Latin America is undergoing a digital transformation, and the SaaS community is exploding as a result.
We conducted intensive market research with SaaS practitioners across LatAm to dig into the reasons behind the region’s hypergrowth, and worked with the progressive global VCs who are fuelling the SaaS boom to understand the key players and the scope of the opportunity.
The SaaStock team will be landing in São Paulo to run the region’s first Pan-Latin American SaaS conference, SaaStock LatAm. Taking place April 23rd to the 25th, we can’t wait to bring the already thriving community together to help facilitate the industry conversation, drive partnerships and create networking opportunities for SaaS superstars.
Our agenda is a reflection of the ecosystem. We’ve gathered LatAm’s leading SaaS founders, executives, and investors – as well as a few international faces – for an unbeatable few days of knowledge and networking. Below is a little extra information about our fantastic speakers to get you as excited as we are to see them take the stage.
Meet Our Speakers…
Patrick Arippol, Managing Director of Early Stage Investments, DGF Investimentos
Patrick Arippol kickstarted his professional path with an engineering degree, followed by an MBA from Stanford. His first career steps were at Seer Technologies and Monitor Company in the 1990s. Afterward, Patrick founded several businesses in diverse sectors, including tech, healthcare, and finance. Delving even deeper into the entrepreneurial seas, Patrick was Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Alpine Investors in San Francisco, as well as Program Officer at the Center for Entrepreneurship at Stanford. In 2010, he joined DGF Investimentos, one of the top VC firms in Brazil. He is leading DGF Investimentos’ specialized early-stage investment group – DGF Inova. Its focus is on businesses in Big Data, mobile, and SaaS. Patrick also sits on the Board of Directors of a number of portfolio companies. He will be the chairperson at SaaStock LatAm.
Rodrigo Baer, Partner, Redpoint eventures
With an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management, Rodrigo Baer launched a successful career in consultancy and entrepreneurship, and today is among the top figures in venture capital for early-stage tech companies in Brazil. Some of his first professional positions were Engagement Manager at McKinsey, as well as a management consultant at Value Partners. Rodrigo then worked at Centria Partners, as well as at the US-based healthcare VC fund Aurora Funds. In 2010, he became one of the Co-Founders of Warehouse Investimentos, a prominent Brazilian VC company. His focus there was deal-sourcing. Five years later, he joined Redpoint eventures, where he is a Partner today.
Talk: Scaling & Exiting: Dreams, Designs & Dramas
Aaron Ross, Co-CEO, Predictable Revenue
Aaron Ross is a name many would be familiar with. He has given his memorable presentations around the world. He dropped out of Stanford Graduate School of Business and then co-founded LeaseExchange, an online marketplace for equipment leasing. Aaron then went on to Salesforce, spending four years in various Director and Senior Director roles. Today he is the man behind Predictable Revenue, the “Outbound Success Company.” The company’s best-selling book, Predictable Revenue, details the hugely successful outbound process and sales created specifically for Salesforce. Aaron is also the Global CEO of Predictable University, which trains salespeople in Brazil on using the Predictable Revenue methodology.
André Baldini, CEO, Superlógica Tecnologias
After a BA in Technology and an MBA, André Baldini made his first steps into IT, working in companies like Stefanini and Itaú Unibanco. In 2012, he underwent a shift in his professional path and studied Technology Entrepreneurship at Stanford. Afterward, he delved into education management by creating his own business, Mestreduca, a platform targeted at educational institutions. In 2016, André joined Superlógica Tecnologias, a management system designed to service small businesses with a recurring revenue model. Starting as VP of Sales, in less than two years he became CEO.
Talk: How to Grow 10x in Three Years and Make a Profit
Patrick Campbell, CEO, ProfitWell
The “first boots on the ground” when it comes to solving business issues, Patricк Campbell is probably one of the world’s foremost experts on pricing. In the past months, he has offered a pricing teardown to every subscription business you can think of, from Spotify and Netflix to NYTimes and Match.com.Patrick’s professional experience is diverse and curious: his first job was at the U.S. Department of Defense, where he was an Intelligence Analyst Fellow. Then he shifted to education, where he spent five years as the Executive Director of BridgeBright. Patrick continued as a Mid-Market Strategist at Google, and then managed strategic initiatives at Gemvara. In 2012, Patrick co-founded ProfitWell (previously known as Price Intelligently), it offers an innovative price setting tool that helps businesses price their products and services according to their true value.
Diego Cordovez, CMO, Meetime
Diego Cordovez is an engineering graduate turned entrepreneur. He launched his professional experience at Whirlpool as a Product Engineer. Later on, he was a Mechanical Engineer at CB&I. Then Diego shifted to entrepreneurship and joined Siga o Rastro, building upon his know-how in business tech. His next step was at Viddheo, where he got into Inside Sales. In 2016, he co-founded Meetime, an Inside Sales Strategies company and now serves as its CMO, building a powerful branding and content creation operation.
Talk: SaaS.City Bootcamp: Sales Leadership
Eduardo Müller, Founder & CEO, B2B Stack
Eduardo Müller studied Mechanical Engineering at Purdue University and started out in the field, but quickly redirected his professional path to sales and marketing. He worked as Account Executive at Siemens and Nutshell CRM. in 2016, he co-founded Vendas B2B Summit, the largest Brazilian B2B sales online event. Eduardo then served as the CEO of Oversea Consulting, helping companies in the U.S. and Brazil with process optimization. He was also Coordinator and Trainer of startup sales at Gama Academy, the first sales training program for Brazilian startups. In 2017, he co-founded B2B Stack, a software review marketplace that boosts the buying process of B2B tech in Brazil.
Talk: SaaS.City Bootcamp: Sales Leadership
Thiago Gabri, LatAm Sales Manager, LinkedIn
After graduating in Communication and Media Studies, Thiago Gabri supervised marketing at AIESEC in Brazil and Colombia. He served as National Director for Marketing in both places. In 2013, Thiago joined Resultados Digitais, one of the most renowned SaaS businesses in Latin America. He started as Inside Sales Representative, and in five years, he became the Sales Enablement Director for the company. In 2018, Thiago took on a new challenge and moved to LinkedIn, becoming the Regional Sales Manager for SMBs in Latin America. He’ll be sharing his rich experience in sales at Resultados Digitais and LinkedIn during the bootcamp at SaaStock LatAm.
Talk: SaaS.City Bootcamp: Sales Leadership
Diego Gomes, Co-Founder & CEO, Rock Content
Equipped with graphic design and advertising background, Diego Gomes graduated an MBA in project management. His first professional steps were in product management at different tech companies in Latin America. In the meantime, Diego started actively blogging. He’s been running SaaSholic, a blog where he writes about startups and SaaS. Diego also takes part in market research and crowdsourced data with Brazilian Startups’ Dealbook. In 2011, he co-founded Rock Content, the top provider of content marketing solutions in Latin America. Diego served as the CMO of the company for seven years and became its CEO in 2018. He is also an angel investor and a prominent SaaS evangelist, so there’s no better person to speak about the state of SaaS in Latin America than him.
Talk: The State of SaaS in LatAm
Mark Organ, CEO, Influitive
Mark Organ is a man of many talents. He has founded a total of six companies, becoming an experienced go-to-market entrepreneur on the way. Mark has lived in a number of places around the world building seven international offices for his businesses. He’s also the author of The Messenger is the Message, a book about the power of advocacy in sales. In 2010, he founded Influitive, which helps B2B companies employ brand advocates for faster growth and development. Besides advocacy and sales, Mark is a specialist in culture creation and talent recruitment. He’ll be sharing with us his insights on these topics in São Paulo.
Talk: Panel on Best Practices of Hiring for Culture Creation
Renata Centurión, Partner & Latin America Director, Winning by Design
Back in the day, Renata Centurión studied to become a veterinarian. However, her path changed in 2008 when she took on a new challenge: an MBA in Business and Management. Renata served as the Country Manager for Brazil for Xpenditure. Then she joined Winning By Design in 2017 as Latin America Director. In 2018, she also became a Partner at the company. She says her mission is to help customers better grasp their processes and improve them. Renata’s take on sales is different: it’s all about solving problems for people. She’ll be talking about her approach to sales as a team sport.
Talk: Sales is a Team Sport
Eric Santos, CEO, Resultados Digitais
Eric Santos is one of the most important names in the entrepreneurial world of Brazil. He co-founded Praesto Convergence in 2005 and served as its Managing Director until 2010. Then he founded Resultados Digitais, which is a leader in the digital business space in Brazil. RD offers inbound marketing automation software to companies that want to ace their digital marketing efforts. When Eric started it, however, no one in Brazil understood marketing automation. His journey was made complicated by the fact that he was growing a company outside of the U.S., taking the contrarian approach of expanding to other emerging markets first. Eric will share with us his experience of scaling a SaaS business past 15,000 customers and 700 employees in an emerging market.
Talk: The good, the Bad and the Ugly of Scaling a SaaS Company in LatAm
Lauren Vaccarello, VP Marketing, Box
In 2014, the San Francisco Business Times included Lauren in their prestigious list of Influential Women in Business. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Marketing from Emerson College, Lauren Vaccarello worked at FXCM, a large financial services provider. She became its Director of Search Marketing and Analytics in fewer than four years. Then Lauren took on the entrepreneurial path, founding two companies and tackling various marketing issues. She then moved on to Salesforce for the next four years, serving as Senior Director and Head of Digital Marketing. What followed were three consecutive stints as VP of Marketing, first off in AdRoll, then in Sysomos, and finally in Box.
Talk: SaaS Crystal Ball: Revenue Performance Metrics
Rodrigo Dantas, CEO, Vindi
Equipped with marketing and market research education, Rodrigo Dantas quickly launched his first entrepreneurial projects. He co-founded Cia do Perfume, an online perfumery, which exited successfully. For almost eight years, Rodrigo gained various experience at Itaú Unibanco, taking many managerial positions. In 2013, he co-founded Vindi. The company has acquired three businesses – Aceita, Smartbill, and FastNotas. Rodrigo is also an angel investor and SaaS and FinTech enthusiast. Bringing his rich entrepreneurial know-how to the stage, he’ll be speaking about SaaS product management at SaaStock LatAm.
Talk: SaaS Product Management: The Art of Problem Solving
Maíra Gracini, Marketing Director for LATAM, Zendesk
Maíra Gracini loves all things marketing. After getting a degree in Marketing and Advertising, she worked in organizations such as Informa and IQPC. In 2010, she became the Head of Marketing for Latin America for Atos, followed by the same position at Dassault Systemes. In 2016, she joined Salesforce, where she was Senior Manager for Latin America. As of 2017, Maíra is the Marketing Director for Latin America for Zendesk. Bringing her 15 years of experience in all these organisations, she will share her insights at the panel on company culture.
Talk: Panel on Best Practices of Hiring for Culture Creation
Cristina Fonseca, Venture Partner, Indico Capital Partners
Cristina Fonseca was recently included in Forbes’ list 30 under 30 in Enterprise Technology. Starting with a degree in Network and Telecommunications, she further delved into engineering and AI. She has founded three companies, all the while studying AI at Udacity and Exponential Technologies at Singularity University. One of her businesses, Talkdesk, is a platform that allows companies to create a call center by using a web browser in record time. Cristina has also worked for the World Economic Forum. In 2017, she embraced the VC side of the entrepreneurial world. Cristina is now a Venture Partner at Indico Capital Partners, which she also co-founded.
Alessio Alionço, Founder & CEO, Pipefy
A Business Administration graduate, Alessio Alionço quickly entered the M&A consulting arena with a position at the Brazilian Go4! Business Consultancy. In 2008, he founded his first business:the local services marketplace Acessozero. Alessio developed the business and sold it four years later to the renowned leader in the field Apontador.com. Then he was on to a new adventure: founding Pipefy in 2014. Pipefy is a business process management system which makes handling internal processes easier by creating a single place of management that doesn’t require tech skills. Pipefy got selected in Batch 14 at the Silicon Valley-based accelerator 500 Startups.
Avanish Sahai, Global VP, ISV, and Technology Alliances, ServiceNow
Avanish Sahai started his career at Oracle, where he was a Senior Product Manager, and then went on to various high-level positions at companies such as McKinsey and Blazent. In 2004, he became the CEO of Cogency Software. Avanish spent five years as Global VP of ISV and Channel Alliances at Salesforce, solidifying his international experience in sales and business development. He’s a Co-Founder of several companies, as well as a member of the Board of Directors of HubSpot. In 2016, he joined ServiceNow as Global VP. Avanish defines himself as a global citizen. He has developed a number of companies from zero to $20-$100 million.
Talk: Panel on Globalisation: Landing & Expanding
These 18 speakers have a huge amount of experience that they are openly bringing to the SaaStock LatAm stage. Grab a ticket before midnight February 15th for the best price.
