How we spent $35K in 4 hours. Should startups invest in events?

The total cost of the event was $35K, which, for a startup, is a lot of money (that’s nearly the salary for a newbie fresh out of university). But for a 250-person event… it’s not. These kind of events can easily start at $50K+.

The question is no longer about whether it was fun and did everyone drink their cocktails, but rather: did it do anything? And, as anyone working in comms knows, this is a very… very hard question to answer.

The MailJet team were so kind as to share the story of their anniversary event for MJML which they hosted in Boston at the start of August.

This alone is great, but they also went one step further and shared the total breakdown of their budget. They’ve split it up into where they saved and where they splurged to give other organisers insight into where money can be best spent at an inaugural event.