Many people say that sponsoring events is just burning money.
On 14 October 2026 we tested that for the first time. Vanderbuild sponsored Pitch MeetUp 2026 in Wrocław. Our founder, Mateusz Sekta, spoke on a panel about AI in sales and sat on the jury of the startup competition. We also funded a special prize, and it went to RentFriends.
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What Pitch MeetUp is?
Pitch MeetUp is a startup conference organized by inQUBE, the University Business Incubator, together with the Wrocław University of Economics and Business (Uniwersytet Ekonomiczny we Wrocławiu). The 2026 edition was its fourth.
It took place at the National Forum of Music (Narodowe Forum Muzyki), whose main hall seats 1,800 people. Event partners included BNY and InCredibles, the Sebastian Kulczyk program.
The day combined panels, talks, and the Pitch MeetUp Competition, a pitch contest for startups that have not raised their first VC round yet. Artur Ciachowski hosted the whole day.
inQUBE covered everything we needed as a partner. Our logo was on a 30-square-meter billboard in front of the main stage.
The panel: did AI turn us into spammers?
Mateusz joined the panel titled: AI turned us into spammers, so how do you win clients today?
He described how sales teams use data in three layers:
- Sources. Where the data comes from: databases, intent signals, your own CRM.
- Orchestration. The tool or agent that connects those sources. For us that is Clay, and more and more often Claude Code.
- Activation. The moment the data turns into an email, a LinkedIn message, or a phone call.
Beyond the layers, this is how Mateusz sees outbound today. Data keeps getting cheaper, so the barrier to entry keeps falling. More companies send the same kind of messages to the same people, and the whole channel converts worse.
The way outbound works has changed much less. You still have to be relevant. A signal campaign is one option among many. Plain outbound campaigns still work at a slightly lower rate, so you need a larger target group for the same result.
The goal of the first message has shifted. A few years ago outbound booked meetings. Today it starts conversations. A SaaS product with a clear buyer can sell in that conversation. A consultancy has to earn trust first, because nobody hires a stranger on the strength of one email.
Market size decides how much to automate. With 10, 20, or even 50 target companies, skip the automation. Pick up the phone, send the email yourself, and spend the day learning everything about those accounts.
AI has a clear place in our process. We use it to qualify incoming leads, and it works well with clear guidelines and good context. We never put AI agents in front of buyers. The conversation and the trust stay with people.
The competition and our special prize
The Pitch MeetUp Competition was the part of the day we cared about most. Mateusz sat on its jury, and Vanderbuild funded a special prize.
It went to RentFriends. RentFriends is a free app for finding roommates, rooms, and apartments, on iPhone and Android. You swipe through people and listings, and a mutual match opens a chat. Landlords can post their listings or import them from OLX, then browse the profiles of people looking for a place.
Our prize includes money and a go-to-market consultation with Vanderbuild. The consultation is meant to help RentFriends turn the attention from the competition into a plan for reaching its users and landlords.
Congratulations to the whole RentFriends team.
The benefits of sponsoring an event for a B2B company
For a B2B company like ours, event sponsorship can bring five benefits.
Expert positioning. A panel on your core topic shows how you think, in front of the exact people you want to work with. The hall heard how we approach AI in sales, with no pitch for our services. That gives people a reason to start the next conversation with us.
Partnerships with VCs and tool vendors. Startup events bring investors, founders, and software vendors into one room. VC funds look for partners who can help their portfolio companies find customers. Tool vendors look for agencies that build on their products and bring them new accounts. A short conversation at the coffee break is often the first step toward a referral partnership.
A reason to catch up with your pipeline. If prospects or clients from your pipeline attend, the event is a natural reason to meet in person. A 15-minute chat in the hallway can move a deal further than another follow-up email.
A useful resource in people's hands. We shared our Sales Tools Database with everyone at the event. Several people were surprised it's free.
Content for the months ahead. We recorded a vlog from the whole day for our YouTube channel. One day at a sponsored event becomes a video, a blog post, and posts for LinkedIn.
Is event sponsorship worth it?
For us, this time, yes. Sponsoring events makes sense when you give back to the community you come from and show up as an expert. Our team has a history with inQUBE, and we knew plenty of people in that hall.
Thank you to inQUBE for having us, to Artur Ciachowski for hosting, and to RentFriends for a pitch worth backing. If you were in the hall and want the tools we talked about, browse the Sales Tools Database.
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