With over 40 hours of dedicated content, it’s easy to feel a bit overwhelmed at the sheer range of the voices and experience on offer at SaaStock19. At our flagship event, we want to bring you the very best speakers from across the industry, but to help you feel more “kid in a candy shop” than “rabbit in the headlights,” we definitely encourage our attendees to do a little research in advance, helping you refine and build your own personal agenda ahead of the event in October.
Of course, we’re not going to leave you to wade through the speaker list unassisted. Head over to our event site and you’ll find a fully interactive agenda, enabling you to filter for relevant topics of interest and search for specific content or speakers. If you’re logged in, you can also register for sessions, building out your own personalized timetable, and marking any sessions of interest as a reminder.
We’ve also put together this list of 20 speakers that we’re especially excited to see take to the stage this year. To help you make up your mind, we’ve also highlighted the problem they might just help you solve based on their own extensive specialisms. Be sure to grab a ticket for SaaStock19 at the best possible price.
Claire Hughes Johnson
Heading up operations at Stripe, and with over a decade of previous experience at Google, Claire Hughes Johnson has a wealth of knowledge when it comes to product development and customer strategy. Stripe has, as we know, seen stratospheric growth in recent years, and Claire has been instrumental in keeping this level of success sustainable and inline with the way that the company wants to evolve. By approaching growth as something to be welcomed, but not at any cost, she practices an intentional and carefully considered approach, ensuring that evolution is well-executed, rather than a scramble to react to external demands.
Problem solved: How to deal with the internal impact of scaling at speed.
Girish Mathrubootham
One of India’s best known and most sought-after entrepreneurs, we’re honored to have Girish Mathrubootham joining us in Dublin to deliver a keynote session on our Scale stage. As the Founder and CEO of Freshworks, Girish is master of spotting a golden opportunity and taking action at the crucial time. His sage judgment of market readiness saw Freshworks explode onto the helpdesk scene back in 2010. He now uses his own experience of bringing his product to market to assist and invest in a host of other startup-stage ventures, but notably respects founders’ capacity to have the deepest understanding and knowledge of their business, offering advice and conjecture, but never dictating direction.
Problem solved: How to find and ride the right wave.
Kathryn Petralia
As Forbes noted, Kathryn Petralia is not your typical Unicorn FinTech founder. Female, located outside of San Francisco, an English Lit major – and the leader of a $1 billion company revolutionizing the lending business. At SaaStock19, Kathryn will be joining us for a fireside chat where we’ll take a deep-dive into Kabbage’s hypergrowth and business strategy. As someone who’s known for her creative approach to spotting a gap in the market, we’re also looking forward to learning more about how she motivates and inspires her team to similar greatness.
Problem solved: How to thrive by bucking the trend.
Leela Srinivasan
Having headed up the full spectrum of marketing efforts over at recruitment platform Lever before moving to take up a new position as CMO at SurveyMonkey towards the start of 2018, Leela Srinivasan is well known and trusted voice in the world of marketing. She’ll be taking to the Scale stage to discuss the eternal quandary faced by marketers; taking risks to achieve disruptive change, but being first on the chopping block if growth targets are missed. In her session, she’ll explore the ways in which a deeper understanding of the feedback economy, and active listening, can help you successfully navigate this fine line.
Problem solved: How to use your ears more than your mouth in marketing.
Rory O’Driscoll
With almost a quarter of a century in the game, Rory is what you might call a safe bet when it comes to advice in the world of SaaS and venture capitalism. With 24 years at the helm of Scale Venture Partnerships, well known for their diverse, future-focused portfolio, his knowledge across the board in terms of startup culture, the world of SaaS, seeking investment and venture products is second to none. We’re delighted that he’ll be able to join us in Dublin this year: get a head start on some of his industry observations here. Rory shared some of his great insights and reasonable concerns about the SaaS industry on a recent episode of the SaaS Revolution Show.
Problem solved: How to tough it out as a venture veteran.
Des Traynor
Hailing from Ireland, Des Traynor doesn’t have far to come for SaaStock, and we’re incredibly pleased he’ll be joining us! Founder of the cloud-based customer messaging platform for business growth, Intercom – another rare unicorn that’s passed that magic $1 billion valuation mark – he’ll be delivering a session that promises to be packed with his trademark lightbulb moments and clarity of concept. To catch an insight into taking your product to the next level, to that “dream on the horizon,” successful exit, grab a good seat at the Scale stage on Tuesday morning.
Problem solved: Full spectrum product appraisal, from market fit to profitable sale.
Aaron Ross
Father of nine, Aaron Ross somehow had time to write an internationally best-selling book “Predictable Revenue” (aka the unofficial sales bible of Silicon Valley) and now runs a highly successful consulting company of the same name. The original title, since followed by well-received sequel “From Impossible To Inevitable”, called upon his experience working at Salesforce in their very early days of just one hundred or so employees. Catch him at SaaStock19 – you can expect plenty of tips for outbound success and specializing your sales team.
Problem solved: How to supercharge your outbound sales team.
Sydney Sloan
CMO at SalesLoft since the summer of 2018, Sydney Sloan is a tech investor & advisor with considerable strategic, product management and customer experience expertise. Acting as an advisor to ABM platform Folloze and marketing automation experts Marketo, she also has a strong track record of building global teams and is often singled out for particular praise in terms of her leadership abilities within the sector. We recently hosted Sydney on our podcast, the SaaS Revolution Show where she shared which are the marketing metrics she carefully looks at and reports to the board.
Problem solved: How to get a solid handle on your strategy once and for all.
Dan Martell
Award-winning investor and highly sought-after coach to high performing SaaS founders, Dan Martell will be joining us in Dublin to impart some of his experience to a lucky SaaStock audience. With five companies founded and three successful exits under his belt, Dan speaks from considerable experience and is known for his SaaS Academy program, which has seen clients increase MRR by 200%+, 10x their conversion rates, and reduce churn by 50%. We recently spoke to Dan about the struggles during his experience
Problem solved: A health/reality check for your SaaS company.
Jacco vanderKooij
Founder of highly regarded sales consultancy Winning By Design, Jacco vanderKooij has a reputation for a deep understanding of the subscription-based business model so crucial to our industry. In his Tuesday morning session, he’ll take you on a twenty-minute crash course of the science of sales; expect insight into how a simple four-step process can revolutionize your methods, ensuring continual revenue improvement and optimization.
Problem solved: A roadmap to streamline your processes and implement key improvement initiatives.
Alison Murdock
With 25 years of experience in media, marketing, and research, including an 8-year stint as an entrepreneur, Alison Murdock now heads up marketing operations at workforce communications platform, SocialChorus. Alison is well-known for building high-performance marketing teams at startup and growth-stage companies and is a mentor to several early-stage companies on the best ways to grow awareness and increase demand at every stage. We recently spoke to Alison on the SaaS Revolution Show about how to succeed with content marketing in 2019.
Problem solved: How to scale your global marketing team.
Natalie Nagele
Co-founder of Wildbit, creators of products which help remove the pain from software production, we love Natalie’s balanced, honest approach to the world of SaaS. A refreshing change from the “non stop hustle” bravado that our industry can sometimes fall foul of, her rational and reasoned extolling of a sustainable, enjoyable way of working, as part of a team that values each other and enjoys easy, fluid collaboration is a breath of fresh air, not one to miss.
Problem solved: Addressing real work / life balance and team happiness.
Nazma Qurban
Starting as the first employee at Cognism three years ago, Nazma has driven incredible results as she heads up (at one point single-handedly!) marketing efforts: 600% revenue growth in 2018 year-to-date, and a client base consisting of over 200 companies built out in just 18 months. She was rightly recognized as one of the “Top Women Leaders in SaaS of 2018” and was also voted “Top 10 SaaS Sales leader UK 2018” by Sales Confidence.
Problem solved: How to increase market share whatever your resources.
Philippe Botteri
Venture capitalist Philippe joined Accel in 2011, having worked in the technology industry for more than 15 years, including a respectable decade’s stint in the thick of things in Silicon Valley. His focus is on cloud computing, enterprise and marketplace businesses, and he is responsible for Accel’s investments in these areas (Docusign, Payfit, Fiverr and more.) His personal blog, Cracking The Code, is a good resource for industry musings on SaaS, mobile, cloud computing and more.
Problem solved: Insight in European SaaS market via Accel Euroscape 2019
April Dunford
With a quarter of a century working at the executive level for startups and global tech giants alike, when it comes to product marketing, April Dunford’s experience really is second to none. She now shares her vast knowledge as a positioning consultant, entrepreneur, board member, angel investor, and advisor. If you’re looking for a thorough briefing on product positioning, do yourself a favor and get her book “Obviously Awesome” on next day delivery. This best-seller, which has won five-star ratings across the web, dives deep into the intricacies of positioning, value proposition and really understanding what makes your audience tick. April was a guest on the SaaS Revolution Show back in April; catch up here.
Problem solved: Ultimate clarity on product positioning and market fit.
Jason VandeBoom
Founder and CEO of automated email marketing platform, ActiveCampaign, Jason VandeBoom brings his extensive experience in the field to SaaStock19. A real champion for the needs of small business, and dedicated to improving customer experiences for all, Jason’s experience of growing his company, and on finding a new take to an established service, has very broad appeal, and we’re looking forward to learning more from him.
Problem solved: How to scale sustainably whilst maintaining profitability and retaining culture.
Michael Carden
Mike is the Founder of Joyous – a real-time feedback tool for employees, regardless if they are on the shop floor, at a worksite or in the office. Mike originally trained in Artificial Intelligence but ended up spending much of his early career in consumer marketing for global corporations, and to date, has worked in 20 countries across the globe. He also has two successful exits under his belt; Sonar6 (acquired by Cornerstone OnDemand) and Chairman Promapp (acquired by Nintex.)
Problem solved: How to build and maintain transparency within a business.
Michael Litt
Co-Founder and CEO at Vidyard, Michael Litt is fascinated by the way in which modern-day web technology and streaming media are colliding. With the unmistakable heart of a disruptor, his focus today is on finding areas to create substantial innovation, both this his work at Vidyard, and in his role as Co-Founder and General Partner at Garage Capital, the only Waterloo Region-based VC firm.
Problem solved: Get a headstart on how video will change (and has already changed) the way we communicate.
Christoph Janz
Having co-founded Point Nine Capital, the Berlin-based venture capital firm focused on early-stage internet investments, back in 2011, Christoph Janz has several notably successful SaaS startup investments to his name; Algolia, Automile, Contentful, and Typeform, as well as online marketplaces like Brainly, DocPlanner, and StarOfService to name a few. As well as his work with Point Nine, he’s made many personal investments, again reading like a roll call of SaaS royalty; Zendesk, Clio, FreeAgent and many more. We’re honored to have him joining us to share some of his startup experience and expertise in Dublin this fall.
Problem solved: How to pick a winner.
Nicola McClafferty
Investment Director at Draper Esprit, based out of Dublin and London, Nicola’s expertise is enjoyed by a wide range of companies on which she sits as a board member (Lyst, Verve, Roomex and more) – and now by the good people of SaaStock too. We’re thrilled she’ll be joining us and are looking forward to getting some of the benefits of her years of experience as a serial investor, entrepreneur and founder. If you’re looking to get some advance info, check out this great webinar coming from InvestHer.
Problem solved: How to build a career in investment.
This is just a snapshot of some of the incredible thoughts leaders who will be joining us onstage in Dublin. We hope that this rundown has whetted your appetite for the level of experience and insight on offer from our carefully curated speaker list at this year’s SaaStock. The event is a truly international affair, and with so much on offer, from exhibitors and networking sessions to the on-stage content and afterparties, we hope you’ll be inspired to start combing through the packed agenda to build out your own, personalized schedule, ready to get the absolute most out of your time in Dublin with us this October. Grab a ticket now at the best possible price.
