One of the things that we thrive on as a startup is the unpredictability of just about everything. We love to experiment, interact and jump into things with a massive splash (+ belly flop).

That’s exactly what we did with #notgitex. Since we’re the new guys and on a very limited budget, we knew that there was no way we could participate at Gitex. So we came up with #notgitex.

The idea was simple: One week of crazy deals on a first come, first serve basis served up via Facebook and Twitter only.

To make things interesting, the promo went live at different times everyday and we didn’t tell folks which products would be discounted until a few minutes before it went live.

**And so it began…

** What ensued was complete and utter madness! We were bombarded with questions and update requests on Twitter, Facebook, Live Chat and even on our toll free 800 number! Folks kept asking when we were going live, what discounts were available and placing their own requests for products they wanted discounts on.

**Of awesome customers and a couple of disgruntled ones.

** And that’s just half of it. Watching those orders roll in every day was a revelation. We learned who had the fastest fingers, the quickest minds and the most sporting spirit (and vice versa ;)).

We had a customer who managed to snag a deal every single day. Every single day.

Meet @nadeemmrd – our customer with the fastest fingers. I called him more times that week than I called my own mom!

Nadeem also gets our awesome customer vote as he agreed to let go of two HP TouchPads for other customers even though technically he was there first and did not have to.

We had a couple of awesome, adventurous customers who came all the way from Abu Dhabi to pick up their orders from our office!

There were of course a few disgruntled customers who couldn’t get through even though they tried their best. While we wish everyone could have got a great deal, we had limited stock – not to mention limited funding!

**Recovering from #notgitex

** As much fun as it was, the resulting exhaustion was tough to deal with. Both ^OK and I worked late all week. We’d get home and get right back online (we kinda do this anyway!). By the time Thursday rolled around, it felt like we’d been run over by a JP van.

Even so, we’ll probably do it again in a heart beat!

We're scratching our heads (and wallets) to make sure that #notGitex is back bigger and better next year.