Should early-stage startups focus on large trade shows or smaller, targeted industry events?

2026-05-13 · Marketing

Hi,

I’d be very cautious about the giant event.

A stand at a 40,000-person event sounds exciting, but it’s very easy to confuse “lots of traffic” with “useful signal.” If you’re early, your goal is not neccesarily exposure. It’s learning. You want real conversations with real tradespeople where you can see whether they understand it, care, and will take the next step.

If you ultimately decide to do the big one (or as a way to decide if you should), think about whether its possible to design the stand so it forces a clear test. For example: “Bring me one real job request and I’ll price it in 60 seconds.” You're going to have to come up with something very compelling - and that drives your goal of learning - if it's going to provide something useful from a large event.

Absent that, I’d rather be unusually visible at a smaller, more focused event than invisible at a massive one.

And on your collaborator: useful introduction, yes. Trust earned? Not yet.

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