DSE 2016 Booth Field Guide: Stratacache

March 10, 2016 by Dave Haynes

Stratacache CEO Chris Riegel in his Dayton office. Note the Gen. Patton photo and samurai swords.

STRATACACHE, Booth 2710

Chris Riegel, the Founder/CEO of Stratacache and the ultimate road warrior of digital signage, sent this acerbic note (from the road) on what to expect from his Dayton, Ohio-based software/hardware company at next week’s Digital Signage Expo in Las Vegas.

Why do people going to DSE need to put your company on their Must See list of booths?

StratacachelogoLet’s be honest here, DSE follows CES and NRF.  All of the cool stuff you really want to see, you have seen already.  DSE is about meeting people in the industry and making the right connections … that is why STRATACACHE exhibits.  If you are in the industry today and you want to advance your career, you want to come see us….

What’s your big marketing message to attendees, and what’s it all about?

Blah blah hardware…..Blah blah software…Blah blah screens, cables, mounts, beacons, etc.  We aren’t going to tell you anything about digital signage that you haven’t already heard at least a hundred times.

We want YOU.  STRATACACHE is growing…not the ‘we will grow by 11% year over year’ kind of growing but the ‘Oh my God, they are bigger than a Central American country GDP kind of growing’…We are tracking to $1 Billion in sales by 2020 and we need the best of the best in this industry to help us get there.

If you have worked for seven different companies in this industry in the past five years, don’t bother.  If you think a big deal is 50 sites in El Paso, adios.  If you want to work for 36 hours a week with adequate benefits and dental, best wishes.  

If you are the ½ of 1% in this industry who know how to sell, don’t mind working 90 hours a week and understand that putting three years of your life into something big will give you freedom for the next 30 years, you need to come see us.

What’s the ideal profile of attendees walking into your booth?

Salespeople, engineers and top flight developers from the U.S., Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Europe, or China.  $10 Million dollars in sales per year is table stakes.  Intelligent, driven, type-A with the skills to back it up.  If you would fit in perfectly on the Island of Misfit Toys, come join our merry band of raiders.

How many years have you been doing DSE and how has it changed (if you think it has changed?) over the years?

Since the beginning. DSE is a good show, but is challenged because it is a lot more like Homecoming Week than a place where deals are done.  We need to change that.  DSE can become the commerce event for this industry if we can strip away the same tedious ‘Content is King’ and ‘Let’s talk Beacons’ drivel that would bore a forensic accountant to death.  DSE should be about deals.  

Industry consolidation opportunity, let’s do a deal.

VCs got cold feet and you need a new home … let’s do a deal.

Aging Nordic owner who can’t quite let go … let’s do a deal.

When you get a chance to get away from your booth, what will you be looking for and researching?

Badge surfing … Are there more customers than vendors on the floor?  Who is talk, who is real?  How many plans for global domination is Seoul hatching this year?  What Fortune 500 company is about to waste millions of dollars trying to dominate this sector?  Which ‘Master of the Universe’ dot com darling is up to no good?  

What’s your favourite part of the week?

“Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking … we anticipate a smooth ride out of Las Vegas as we climb to 35,000 feet …”

  1. Steve Gurley says:

    Very entertaining. This is certainly the year for telling it like it is.

Leave a comment