Dublin-born David Walsh applied to the SaaStock Europe Global Pitch competition after, he says, a ‘few too many’ beers. Weeks later, he found himself winning €1 million for his startup, Limelight, on SaaStock’s Dublin stage. Now, he’s sharing what sets Limelight apart, and his winning pitchdeck, with TFN.
For the uninitiated, SaaStock Europe’s Global Pitch Competition is where the next category-defining AI and SaaS founders compete for an investment package of up to €1 million and the kind of visibility money can’t buy.
Held in October in Dublin, the event gathered more than 4,500 attendees, 2,500 companies, 600 investors, and 90+ global speakers with VCs from leading funds, including Octopus Ventures, Antler, and Frontline Ventures in attendance.
A founder with a bold idea
Walsh is a three-time founder. Now living in LA, his first startup, diversity hiring platform Mathison, raised $30 million, and more recently he exited Chase West, a boutique watch brand.
His third venture, Limelight, has started small and lean, with just four people. However, it may also have brought the best moment of his career, he has described winning SaaStock in his hometown in Dublin as ‘the cherry on top’ of his other successes.
Limelight is a B2B influencer marketplace. It aims to help brands raise awareness by pairing them with relevant business-focused influencers. Limelight focuses on quality rather than quantity.
Limelight starts with creators with 10,000 or more LinkedIn followers, helping to emphasise relevance over reach. “In B2B, you’re influencing the purchase of a product that could be $50,000 which means 10,000 is usually a good starting point,” Walsh told us. “Companies want to work with niche content creators.”
Using trusted experts brings significant benefits for B2B brands, with their content — whether on LinkedIn, in newsletters, or podcasts — generating more impact than traditional ads. “We’re twenty times cheaper than an agency, and we don’t charge transaction fees.” Walsh told us. Free for creators, plans for brands start at just $500 a month.
Quality over quantity, the Limelight difference
Limelight’s service addresses a problem that all brands face: traditional advertising is becoming less and less effective. “Marketing leaders are struggling to get a good return on their paid ad spend,” Walsh explained. “It’s becoming more saturated.”
It has meant that the return-on-investment for advertising has shrunk, sometimes to the point that advertising simply isn’t cost-effective for marketing teams.
Rather than trying to create better advertising, Limelight offers a new channel — leveraging the trust placed in influencers. “They’re not starting on your website. They’re discovering products in their feeds, in communities, from voices they trust,” says Walsh.
Three rounds, one stage, a million reasons to celebrate
Although Limelight ticked all the boxes to enter SaaStock, Walsh’s entry wasn’t planned. He saw the competition late one night and simply decided to enter, making a last-minute submission when he saw it. Not expecting to win, he didn’t even tell anyone he’d entered.
Indeed, part of the attraction when he was long-listed was the opportunity to return home to Dublin for the finals. Walsh, however, was glad that he did. “We did three rounds of presentations,” he explained. “The vibe was great, there was a lot of energy.”
Although the application may have been spur-of-the-moment, Walsh says his success came from how well-practiced his pitch was. “I’d gone through my deck a hundred times already during fundraising, by the time I got on stage, it came naturally,” he said.
He delivered his pitchdeck a few more times during the competition. Starting as part of the top 50 at Amazon’s Dublin office on day one, Limelight progressed to the top 20 on the Founders Stage on day two, then to be one of the final five on the SaaStock main stage on day three.
Walking away with the grand prize of up to €1 million as the result of a whim has caused Walsh to reflect. “The biggest moments in your life rarely come from a master plan,” he said. “They come from small acts of courage.”
A lean success, built on solid preparation
The win has set up Limelight to accelerate its growth. With brands including ZoomInfo, HubSpot, and Webflow already using Limelight, they have secured a further €2 million in funding from Silicon Valley Angels.
Although he is hiring new roles, including engineers and a head of growth, he’s planning to remain lean. “We want to expand a little bit,” Walsh told us, “but we’ll stay focused and disciplined — this funding just lets us move faster.”
Walsh is confident that Limelight’s model, which includes rich data allowing brands to measure effectiveness, will be successful. Above all, it will move influencer marketing from being about awareness, to being a vehicle for measurable growth.
Limelight’s SaaStock story — of a spur of a moment application winning a million — is appealing, but the real story is perhaps Walsh’s preparation. As his pitchdeck reveals, Limelight offers an effective model that solves a problem for businesses. His application may have been on a whim, but the work and preparation that preceded it made the win possible.
Just like Limelight’s product is about authentic influence, his pitch was taking opportunities with an authentic product. “Sometimes, the biggest risk isn’t failing,” Walsh reflects, “it’s not putting yourself out there.”
Take a look at the winning pitch deck below.
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight
Image credits: Limelight