Attending conferences can bring about great benefits for companies, but it also comes at a cost. Whether it’s a sales and marketing tactic, or an executive is speaking, there are expenses involved. This could include securing space and a booth, as well as covering hotel stays, travel expenses, and meals for employees working at the booth. For executives, it means taking time away from the office, purchasing a ticket, and covering travel costs. So how do companies justify the cost of attending these events?
Enter Sproxxy – an early stage company aiming to revolutionize the conference experience. They have created a platform to manage all conference-related activities, while helping companies understand the return on investment (ROI) of attending these events. Today, the startup officially launched after securing $1.1 million in funding to kickstart their operations.
Founder and CEO of Sproxxy, Melanie Samba, has spent 20 years in the marketing and communications field. She managed 12 executives who attended a staggering 80 conferences a year. To handle it all, she resorted to using Excel spreadsheets. However, she had an epiphany – surely there must be a better way to manage this information. And thus, Sproxxy was born.
“We’re positioned as a conference intelligence platform. And what we’re doing is quantifying conference activity. So we help brands prove the business impact of them participating at conferences and knowing the ROI or value of speaking, sponsoring and attending an industry event,” Samba told TechCrunch.
Sproxxy’s services include pre-planning, such as finding the right conferences to attend, coordinating with different departments, and post-conference analysis. This analysis helps determine if the investment in time and resources was worthwhile. Ultimately, the company’s focus is on providing data, analytics, and insights on the benefits gained from attending conferences.
After coming up with the idea, Samba hired a company to build the initial version of the software. She was able to sell her first license to an agency managing 60 clients on the platform. However, last year she decided it was time to bring development in-house and rebuild the product. Now, she has a team of three engineers and a product manager.
There seems to be a strong demand for Sproxxy’s services, with a pipeline of 1200 companies waiting to join the platform. Their target market includes midsize businesses to enterprises, who are seeking a streamlined approach to managing conference participation.
As a solo Black female founder and mother to a young child, Samba was initially concerned about the fundraising process. These worries were not unfounded, as in 2023, Black founders (regardless of gender) only received less than 1% of all venture capital investments. She faced the challenge of getting investors to understand the value of her product and securing a seat at the table.
However, she ultimately found Ivy Ventures, a firm that believed in her vision and invested $500,000 to kickstart Sproxxy. Later, they added another $600,000 to support the company’s growth. Samba’s goal is to raise a total of $1.8 million, and she is well on her way, currently discussing the remaining funds with other potential investors to complete the round.
