Last week, our events team was hustling alongside SaaStr to present the digital version of SaaStr Annual. Before the world changed in early March, we were prepping 200 speakers across 10 stages at the San Jose Convention Center to present to 15,000+ SaaS leaders from across the country and the world.
In the now-standard in-person to virtual event pivot, SaaStr Annual at Home packed all the founder and VC-led content and networking that attendees have come to know and love from SaaStr into three full days of live, virtual content. Day 1 kicked off with interactive roundtable discussions and VC office hours. Day 2 and 3 continued on with three session tracks catered for founders and sales, product, customer success, culture, and marketing teams. To maintain the core community focus of SaaStr Annual, attendees could schedule 1:1 meetings with other attendees via Brella, check out sponsor booths, and engage in live Q&A with all speakers.
We jumpstarted Day 2 and 3 with powerful founder journeys from Ben Chestnut, CEO and Co-founder of Mailchimp, and Henry Schuck, CEO and Founder of ZoomInfo. Other fan favorites included Bessemer Venture Partners’ always popular State of the Cloud (this year, exploring the COVID beneficiaries); Y Combinator CEO and YC Partner Michael Seibel’s exploration of how to be extraordinary; and Github COO Erica Brescia’s leadership lessons. With SaaS leaders representing a range of industries from email marketing, B2B sales optimization, barbershops, design, event management, and security, it’s undeniable that the Cloud is on fire.
With 70+ sessions, the key takeaways were flying out of our speakers faster than we could transcribe them. Here are some of our favorites, but make sure to join the 300,000+ other viewers who have already committed to learn from the best in SaaS and catch up on all the incredible Annual sessions on SaaStr’s Twitter feed (YouTube links coming soon).
Twelve years ago, all Cloud companies were worth $12 billion. Today, that's grown a staggering 61x and Cloud platforms are still growing 30%+ a year. - Elliott Robinson and Byron Deeter, Partners at Bessemer Venture Partners
Doom and gloom thoughts are the entrepreneurial norm. The key is to keep going. Don’t stop, don’t pause, pivot. - Ben Chestnut, CEO & Co-Founder of Mailchimp
Human-centric design is key; focus on the pain before your focus on the solution and remember to design for delight. - Alex Hood, Chief Product Office of Asana
Remove fear from your decisions. Look at the decisions you’re scared to make and ask yourself why you’re risk-averse in certain areas and whether your decisions are based on fact versus fear. - Henry Schuck, Founder & CEO of ZoomInfo
Funding deals are still closing but investors want to see more data points and deals are taking longer. Be prepared and be aligned on the process with your venture partners. - Monique Woodard, Founder of Cake Ventures, Mercedes Bent, Partner at Lightspeed, and June Angelides, Investor at Samos Investments
There’s a correlation between high levels of diversity and ‘Unicorn’ status. It’s never too early to start thinking about it: Slack brought in an external D&I consultant when they were just 75 people. - Maddy Cross, Talent Director and Itxaso del Palacio, Partner at Notion Capital
We’re already working hard on SaaStr’s next digital event, Scale, on December 9. C-suite leaders from Okta, Airtable, Outreach, and many more of the top SaaS innovators will be sharing their secrets on how to scale faster. Stay tuned for more info on how to register.
Interested in pivoting your 2020 in-person event to a digital format? Email us at events@credpr.com.
