How preparation was key to Pitch Avatar’s Web Summit success

In our series exploring successful startup stories at our events, we sat down with Viktoriia Abed, chief revenue officer at Pitch Avatar.

Ukranian-Austrian company Pitch Avatar is an AI-powered platform that enables more effective and engaging presentation delivery by creating personalised links and messages, voice-overs, avatar presenters, and goals for slides.

Having attended five Web Summits so far, chief revenue officer Viktoriia Abed is a veteran of our events, with years of accumulated experience on how to make the most of Web Summit.

Following on from Web Summit 2023, here’s what Victoriia had to say. 

What stage of development was the company at before you went to the event?

In 2023, Pitch Avatar participated in Web Summit as a startup that had already been launched and was looking to find a proper product-market fit. 

At that moment, the product had already attracted 500-plus users monthly, but all of them were very different in professions and goals. Our idea was to meet mentors and potential users to find the best niche for us.

Who are some of the connections you made at the event?

It was my fifth Web Summit in Lisbon, so I knew the environment quite well. That allowed us to arrange very productive meetings. We had a definite vision of who we’d like to meet and followed the plan.

Ukrainian attendees gather at the Ukraine stand at Web Summit 2023 in Lisbon

It’s important to set up real goals and be very focused. In our case, we wanted to meet our potential customers and partners from different industries, like software development, outsourcing, consulting, big enterprise communication departments, nonprofit organisations, and B2B lead-gen agencies.

On the last day, when we were working at our stand in BETA, we literally had a queue of people waiting to talk to us – due to the hard preparation before – until 3pm, when I had to pitch on stage at Startup Showcase. I lost my voice because I had been pitching without a pause since 10am.  

In the previous four times at Web Summit, maybe half of the meetings I had organised went ahead. This time, all of them happened, even those I didn’t plan in advance but agreed to meet on the go.

What made the difference in securing those extra meetings this time?

There were several secrets to successful meetings at Web Summit. 

Firstly, I prepared my presentation business card in Pitch Avatar and created my avatar, which presented who I am, a few words about my experience, and what we were looking for at Web Summit. I placed a link to it in the Web Summit app, and more than 100 people watched my mini-pitch (you can imagine how much time my avatar saved me on messaging). As a result, we received more quality meeting requests. 

Secondly, every morning, I wrote reminders to everyone that we had a meeting scheduled. This was not superfluous because people’s plans and schedules changed, and we agreed to a new meeting appointment in a new place.

Thirdly, for those who I could not meet one-to-one, we invited them to our stand, where we worked on the last day of Web Summit Summit. So, I saw everyone I wanted to see.

Finally, a creative follow-up that I borrowed from others was to not forget what the meeting was about. Immediately after the conversation, send a request for a connection on LinkedIn and your photo, along with a short note about what was discussed. This will work perfectly for refreshing your memory after returning home.

You mentioned that you participated in Startup Showcase, what was that experience like?

We applied for all the activations this year and were selected to speak at the Startup Showcase stage. This is a short two-minute presentation where you can talk about your project, what it is about and what problem it solves.

The tricky thing about pitches is that no matter how much experience you have in public speaking, it’s almost impossible to fit your pitch into the allowed time limit without learning it by heart. Therefore, there is no time for lyrics – everything must be honed in advance.

Here, I’d like to mark the highest level of organisation [by Web Summit]. There were several pitch and showcase stages at Web Summit, but on each stage, everything was perfectly organised. The moderators were very clear about the requirements but very friendly. They encouraged participants but tracked the time limit.

The best thing was having a timer in front of me that showed me how much time I had until the end. This simple trick, that most conferences and pitch competitions ignore, helped significantly to finish the pitch in time and to not worry about time limits during the presentation.

Did attending the event have a positive impact on your business development? If so, what was the impact?

Definitely, we came back home with a bunch of potential partners and clients, so our sales team was happy to work with them. Also, we were able to meet some potential big clients and are still handling negotiations with them.  

Also, we met the guys from big tech companies and discussed the perspective of our product integration into their ecosystems. For instance, I talked to someone from Canva, and she advised us to consider integration into their marketplace. That was very useful, and now we’re working on it.

And last but not least, it contributed to the company’s brand awareness and image. We’re cooking the SaaS product for B2B, and reputation is everything here. So when your potential customers see that you participate in big events like Web Summit, they know that you’re ready to invest in the brand, and this creates trust.  

Would you recommend the event to other founders?

Sure, if you’d like to find mentorship, investments, proof of concept or just inspiration, you should visit Web Summit, as only there you could find such a quality concentration of the people you need. 

In general, I believe that every tech specialist who works in international markets or is considering expanding their business to other countries should visit this event at least once, because of the unique vibe and variety of opportunities, [as well as the] new acquaintances that always inspire new ideas, steps, and projects.

Will you be returning to this or other of our events?

Last year we got a chance to participate in BETA and liked the experience so much. So in December 2023, we paid for our BETA participation for November 2024.

For us, Web Summit is not only about useful meetings but also about following the trends and understanding that we’re on the right track. So see you at the next Web Summit in 2024.

What advice would you give to other founders to make the most of the event?

If you are attending Web Summit for the first time, do not plan a lot, at least for the first day. Just give yourself time to walk around the venue and understand the environment. Relax, feel the event’s vibe and try to set up a couple of meetings. Take a moment to explore Lisbon and enjoy its sights – these inspirational moments could serve as a source for new ideas and plans.

Before the event, set goals: what would you like to reach, and what is your ideal customer profile? That will definitely help you identify the pool of people to whom you should send meeting requests.

Prepare for meetings one or two weeks before, make a creative intro, make sure that your profile is completed, and that you’ve defined the area of your interests. On the day of the meeting, send a reminder to adjust your schedule. Do not plan meetings one by one in a row, as you will need some time to move from point A to point B.

If you go to Web Summit for investments, learn your pitch by heart and get ready to pitch everywhere – at the venue, parties, in bars. At Web Summit, people are open to communicating everywhere.

Apply to as many activities that could be useful to your startup as possible. That could be PITCH, Startup Showcase, or 40 Words. Find your local country stand activities, and pre- and after-parties.  

Web Summit will be taking place this year in Lisbon from November 11-14. Book your tickets now.