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Boston buzzes over start-ups at freebie-heavy WebInno

14.09.2011
Nothing gets people excited about technology start-ups like freebies, and there were plenty for the taking at Tuesday night’s event in Cambridge, Mass. Though having learned lessons from start-ups that have crashed and burned in recent years from perhaps an excess of generosity without a good way to pay for it, this event that packed in hundreds of entrepreneurs and their followers wasn’t without a good dose of common sense about dollars and cents as well.

The 31st WebInno event, which is the brainchild of ’ David Beisel, kicked off with 100 free beers courtesy of one sponsor and extended into a nearby after-party featuring an open bar and DJs.

In between, Beisel encouraged attendees to give their time to an outfit called that helps youths to learn business smarts, one start-up CEO tempted attendees with a chance to win New England Patriots vs. Indianapolis Colts tickets (which depending upon how soon Peyton Manning returns, may or may not be extremely valuable), another offered  25GB of free cloud storage “for life” and another pledged to give a finder’s fee of two tickets to the next Boston sports championship event (unclear what would happen if it takes, oh, for it to happen to the whole group of teams).

CHEAPSKATE ALERT:

Matthew Bellows, CEO of  (“Email for salespeople”) and he of the sports championship ticket offer, also tried to woo WebInno attendees with a free 1-year subscription to his company's offering.

But the start-ups showing off their stuff during brief presentations at WebInno also were pressed by Beisel and the audience on how they plan to make money.