SaaStock speaker
AJ Eckstein
Founder / CEOFounder & Writer, Creator Match / Fast Company
- Appearances
- 5
- Years
- 2024
- Main stage
- 2
- YouTube views
- 640
AJ Eckstein, Founder & Writer at Creator Match / Fast Company has made 5 SaaStock appearances between 2024, speaking at SaaStock USA 2024, and SaaStock Europe 2024. Talks include "You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen", "What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Ashley Kramer (GitLab) and AJ Eckstein", "Scaling Success: Insights from Klaviyo's Journey". This page collects every recorded SaaStock keynote, fireside chat, panel, and podcast appearance by AJ Eckstein.
Most-watched talk
You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen
Fireside Chat · SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · 337 YouTube views
All right everybody, hello, hello, and good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here for this fireside chat. My name is AJ Eckstein — I'm the founder of Creator Match, a LinkedIn creator marketing platform, and a writer for Fast Company. First off, I want you to start thinking of some questions throughout the session — we'll leave a few minutes at the end for Q&A. By a show of hands — how many folks have ever created a WordPress website? Almost the entire crowd — and today we are joined by Ja…
About AJ Eckstein
Who is AJ Eckstein?
AJ Eckstein is the founder of Creator Match, which he describes from the SaaStock stage as a LinkedIn creator marketing platform, and a writer for Fast Company. At SaaStock he is best known not as a keynote speaker but as one of the conference's most active interviewers — the operator who sits across from some of SaaS's most experienced builders and draws practical lessons out of them in front of a live audience. Across SaaStock USA 2024 and SaaStock Europe 2024 he hosted a string of fireside chats and main-stage conversations with founders and executives whose companies span the full arc of a SaaS journey.
His sessions reflect a sharp instinct for the questions founders in the room actually want answered. Opening his conversation with WP Engine's Jason Cohen, he warmed up the audience by asking how many had ever built a WordPress website — and watched almost the entire crowd raise their hands. In his GitLab session he set up Ashley Kramer's interview by walking through her unusually technical path to the CMO and Chief Strategy Officer seat, noting that she had been a software engineering manager at NASA and had worked at Oracle, Amazon, and Tableau before serving as acting CTO at GitLab. That framing — establishing credibility, then mining it for transferable lessons — runs through all of his appearances.
Eckstein's vantage point is distinctive: he is himself an early-stage founder building in the creator-economy and marketing-software space, which gives his interviews an operator-to-operator quality rather than a journalist's distance. This page collects AJ Eckstein's recorded SaaStock sessions, with transcripts, so you can revisit the conversations he led with leaders from WP Engine, Klaviyo, and GitLab.
About Creator Match
Creator Match is the company AJ Eckstein founded and the one he introduces himself by at SaaStock. In his own on-stage words, it is a LinkedIn creator marketing platform — at SaaStock Europe 2024 he called it "the leading LinkedIn Creator marketing platform." The business sits at the intersection of two fast-growing categories: the creator economy and B2B social marketing, with LinkedIn as the channel where professional audiences and brand-building increasingly converge.
The platform's focus on LinkedIn specifically is notable. As organic and creator-led content has become central to how SaaS companies reach buyers, LinkedIn has emerged as the dominant professional surface for thought leadership, founder-led marketing, and demand generation. Creator Match positions itself in that gap — connecting creators and brands within the LinkedIn ecosystem rather than the consumer-influencer platforms that dominate the broader creator economy.
Alongside building Creator Match, Eckstein writes for Fast Company, a credential he cites consistently when introducing himself. That dual role — founder and writer — informs the way he approaches his SaaStock interviews: he is fluent in the narratives of scaling, go-to-market, and product strategy, and he uses the stage to pull those stories out of the executives he hosts.
Key lessons from AJ Eckstein's talks
Scaling past product-market fit is stage-driven, not a smooth continuum. In his fireside chat built around the journey from $5M to $100M ARR with Jason Cohen, the framing is explicit: reaching PMF does not put a company on a single gentle growth curve. Scaling is a stage-driven process in which businesses hit a milestone, plateau, and must change how they operate to unlock the next one — a reality Cohen drew on from a career building four tech startups past $1M ARR, two of them beyond $100M ARR.
Technical depth can be a marketer's edge, not a detour. Eckstein opened his GitLab conversation by pressing Ashley Kramer on how an engineering background — NASA, Oracle, Amazon, Tableau, acting CTO — made her a stronger CMO and Chief Strategy Officer. The takeaway he surfaces is that go-to-market leadership grounded in real technical understanding can speak to both buyers and builders with rare authority.
Measure AI by business value, not raw output. The GitLab sessions he hosted center on Kramer's argument that 2024 would bring a reckoning over how companies measure AI's impact on efficiency — and whether the productivity gains justify the risk and expense. The lesson Eckstein elevates: shift away from simple output metrics toward tangible business value such as improved software quality, faster time-to-market, and ultimately higher customer satisfaction.
Durable growth comes from a differentiated go-to-market engine. In his Klaviyo session with president Steve Rowland, the throughline is that a globally differentiated go-to-market function — not just product — is what carries a SaaS company through to IPO and sustains a durable growth business, a lesson Rowland framed from 25 years across tech and SaaS.
Company
Creator Match — at a glance
| Company | Creator Match |
|---|---|
| Founder | AJ Eckstein |
| Category | LinkedIn creator marketing platform |
| Also | Writer for Fast Company |
Figures are drawn from AJ Eckstein's SaaStock talks and his own on-stage descriptions of his work.
Topics covered
What AJ Eckstein speaks about
- LinkedIn creator marketing
- Creator economy
- Product-market fit
- Scaling SaaS
- ARR milestones
- AI and productivity measurement
- Go-to-market strategy
- Fireside chats
In their words
Top quotes from AJ Eckstein
“My name is AJ Eckstein — I'm the founder of Creator Match, a LinkedIn creator marketing platform, and a writer for Fast Company.”
— SaaStock USA 2024
“First off, I want you to start thinking of some questions throughout the session — we'll leave a few minutes at the end for Q&A.”
— SaaStock USA 2024
Fireside chats & panels
AJ Eckstein fireside chats and panels
You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · Fireside Chat · 337 YouTube views
Founder & Writer, Creator Match / Fast Company (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
All right everybody, hello, hello, and good afternoon. Thank you so much for being here for this fireside chat. My name is AJ Eckstein — I'm the founder of Creator Match, a LinkedIn creator marketing platform, and a writer for Fast Company. First off, I want you to start thinking of some questions throughout the session — we'll leave a few minutes at the end for Q&A. By a show of hands — how many folks have ever created a WordPress website? Almost the entire crowd — and today we are joined by Ja…
What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Ashley Kramer (GitLab) and AJ Eckstein
SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin · Fireside Chat · 303 YouTube views
Founder, Creator Match (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
We are joined today by the Chief Marketing and Chief Strategy Officer of GitLab. My name is AJ Eckstein — I'm the founder of Creator Match, the leading LinkedIn Creator marketing platform, and a writer for Fast Company. Ashley, you have a truly unconventional path for a CMO. You were a software engineering manager at NASA, worked at Oracle, Amazon, and Tableau, were the acting CTO at GitLab, and are now the CMO and CSO. How has that technical background enabled you to be a successful marketer? W…
Other appearances
Other SaaStock appearances by AJ Eckstein
Scaling Success: Insights from Klaviyo's Journey
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · Fireside
Founder & Writer, Creator Match & Fast Company (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
Steve Rowland, President at Klaviyo, takes the main stage to share practical tips drawn from his 25 years of experience in tech and SaaS. Gain valuable insights from Klaviyo's journey to IPO, learn how to generate a durable growth business, and learn what it takes to build a globally differentiated go-to-market function.
What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement?
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · Fireside
Founder & Writer, Creator Match & Fast Company (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
GitLab's Chief Strategy and Marketing Officer Ashley Kramer expects that in 2024, there will be a reckoning in how companies measure the impact of AI on efficiency — and if the productivity gains are worth the risk and expense. Forward-looking companies should shift away from simple output metrics to metrics focused on tangible business value. Such metrics could include improved software quality and consistent delivery, faster time-to-market, and the ultimate goal, increased customer satisfaction.
You've Reached PMF, Now Scale - Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen
SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin · Fireside
Founder & Writer, Creator Match & Fast Company (at the time of the talk)
From the transcript
It's tempting to think of a startup scaling journey as a continuum, yet the reality is quite the opposite. Scaling a business is more a stage-driven process rather than smoothly moving through the revenue gears. Over a 27 year career, Jason has built four different tech startups to more than $1M ARR, with two businesses surpassing $100M ARR. Jason takes the main stage to share how SaaS companies should be navigating the scale phase, unveiling how to keep hitting the next milestone and building on your current success.
All appearances
Every SaaStock appearance by AJ Eckstein
| Year | Conference | Talk | Format |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen | Fireside Chat |
| 2024 | SaaStock Europe 2024 · Dublin | What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Ashley Kramer (GitLab) and AJ Eckstein | Fireside Chat |
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | Scaling Success: Insights from Klaviyo's Journey | Fireside |
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Fireside |
| 2024 | SaaStock USA 2024 · Austin | You've Reached PMF, Now Scale - Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen | Fireside |
FAQ
Frequently asked about AJ Eckstein
Who is AJ Eckstein?
AJ Eckstein, Founder & Writer at Creator Match / Fast Company has made 5 SaaStock appearances between 2024, speaking at SaaStock USA 2024, and SaaStock Europe 2024. Talks include "You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen", "What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Ashley Kramer (GitLab) and AJ Eckstein", "Scaling Success: Insights from Klaviyo's Journey". This page collects every recorded SaaStock keynote, fireside chat, panel, and podcast appearance by AJ Eckstein.
How many times has AJ Eckstein spoken at SaaStock?
AJ Eckstein has spoken at SaaStock 5 times between 2024 — including 0 keynotes, 2 fireside chats and panels, and 0 podcast interviews.
What did AJ Eckstein speak about at SaaStock?
"You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen" at SaaStock USA 2024; "What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement? | Ashley Kramer (GitLab) and AJ Eckstein" at SaaStock Europe 2024; "Scaling Success: Insights from Klaviyo's Journey" at SaaStock USA 2024; "What's The Real Impact of AI on Productivity Measurement?" at SaaStock USA 2024; "You've Reached PMF, Now Scale - Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen" at SaaStock USA 2024
What is AJ Eckstein's most-watched SaaStock talk?
"You've Reached PMF, Now Scale: Insights From a $5M - $100M ARR Journey with Jason Cohen" delivered at SaaStock USA 2024 has 337 YouTube views.