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Spent $2,400 on a booth at a Toronto startup expo and got zero leads
I run a small SaaS tool for scheduling shifts at clinics, based in Mississauga. Back in March I paid $2,400 for a 10x10 booth at a startup expo downtown, thinking I'd walk away with a pile of demo signups. Three days on my feet, I talked to maybe 60 people and every single one was either a student looking for free swag or another founder trying to sell me their product. I got exactly two email signups and neither one ever logged in. The guy in the booth next to mine selling payroll software said he'd done the same expo twice before and never made back the fee. I could have put that $2,400 into cold email outreach and gotten way more real conversations. Has anyone here actually landed paying customers at a Canadian startup expo, or is the whole thing a money pit?
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kellymurphy21d ago
It's kind of like buying a treadmill in January. You feel like you're doing something real because money changed hands and you showed up, but the people around you are mostly there for the same reason you are, not to buy what you're selling. Trade shows seem to work when the crowd is actual buyers with a budget, and startup expos are mostly other sellers and folks collecting free stuff. Your buddy at the payroll booth confirmed the pattern for you, and the two dead signups pretty much tell the story. Some lessons just cost $2,400 and that's the whole lesson.
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