On September 13-15, the largest SaaS community event in the world celebrated its 10th anniversary. More than 10,000 executives convened for SaaStr Annual 2022, from all across the globe. The three-day event took place at the San Mateo County Event Center, where attendees discussed, shared, and celebrated all things SaaS.

Our event management team worked with long-time client SaaStr to plan and coordinate all content for almost 300 speakers. Sessions focused on how to scale your business, optimize customer success, implement product design, navigate investor relations, and so much more.

Speakers had a wide range of backgrounds—from smaller, growing startups to some of the largest names in B2B tech, such as Mailchimp, Hubspot, Gusto, Grammarly, Atlassian, Calendly, and Zendesk.

This was not the first time SaaStr mastered the execution of a large in-person tech conference in a post-COVID world. Just as it was in 2021, SaaStr Annual 2022 was held at the same outdoor venue, and done festival-style. There were routine temperature checks, rapid testing, and even a Vax Van onsite. Everyone at the event had to show proof of a negative covid test within the past 72 hours, as well as be vaccinated & boosted. 

Stages and speakers

Growth Day kicked off the conference, with Mastermind Masterclasses led by Atlassian CRO Cameron Deatsch, SaaStr alumni and Stage 2 Capital Co-Founder Mark Roberge, and more. The day’s content included a Growth Day Q&A and the Diversity, Equality, & Inclusion Brunch. These sessions paved the way for engaging conversations on how to set up a company for healthy success. 

Day 2 had a Scaling focus and its CRO Track offered a tactical deep dive with top revenue leaders in SaaS. Deel Co-Founder and CRO Shuo Wang led her session “$1M to $100M in 20 Months, The Hard Part: How Everything Breaks in Hypergrowth.” 

Stages were jam-packed, with many being standing-room-only, across the whole event campus and all three days. Masters, Legends, and Experts stages brought together hundreds of attendees, while the Q&A and Workshop lawn stages allowed for attendees to have a more intimate experience with speakers and ask questions directly. 

SaaStr Annual could not have been complete without the lively Cantina Stages in the Expo Hall, boasting three separate stages to give sponsors the mic.  Companies such as LinkedIn, Expensify, and TripActions spoke on a variety of topics—ranging from product marketing, global revenue, and user experience. 

Last but not least was the event’s VC Day, dedicated to the intersection of SaaS innovation and Venture Capital investment. The morning began with SaaStr CEO Jason Lemkin and Cowboy Venture Founder Aileen Lee’s “VC Confidential” on the Masters stage, tearing down what’s new, what’s changed, and what’s a secret in the space. 

Networking and parties

There were plenty of factors beyond main stage content that made SaaStr Annual the invigorating, valuable conference that it was. At SaaStr Square Park, dozens of Braindate and Super Braindate sessions were held each day for attendees to connect and mentor one another on niche topics. Not to mention the happy hours which closed out each of the days in the Expo Hall, providing attendees the opportunity to network and celebrate. And of course we can’t forget to mention the Big Party on Wednesday evening where attendees enjoyed a set by DJ Duke Dumont, food trucks, specialty beverages and sponsored after-parties. 

The core intent of SaaStr is to provide SaaS executives, founders, and entrepreneurs with a community ‘where the cloud meets’. This goal was more than brought to life in this year’s flagship and 10-year-anniversary event.  Onsite you could really feel the devotion to helping founders scale whether it was through content on stages or in the buzz of networking. 

We look forward to continuing the conversation at SaaStr Scale, SaaStr’s upcoming virtual event scheduled for December 7.

Wish you had been there? YouTube recordings of all sessions as well as the presentation slides are now available online.