Unique laser technology from inPhocal, relaxed through music thanks to the innovation of Alphabeats and the world's fastest and most efficient computing servers of Incooling. The startups, all located on High Tech Campus Eindhoven, were represented at the largest tech fair in the world, CES 2022. In this blog they share their story. Why did they go (in the midst of a pandemic?) Was it different from other years? And what have they achieved?

Kathy Vredeveldt of inPhocal:

"The Consumer Electronics Show: the biggest Tech fair in the world, at the awesome location of Las Vegas. Why would any deep-tech startup not want to be there? Right, we’re in the midst of a pandemic… Still, we seized the opportunity. We want to disrupt the entire laser processing market with our unique laser technology and you can only do this if the world knows about us. The CES is an excellent way to meet with industry leaders and investors with bigger pockets than we know at home. And besides that: we became the CES Innovation Award Honoree. This was our moment to shine!

Las Vegas
And shine we did! The CES Innovation Award gave us extra attention. We had our booth as part of the Dutch pavilion and this saw most of the action. It’s generally speaking hard to stand out, so to draw attention we took a Lego setup that resembled how our technology looked like in action. Even though we knew the fair was full of tech nerds, we could not anticipate the amount of attention it gave… It even ended up on the Dutch Jeugdjournaal news! The fair, but also the typical Las Vegas style parties afterwards, gave many useful contacts. We are still busy following up on every lead, but it showed the true value of attending this event.

What we learned
So what are the most important points we learned at the CES? Be brave and think big! Be proud and aim to conquer the world. Don’t undersell yourself to investors: don’t aim for anything lower than 10 million. Showmanship is an important part of American culture and all five in our team wore matching outfits, in which we used our company colours. Some of the investors even complimented us on that. Play the game right and you can definitely speak to the right people there. And finally, we were blessed with excellent support from the people that organised the Dutch pavilion. To those, as well as the other participants: we loved it and see you all in 2023!" 

Han Dirkx of AlphaBeats 

"As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end and CES 2022 was no exception. It was a once-in-a-lifetime adventure that provided AlphaBeats with several opportunities and insights. The journey of AlphaBeats to the world's most innovative technology event, CES, began when the Dutch pavilion selected us as one of the 40 most promising Dutch startups in the Netherlands. It was at that moment we felt responsible for the relaxation of the entire Dutch Pavilion.

We traveled to the USA at a time when Omicron was at its peak (still had to wait in long queues at the airport) and so were the stress levels. While leaving we made sure that we packed the relaxation tool with us; the AlphaBeats app. The team was excited and motivated to bring more joy, peace and relaxation to the USA. 

We never imagined that when we arrived in the United States, The Washington Post would be waiting for us. The coolest thing was that we conducted our interview on the road in our RV. Everything was progressing at a rapid pace, and thanks to our app, we were always calm despite having a hectic schedule.

Having a physical presence in the United States was a huge success for us, as the United States is one of our most significant markets. Their stress levels are over 20% higher than the worldwide average. The music industry is massive, as is the mental health app market, and there are several focused VCs in those areas. We also met with interesting people such as possible partners, tech scouts, and investors.

Apart from all of the great connections and the attention we received, the most valuable upside was the vibe it gave to AlphaBeats. We traveled in our RV, which provided us with the unique experience of living the dream: meeting wonderful people, seeing great places, traveling with a great team, and having the best mobile office there is. And, we already planned our next trip to the US." 

Helena Samodurova of Incooling

"Being at CES 2022 was worthwhile, but different. It was much more stripped down due to the pandemic. Which makes sense, of course. We've also been to CES before, a few years ago. It was very busy then. Almost a bit too busy, but the important speakers were there. During the 2022 edition of CES, we noticed that large companies had pulled out due to covid. That was a pity. But because of this, we had a unique chance to run into and talk to high level executives and VP's in our field. 

Because there were many start-ups, the Dutch Pavilion where we were located was well attended. And there were very interesting individuals passing by. We explained our ambition to cool down the planet, one server at the time, and made nice connections.