How I Leveraged My LinkedIn Community To Create A $1.8M/12 months Procurement

Hey! Who’re you and what enterprise did you begin?

Hello Startup Lovers! My identify is Matthias Gutzmann and I’m the CEO and Founding father of DPW (Digital Procurement World). I began DPW in 2019 because the “Internet Summit for Procurement”, a convention, with the thought of supporting giant procurement organizations with their digital transformation by connecting them with the most effective new startup applied sciences and sharing finest practices on digital procurement.

Since then, we’ve got launched a number of different providers constructed across the convention, together with ScoutLab, a tech scouting, and a scaling service. Our ScoutLab workforce pairs giant organizations together with Johnson & Johnson, Shell, and Roche – with pioneering startups to assist them drive tech innovation.

To get DPW off the bottom in 2019, I left my well-paid job in New York, moved again into my mother and father’ home in Germany, and invested my total private financial savings to launch DPW.

We’ve been rising exponentially ever since, and simply capped 2022 with €1.8M in income.

I just about leveraged my 20,000 LinkedIn connections, utilized social promoting methods to create a buzz, and used direct e mail advertising and marketing to achieve potential delegates, sponsors, and startups, with out making a single outbound telesales name.

What’s your backstory and the way did you provide you with the thought?

In 2019, as the top of promoting, I used to be researching procurement conferences to showcase my then-employer, a startup. I used to be pissed off by the choices. The present conferences have been prohibitively costly for a restricted startup price range, lacked buyers, and failed to draw an viewers of startup companies, which is important for the event of digital capabilities and driving innovation.

Figuring out this hole available in the market, I left my job in New York, moved into the basement of my mother and father’ home in Germany, and invested my total private financial savings to launch DPW.

I used to work in delegate and sponsorship gross sales in addition to in occasions and advertising and marketing for a corporation referred to as Procurement Leaders. Humorous sufficient, I am now their largest competitor.

All through these 10 years at Procurement Leaders, I discovered easy methods to:

1. Set up large-scale occasions

2. Promote tickets and sponsorships to these occasions

3. Market B2B occasions

4. Constructed an enormous community in procurement

Procurement Leaders expert my up properly to launch DPW.

Virtually each {industry}, together with procurement, has been affected by disruptive startups which have confirmed to be highly effective catalysts for innovation and digitalization. But, no convention existed to convey startups into the procurement ecosystem.

A well known determine within the world procurement area, my expertise, and huge {industry} community have been my strongest analysis instruments. I spoke to a number of chief procurement officers, numerous startups, and a handful of buyers who all acknowledged the worth of this enterprise concept. It grew to become clear there was a lot to realize and little to lose by taking the danger of working DPW.

Take us by means of the method of constructing the primary model of your product.

I initially launched DPW as a convention all the time with the thought of increasing into different providers associated to digital procurement transformation. By way of producing a singular convention, I centered on the next industry-unique convention options:

1. Attendees

Conventional procurement conferences solely entice procurement professionals. However I acknowledged the necessity for breaking this silo and for extra collaboration to harness the potential of latest digital know-how, focusing on a extra numerous viewers of procurement professionals, enterprise leaders, suppliers, startups, knowledge scientists, UX/UI designers, builders, and buyers. No different procurement convention at present brings this number of individuals collectively.

2. Startups applied sciences

DPW was constructed to convey startups into the procurement ecosystem. We supplied low-cost convention startup packages, a fraction of conventional occasion sponsorship packages, and free pitching slots on our major stage, giving delegates a singular perception into the newest procurement innovation, and startups with restricted budgets the most effective bang for his or her buck.

3. Convention expertise

Conventional procurement occasions are very company and stiff, typically hosted at boring resorts. Aiming for an off-the-cuff and entrepreneurial ambiance, I booked the previous inventory trade constructing, Beurs van Berlage in Amsterdam for the venue. The landmark constructing, with its historic options, was described by one attendee as “the most effective occasion venue” he had ever been to. We launched “startup informal” as our costume code: a brand new costume code for a brand new era, reflecting the workplace vibe, which is usually youthful and energetic.

4. Decrease ticket price

Tickets to conventional procurement occasions sometimes begin at 1,500 EUR. We supplied a a lot decrease priced ticket beginning at 599 EUR.

I spent about 10,000 EUR on constructing the convention web site, and due to understanding of my dad or mum’s home, I didn’t have any working prices and was in a position to hold my bills at a minimal.

My suggestion to anybody who needs to discover a startup is to seek out their area of interest after which construct a scalable enterprise mannequin round it. Upon getting coated your area of interest and delivered worth, your prospects return.

Describe the method of launching the enterprise.

I launched DPW from a zero begin level just about single-handedly and with only a few assets and little help, primarily promoting my imaginative and prescient to prospect sponsors, leveraging my community, and making use of social promoting methods to create a buzz, changing the price of hiring a gross sales consultant. The distinctiveness of the convention, the issue it solves, and the timing of the launch have been DPW’s key success components.

I feel that my data and understanding of the end-to-end strategy of promoting, organizing, and advertising and marketing a big convention, was key. Sometimes you might have specialists in corporations (solely promoting tickets or sponsorships or solely organizing occasions) not in a position to run all components. In that sense, being extra of a generalist was factor and a key to success.

I additionally created an advisory board of forward-thinking chief procurement officers, IT and digital development heavy hitters, buyers, and start-up founders. Their presence on the web site gave DPW immediate credibility.

My web site was constructed by a man I discovered on Upwork.

Then I reached out to my sponsor community to see in the event that they wished to help my launch occasion.

Since I did not have a gross sales workforce, I just about leveraged my 20,000 LinkedIn connections, utilized social promoting methods to create a buzz, and used direct e mail advertising and marketing to achieve potential delegates, sponsors, and startups, with out making a single outbound telesales name.

So, it is that puzzle of issues that should come collectively, and, being sincere, you want a little bit of luck, too. I feel I launched the fitting convention (on digital procurement) on the proper time, however I additionally know that if I don’t get the fitting degree of individuals onto the advisory, or wrestle to get my first sponsor onboard, issues might have gone the opposite approach.

Aiming to draw a worldwide viewers, I selected Amsterdam because the convention location. The “Silicon Valley of Europe,” Amsterdam is instantly linked to 300 locations worldwide and affords unparalleled quantities of historical past, tradition, and actions. I employed a neighborhood occasions company to shortlist the most effective venues in Amsterdam for me to have a look at. I then discovered an important venue.

I created an advisory board of forward-thinking chief procurement officers, IT and digital development heavy hitters, buyers, and startup founders. Their presence on the web site gave DPW immediate credibility.

I keep in mind promoting my first sponsorship to an organization from Finland. At the moment, I did not also have a web site and solely confirmed them a phrase doc with a sketch of what my future web site would appear like. They purchased into it and ultimately signed my first-ever contract. After I converse to them about this at present, they hold telling me that they liked my imaginative and prescient for DPW and that the shortage of an internet site was not that necessary.

Right here is the 1:1 e mail convo I not too long ago had with the CEO of my first sponsor in 2019:

Me: Sievo is an organization that may be very near my coronary heart since you have been the very first sponsor that supported the launch of DPW. I keep in mind precisely the day once I pitched the imaginative and prescient of DPW to Lari and Jani and that I confirmed them the non-existing DPW web site drawn on a chunk of paper over display share. That they had the heart and the braveness to say sure to DPW. Not many would have performed that. I’ll always remember that.

CEO: Didn’t know this! Proud that my colleagues had the nostril and guts to make this name (which was the fitting one). Additionally, completely happy that DPW got here alongside, and offered, a really required breath of contemporary air to the procurement world.

Since launch, what has labored to draw and retain prospects?

By way of our annual flagship convention in Amsterdam, delivering a stellar expertise and persevering with to distinguish the occasion expertise from different extra conventional {industry} occasions has labored effectively. In the end, our convention affords attendees one thing they cannot get anyplace else.

In fact, we hold enhancing the fundamentals by asking for post-event suggestions. There is no such thing as a such factor as an ideal convention. DPW has not had a gross sales workforce since its inception – 95% of our development comes from inbound site visitors.

I’m a well known determine within the world procurement area, individuals know me, and I got here with an enormous community and leveraged my 20,000 LinkedIn connections to make noise about DPW AMS 2019. I additionally employed a licensed LinkedIn knowledgeable who did not do anything than publish stuff on LinkedIn. At one level earlier than the convention in 2019, I feel we did 3-4 LinkedIn posts per day which is rather a lot, perhaps too many for regular requirements.

The distinctiveness of the convention, the issue it solves, and the timing of the launch have been key success components. Having discovered an untapped area of interest (connecting giant organizations with the most effective startups in procurement), and being a first-mover into this area of interest, has been a key driver to gauging curiosity within the DPW model.

At this time, DPW Amsterdam is essentially the most startup-centric occasion in procurement, and our lens on the rising tech ecosystem defines the “Alternative Area.” Certainly one of our USPs is giving corporations entry to nimble startups they’ll’t discover on Gartner’s Magic Quadrant (see picture beneath).

My suggestion to anybody who needs to discover a startup is to seek out their area of interest after which construct a scalable enterprise mannequin round it. Upon getting coated your area of interest and delivered worth, your prospects return.

How are you doing at present and what does the longer term appear like?

DPW has seen unbelievable development, and 2022 was our greatest yr by far. Since 2019, we’ve got greater than tripled in income, capping out the yr at €1.8 million. That stated, our development has been removed from linear.

After a profitable inaugural occasion in 2019, DPW misplaced €100K in the course of the pandemic, and we have been near closing up store. However we persevered by means of the robust occasions and at the moment are a lot better for it!

The occasion itself has additionally grown immensely, reaching 5,000 attendees at our 2022 convention – doubling our final in-person occasion in 2019. Relating to the convention, I see a few development alternatives:

1. Discover a bigger venue (to promote extra exhibition area)
2. Broaden into new company buyer segments (from giant solely to giant and mid-sized enterprises)
3. Broaden into new purposeful segments (from procurement to procurement and provide chain)
4. Broaden into new geographies (in 2024, we’ll launch of first US occasion)

At this time, DPW is the fastest-growing convention and group in procurement. It has 16,000 followers on LinkedIn, and sponsorships to our annual convention promote out in a matter of weeks. We simply employed our first industrial director in command of promoting our providers to answer and repair suppliers.

We hold including new providers and merchandise across the convention, corresponding to ScoutLab, our tech scouting, and scaling providers. We’re additionally going to create our analysis and traits stories to turn into extra data-driven and construct out our thought management within the area.

However in all honesty, how I can construct a extra scalable enterprise is what retains me up at night time, and discovering readability in your technique is all the time a problem.

By beginning the enterprise, have you ever discovered something notably useful or advantageous?

Oh boy, the place shall I begin? The occasion {industry} has been strongly affected by the disruptive forces of COVID-19. For the reason that outbreak, almost each occasion that was scheduled to occur was canceled altogether. These have been robust occasions, however regardless of how severe and unhappy all of this was, the world was not ending, and there have been upsides as effectively.

As a single convention going into the pandemic, I needed to begin fascinated with what’s subsequent and what I can do proper now to maneuver ahead. I do know that is the mentality I might want to hold myself sane. As a former skilled sports activities athlete, I consistently needed to take care of the stress of uncertainty, and discover ways to keep optimistic and thrive underneath stress.

As overwhelming because the pandemic was, I noticed it as a problem and an enormous development alternative for each me personally and DPW. So, lesson discovered primary: keep humble and hold smiling.

In hindsight, the pandemic was the most effective factor that might have occurred to DPW. I needed to reinvent DPW, and through this course of, I launched just a few new providers corresponding to ScoutLab (tech scouting and scaling providers), DEMO Digital, which has turn into the most important startup competitors in procurement at present, and a membership group. I additionally took a guess on just a few different concepts which didn’t work out, however I feel taking just a few bets right here and there’s okay, even when they aren’t understanding. So, lesson discovered quantity two: By no means waste disaster.

What platform/instruments do you utilize for your enterprise?

We use HubSpot for CRM and advertising and marketing automation, Slack for inside communication and collaboration, and Zoom for video conferencing.

What have been essentially the most influential books, podcasts, or different assets?

I really like studying biographies of visionaries like Steve Jobs and Elon Musk. They’re leaders I’m wanting as much as.

Recommendation for different entrepreneurs who wish to get began or are simply beginning out?

Take average dangers. I risked my profession and my monetary independence to launch DPW as a result of I knew I had an concept price combating for. Now, we’re essentially the most influential tech occasion within the {industry}, with a few of the prime names in procurement and know-how vying for talking positions – and we’ve greater than tippled our income prior to now three years. None of this success might have occurred if I had stayed complacent in a “secure” job as a substitute of risking every little thing to launch DPW, or if I had let my ego get in the best way of an important alternative.

So, my recommendation to entrepreneurs is: success comes from taking dangers. That doesn’t imply you received’t encounter challenges alongside the best way (like DPW did when in-person occasions shut down in the course of the pandemic), however should you’re really obsessed with beginning a brand new enterprise, it may possibly’t be performed “midway.” The most effective outcomes come when you might have the braveness, and the arrogance, to offer it your all.

My different recommendation can be to like what you might be doing. You’ll undergo some robust occasions, and should you do not love what you might be doing, you will not have the resilience to get by means of it. This isn’t a 9-5 job; typically, you must work 12 hours a day, 7 days every week. You may’t do this until you’re keen on what you do.

Are you trying to rent for sure positions proper now?

Sure, we’re searching for a Head of Advertising and a Delegate Gross sales consultant. Attain me at [email protected]

The place can we go to study extra?

When you’ve got any questions or feedback, drop a remark beneath!