More than 2,000 global SaaS founders, senior leaders, and venture capital firms gathered in the City of Light on June 12-14 for the 2nd Annual SaaStr Europa. Our event management team was onsite curating the two-day agenda with topics focused on how to scale your company’s growth in sales, people, culture, and funding.
Attendees heard from the best and brightest in cloud, including CircleCi, Algolia, Lucidchart, and unicorns like Talkdesk, Doctolib, and Twilio. SaaStr’s mission to “Share. Scale. Learn.” was prevalent throughout the candid and informative speaker sessions, and there were countless opportunities for attendees to meet and engage with SaaS thought leaders, VCs, and like-minded peers. Audience members were able to submit live questions through Slid.o, schedule braindates for more intimate mentoring sessions, and in true Parisian fashion, network with all day rosé.
Highlights from Day 1 included the Equality and Inclusion brunch–where SaaStr Founder Jason Lemkin reiterated SaaStr’s mission to promote diversity and encouraged attendees to join in prioritizing more inclusion in the space—and the Ingram Micro and SaaStr’s Startup Pitch Competition. During the hour-long competition, five startups presented pitches in three minutes in front of four investor judges. In the end, $75,000 in funding was awarded to three worthy companies. Process Street secured the coveted, premier title of “Most Likely to Be a Unicorn” and $50,000 to continue their growth.
Funding was a common theme for Day 2. Here are some key onstage takeaways from SaaS celebrity founders:
Raise 30-40% more than you think you’ll need. You’ll need it.
European (and international) startups can thrive without having to move to Silicon Valley, but U.S. partnerships and funding have an undeniable benefit.
Always be fundraising even when you don’t need it.
VCs have very little attention spans. Successful founders need to be salespeople.
Don’t forget that a “not now” can become a “yes” in the future.
According to Alex Ferrara, Partner at Bessemer Ventures, there are currently 61 $1B+ private cloud companies compared to 0 in 2018. There is no doubt the industry will continue on this trajectory and we’re excited to keep up with latest SaaS trends and leading innovators.
Didn’t have a chance to make it to Paris? SaaStr Annual is back in San Jose March 10-12, 2020. Join us there and check out our coverage from February!
