, thanks to TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising on July 8-9, you don’t have to reinvent the freakin’ wheel.

This two-day bootcamp offers early-stage founders (pre-seed through Series A) access to the startup ecosystem’s leading experts and top investors. They’ll host a series of interactive Q&A sessions focused on essential topics, like pitch development, fundraising, brand building, growth marketing and more. Take a peek at the agenda.

Here are just some of the many reasons to carve time out of your hectic schedule and attend this all-virtual event.

1. Because your contemporaries say so

“Early Stage 2020 was a great opportunity to hear seasoned startup founders talking about their experiences and how they dealt with many of the same challenges I faced then and am going through now. It’s like a mini masterclass in entrepreneurship.” — Ashley Barrington, founder, MarketPearl.

“Sequoia Capital’s session, ‘Start with Your Customer,’ looked at the benefits of storytelling and creating customer personas. I took the idea to my team and we’ve implemented storytelling to help onboard new customers. That one session alone has transformed my business.” — Chloe Leaaetoa, founder, Socicraft.

2. Connect with community and opportunity

Founding a startup can be a frustrating and sometimes lonely affair. It helps to bounce ideas off other early founders who know exactly what you’re going through. You never know where those communal connections might lead, and a fat Rolodex is always good for business.

Make ad hoc connections in our virtual platform’s chat feature. Want a more strategic tool? CrunchMatch, our AI-powered networking platform, simplifies finding and scheduling 1:1 meetings with the people who align with your business goals.

3. Bust out the breakout sessions

You’ll learn a ton about growing your business at interactive Q&A sessions like these:

Iterating More Effectively with Feedback: A great product alone is not enough. To be successful, early-stage companies need to optimize all phases of the customer journey. This session will include tactics, best practices and case studies on how to use customer feedback to understand customer needs, craft more compelling messaging and improve all phases of the customer experience.

Growth Hacking, Product Fit and Pricing: Superhuman’s Rahul Vohra shares strategies for early-stage founders on topics like hacking your way to product-market fit, driving user sign-ups without breaking the bank on paid ads and identifying your product’s price point.

How to Determine Your Earned Media Strategy: Learn how to build an effective earned media strategy for your startup, building on Rebecca Reeve Henderson’s deep expertise developing effective communications programs for some of the top business software companies in the world. Earned media, aka the kind of exposure you get from a TechCrunch article, is a key element of any startup’s marketing strategy, but it’s also one of the trickiest things to get right. Rebecca has worked with companies ranging from Slack, to Shopify, to Zapier, to Canva and many more, helping craft effective earned media strategies in one of the most difficult areas of all: B2B SaaS.

And even more….

4. Pitch at TC Early Stage

Day two is all about the pitch-off. Ten early-stage startups will take the virtual stage and deliver their best five-minute pitch to a global audience of investors, TC editors, press and event attendees. A five-minute Q&A with the judges follows that pitch. Want a shot? Get moving because you need to apply here by June 7!

Applications for the TC Early Stage Pitch-Off in July are open

5. You can still save $100 (if you act fast)

TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing & Fundraising kicks off on July 8-9 and for all you early birds, you can save a cool Benjamin when you register before next Friday, June 11 at 11:59 p.m. (PT). So what are you waiting for? Register today!

Is your company interested in sponsoring or exhibiting at Early Stage 2021 – Marketing & Fundraising? Contact our sponsorship sales team by filling out this form.

More TechCrunch

The TechCrunch team runs down all of the biggest news from the Apple WWDC 2024 keynote in an easy-to-skim digest.

Here’s everything Apple announced at the WWDC 2024 keynote, including Apple Intelligence, Siri makeover

Hello and welcome back to TechCrunch Space. What a week! In the same seven-day period, we watched Boeing’s Starliner launch astronauts to space for the first time, and then we…

TechCrunch Space: A week that will go down in history

Elon Musk’s posts seem to misunderstand the relationship Apple announced with OpenAI at WWDC 2024.

Elon Musk threatens to ban Apple devices from his companies over Apple’s ChatGPT integrations

“We’re looking forward to doing integrations with other models, including Google Gemini, for instance, in the future,” Federighi said during WWDC 2024.

Apple confirms plans to work with Google’s Gemini ‘in the future’

When Urvashi Barooah applied to MBA programs in 2015, she focused her applications around her dream of becoming a venture capitalist. She got rejected from every school, and was told…

How Urvashi Barooah broke into venture after everyone told her she couldn’t

Slack CEO Denise Dresser is speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024.

Slack CEO Denise Dresser is coming to TechCrunch Disrupt this October

Apple kicked off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event today with the customary keynote at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. The presentation focused on the company’s software offerings…

Watch the Apple Intelligence reveal, and the rest of WWDC 2024 right here

Apple’s SDKs (software development kits) have been updated with a variety of new APIs and frameworks.

Apple brings its GenAI ‘Apple Intelligence’ to developers, will let Siri control apps

Older iPhones or iPhone 15 users won’t be able to use these features.

Apple Intelligence features will be available on iPhone 15 Pro and devices with M1 or newer chips

Soon, Siri will be able to tap ChatGPT for “expertise” where it might be helpful, Apple says.

Apple brings ChatGPT to its apps, including Siri

Apple Intelligence will have an understanding of who you’re talking with in a messaging conversation.

Apple debuts AI-generated … Bitmoji

To use InSight, Apple TV+ subscribers can swipe down on their remote to bring up a display with actor names and character information in real time.

Apple TV+ introduces InSight, a new feature similar to Amazon’s X-Ray, at WWDC 2024

Siri is now more natural, more relevant and more personal — and it has new look.

Apple gives Siri an AI makeover

The company has been pushing the feature as integral to all of its various operating system offerings, including iOS, macOS and the latest, VisionOS.

Apple Intelligence is the company’s new generative AI offering

In addition to all the features you can find in the Passwords menu today, there’s a new column on the left that lets you more easily navigate your password collection.

Apple is launching its own password manager app

With Smart Script, Apple says it’s making handwriting your notes even smoother and straighter.

Smart Script in iPadOS 18 will clean up your handwriting when using an Apple Pencil

iOS’ perennial tips calculating app is finally coming to the larger screen.

Calculator for iPad does the math for you

The new OS, announced at WWDC 2024, will allow users to mirror their iPhone screen directly on their Mac and even control it.

With macOS Sequoia, you can mirror your iPhone on your Mac

At Apple’s WWDC 2024, the company announced MacOS Sequoia.

Apple unveils macOS Sequoia

“Messages via Satellite,” announced at Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote, works much like the SOS feature does.

iPhones will soon text via satellite

Apple says the new design will lead to less time searching for photos.

Apple revamps its Photos app for iOS 18

Users will be able to lock an app when they hand over their phone.

iOS 18 will let you hide and lock apps

Apple’s WWDC 2024 keynote was packed, including a number of key new updates for iOS 18. One of the more interesting additions is Tap to Cash, which is more or…

Tap to Cash lets you pay by touching iPhones

In iOS 18, Apple will now support long-requested functionality, like the ability to set app icons and widgets wherever you want.

iOS 18 will finally let you customize your icons and unlock them from the grid

As expected, this is a pivotal moment for the mobile platform as iOS 18 is going to focus on artificial intelligence.

Apple unveils iOS 18 with tons of AI-powered features

Apple today kicked off what it promised would be a packed WWDC 2024 with a handful of visionOS announcements. At the top of the list is the ability to turn…

visionOS can now make spatial photos out of 3D images

The Apple Vision Pro is now available in eight new countries.

Apple to release Vision Pro in international markets

VisionOS 2 will come to Vision Pro as a free update later this year.

Apple debuts visionOS 2 at WWDC 2024

The security firm said the attacks targeting Snowflake customers is “ongoing,” suggesting the number of affected companies may rise.

Mandiant says hackers stole a ‘significant volume of data’ from Snowflake customers

French startup Kelvin, which uses computer vision and machine learning to make it easier to audit homes for energy efficiency, has raised $5.1M.

Kelvin wants to help save the planet by applying AI to home energy audits