5 Go-to-Market Lessons from Vendelux’s Journey in Building an Event Intelligence Platform
Sometimes, the worst market timing can lead to the best strategic decisions. In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Alex Reynolds shared how launching an event intelligence platform right before COVID-19 forced Vendelux to build stronger foundations for their eventual success. Here are the key go-to-market lessons from their journey:
- When to Make a Contrarian Bet
While competitors rushed to build virtual event platforms during COVID, Vendelux made a different bet. “We were skeptical. We felt like the magic around events is getting people together in person,” Alex explains. This contrarian view proved correct – by 2024, “events are now bigger, on average, than they’ve ever been before.”
The lesson isn’t about being contrarian for its own sake, but rather about deeply understanding your market’s fundamentals. Vendelux’s conviction came from extensive experience in the events space, not just gut feeling.
- Find the Hidden Pain Point Behind the Obvious Problem
Vendelux’s insight came from discovering that companies were spending “24% to 40% of the B2B marketing budget” on events while lacking proper tools to maximize this investment. As Alex notes, “We’ve talked to marketers that say ‘oh, I spend 30 hours every two weeks, we’re just googling to figure out what events I should be at.'”
The key wasn’t just identifying the problem, but understanding its full scope across organizations. “Sales will go to events on their own, SDRs will go, customer success will go, even like recruiting or legal and finance will go to seminars for learning and development,” Alex explains, revealing how fragmented event participation had become.
- Position Your Solution Within Existing Workflows
Instead of demanding new budget allocations, Vendelux found creative ways to work within existing constraints. Alex shares how customers often start: “Maybe they, instead of doing the platinum sponsorship, they’ll do the gold sponsorship, or maybe they have some money left over from an event that didn’t cost as much as they thought.”
This approach allows them to prove value before asking for expanded investment – a crucial strategy for new category creation.
- Meet Customers at Their Maximum Pain Point
Vendelux’s go-to-market strategy focuses on engaging prospects when they feel the problem most acutely. “We have SDRs that live in trade show hubs. So think Vegas, London. They go to shows every week and every show there are hundreds of event marketers… they’re at the maximum pain point,” Alex explains.
This timing is crucial because these marketers have “just spent the last two, three months preparing for the event and oftentimes they don’t feel as prepared as they want to.”
- Transform Tactical Functions into Strategic Advantages
Perhaps the most important lesson is how Vendelux is elevating event marketing from a cost center into a strategic function. Alex draws a parallel to another successful category creation: “In the same way that Gainsight took the account management function and essentially turned that into customer success… we see event marketing needing to go through a very similar transition.”
This transformation isn’t just about technology – it’s about reimagining the role itself. Vendelux envisions event marketers becoming the quarterbacks for all in-person business relationships, a shift that could fundamentally change how B2B companies approach relationship building.
The story of Vendelux illustrates that successful go-to-market strategies often require rethinking entire business functions, not just introducing new tools. By understanding the deeper patterns in how businesses operate and where value is created, founders can identify opportunities to create entirely new categories – even in seemingly mature markets.
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