🎒 My Guerrilla Marketing Demo Backpack Saved My Avatar Startup $200K And Got Me Flown To China

I tried every possible way to market my first startup Meograph (2012–19). Here’s how we earned free attention at conferences.

We had cool 3D face tech to demo, but booths were really expensive. And most folks just walk by anyway unless you have great snacks.

Plus we couldn’t afford it. So I designed and built a guerrilla marketing demo backpack. A freighter frame with mounted 24" monitor and telescopic selfie boom, powered by camping batteries. It weighed 35 lbs.

I first tried this at an AR conference: it was a hit. At low cost, we got way more interested approaches than a booth. One of them asked me to keynote a Chinese conference later that year, which helped our fundraise.

That customer attention would’ve cost ~$200K to buy. For a few hundred bucks in parts, we got connections to dozens of clients.

Growing companies need every marketing tool available to find an edge. Some of the best places to look are in the weird and memorable aisle.

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