Our Flagship Conference
Annually, 5k Startup Grind community members convene in Silicon Valley for two days of invaluable content tailored for tech founders. Topics span from fundraising and sales to marketing and AI. This event is the heartbeat of our dynamic community.
While we offer standard event partnership levels, we prefer a collaborative approach with our packages to ensure partners maximize these opportunities.
We choose 150 of the most promising startups from our program to pitch and showcase at the conference. Alongside their exhibition benefits, we arrange introductions to investors and organize an exclusive event for them to connect with potential investors and Partners--VC Day —held the day before the main conference.
Whether through exhibiting at a booth, hosting a private event, participating in a roundtable at VC Day, (or all of the above!) this conference offers our partners an excellent chance to engage with the community and reach a significant number of startups in under 3 days.
Virtual Startup Summit
Our Startup Summit is an annual half-day virtual event held every fall, gathering over 5,000 members globally. This year's theme will be AI and Fundraising.
This year we’ll explore critical themes including the integration of AI strategies within a company, building and funding an AI startup, how to incorporate AI in your pitch, navigating competition in the GenAI era, democratizing AI accessibility, and reshaping the dynamics of founder-VC relationships.
We run live Q&A throughout all sessions. Plus, a selected group of startups join the pitch deck teardown to receive live feedback on improving their pitch. We also host roundtables to connect founders with industry mentors to have virtual conversations about the challenges their startup is facing.
There are multiple levels of participation, from brand sponsorship to hosting a workshop on our breakout stage or simply plugging your offer on our Digital Gift Bag -- all of which have shown our partners great success depending on your goals. This summit is a relatively quick way to reach our community virtually.
Join our Partner Marketplace
Through our curated partner marketplace, partners engage with our community consistently throughout the year via our diverse channels. With new founders joining our community daily, inclusion in our marketplace provides an excellent opportunity to connect with our expanding audience. Your presence will not only be featured on our partner page but also highlighted across all our engagements and events throughout the year.
How it works:
- Decide on a relevant offer for early-stage tech startups (keep in mind they have limited resources and need a lot of support to take their idea to the next level)
- The offer will be added to our Partner Marketplace and distributed to our audiences including startup membership, our global newsletter audience, monthly chapter event attendees and our virtual and in-person event attendees.
- We’ll meet quarterly to discuss results, test new strategies, and share any new relevant opportunities for collaboration.
Partners who succeed as our partner members are those who:
- Have an attractive, relevant offer for early-stage tech startups (i.e. 6 months free, 80% off for the first year, 1 free consultation, etc)
- Have a good lead nurturing system to continue engaging with the people who expressed interest.
- Actively work with us to review performance and collaborate on different initiatives throughout the year.
An important note:
We care a lot about the partners who work with us and ensure they are a great company for our startup community. That’s why we limit our marketplace to a selected number of partners who we know will be successful with our audience.
Community & Chapter Partnerships
Our Chapter and Community Partnerships are best suited for partners who want to engage locally with a specific country or city. These partnerships usually involve working with our Chapter Directors and participating in their events in person or online.
HQ is a small but mighty team that keeps Startup Grind's global operations alive, including our online channels, global partnerships and flagship events. Startup Grind local communities are called “Chapters”. HQ provides chapters with brand guidelines, how-to guides, design assets, and tools to set them up for success.
Chapter directors run their chapters fairly independently. They usually have a small team and share the responsibilities of putting monthly events together to foster the entrepreneurship ecosystem in their cities. Local partners support the execution of these events by either providing in-kind support, such as food and access to a venue, or providing funds in exchange for active involvement and participation in the events.
The HQ team can support the coordination and facilitation of these partnerships, whether it is by introducing you to the right person in the chapter or building custom partnerships involving several chapters. In cases where multiple chapters are involved, the HQ team oversees the partnership execution with the selected chapters.
Content Partnerships
At Startup Grind, we’re all about giving first and helping others, and the content we share is a big part of how we display our values: We focus on education and value. Because we don’t have a big in-house content team, we work with companies that are already creating thoughtful resources to support startups on their journey.
We love partnering with companies who share this approach and are all about providing the most valuable information to help entrepreneurs succeed, such as upcoming startup events, boot camps, startup challenges, booklets, guides, tools, and more.
Content partnerships are successful when:
- The primary audience for your content is early-stage startup founders and their (small) teams
- The content is useful for anyone, regardless of whether they use your product or service.
- The offer or event is free or at a very low cost for the community (#startuplife)
- You’re able to track traffic and performance for our different channels
While revenue from these kinds of partnerships is helpful to us, we’re intentional and careful about who we partner with for content. We promote this work in our various online channels and want to avoid inundating our community. The solution doesn't lie in sheer volume; it's about delivering the most relevant content in the right context.