Las Vegas (CNN) -- For David Shafter, it should have been a dream: A crush of excited people swarming his booth at the International Consumer Electronics Show, where his startup is launching its first product. But all the people hoisting cameras and raising themselves on tiptoe for a better view Wednesday afternoon weren't there to see his robot. They were angling for a peek at pop star Justin Bieber, who was making an appearance at the booth next door. "We're pretty much shut down," said Shafter with a weary look of resignation, as rubberneckers squealed and shouted "Justin!" in the background. "We can't run our demos."
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Entrepreneurs had misfortune of a CES booth next to where Justin Bieber was appearing
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Rubberneckers overwhelmed their Xybotyx booth, but not to see their robot
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Startup co-founder: "It's the best of times, it's the worst of times"
In the meantime, however, @placeholder had another plan: If he couldn't beat them, he was going to join them.