SaaStock18: OhMyLead’s journey
Originally published here on Ohmylead blog
Each year, after a worldwide tour, SaaStock gather in one place the best SaaS products in the world. After going live, the OhMylead team had the amazing opportunity to attend SaaStock 2018 in Dublin, Ireland.
Does it worth for bootstrapped companies to attend such event? Should you try to compete for the title of best startup? What are the main upsides and downside of doing those kind of events?
I will try to give a clear vision of all that in this article.
Entering the startup program and the pitch competition
First of all a big shout-out to the professional organization that SaaStock team made, especially people like Gabriel Pizzolante, Oscar Hackett and Rebecca Brown. I guess they didn’t get enought sleep during those days, the event was on point and that’s why they deserve a special shout-out. Definitly, it’s the place every SaaS startups should be.
When they told us that we were qualified as a semifinalist in the pitch competition, we were so happy and proud. But we didn't imagine that it's gonna be great the way it was.
SaaStock, this year (2018), created the SaaStock Startup program, and the learning experience was impressive. During this startup day, we were guests of Zendesk in their HQ, and we get plenty of workshops, and at the end we had a great Opening Party and a Pub Crawl organized by the SaaStock team. It was really full of diverse activities!
Learn And Listen
We have met incredible people and made deep connections during the first day at Zendesk’s HQ. Furthermore, all the workshops were very interesting and helpful.
- We had a tremendous pitching training by Frontline Ventures. Indeed to be able to practice your pitch with someone that knows exactly what a VC needs to hear is priceless.
- Such great insights by Dan Martell and Michael Litt with a masterclass about growth with real use cases and technics that can benefit any startups, anyone. It was a real chance.
Business connections all around you
We had a great opportunity to pitch our idea. And the most exciting thing was to share the stage with great companies such as Relayto, LetX, Feedier and Simvoly. It was really interesting to be among startups in early stage to share thoughts and good practices. Thanks to all competitors for sharing their journey.
Congratulation to Christina Vila that rocked the stage and win the title 🏆 with his great product Cledara
Yes, we didn’t win, but the most important is to participate ;)!
That’s true that we wanted to get to the final, but we are already proud to be among the 18 promising startups of 2018. We also learned from all feedbacks and comments, which are, in my opinion, crucial in such event. You must be very opened to what others have to say to grow your ideas.
And what makes us prouder is the fact that we were the only African Startup in the event and the pitch competition. That’s a strong message for our region and a good boost to prove that our solution is full of potential. Also we were very committed to show how a moroccan startup can give new insights of doing business leads.
And that’s what we did, represented Morocco startups ecosystem on the international stage with a bootstrapped startup. Thanks again to the embassy of Morocco in Ireland that shown us an incredible support.
Main event: two crazy days
Meet Like-Minded People and get feedbacks
SaaStock was the perfect example of the type of event to bond and meet people in the same industry. This event was focused on SaaS software, which is a niche on its own, yet broad on its own.
A lot of VC’s looking to invest, fewer customers, but plenty of like-minded people
This meant that most people there were interested in the same thing: meeting SaaS people and discovering new interesting software. If you had a really good music mood, best street foods and coffee… All of that contributed to the great vibe of the event.
But you find people that are on a vertical niche within the software industry and target very specific companies. That can lead to business partnership and much more. So stay open minded and dig opportunities everywhere.
We truly apreciate meeting the inspiring Spanish Entrepreneurs at Landbot, and get the best insights about sales acquisition with the team from Smartling
We also had the great opportunity to get featured on the SaaStock podcast during the Steli Efti’s startup session. To be able to pitch our idea with him and debating around that is just priceless.
We will share it soon. It will be online on the Saas Revolution Show manage by Irina Dzhambazova
Preparation Is Good, Originality is Better
As we were in the startup program, we had our own booth during the event, which meant that part of our team was busy doing demo of the product. The other part was on 1to1 meeting, or simply trying to get to know and attract the other attendees.
The SaaStock meeting app lets you organize all your meeting before and during the event according to the interest and the final goal of each participant. It’s really convenient and much more efficient than asking everyone for a meeting.
We saw great technics in order to attract visitors to a booth
- InfiniGrow attended the event with a team of four persons, which meant that they always had one person free for meetings, one person on the booth, and two persons bringing people to the booth
- Spendesk, lurking around the event with their big Mastercard, grasping people’s attention and ultimately getting people to know about the brand.
- Looker used their mini ball to make people see you. Throwing a ball to a guy passing near to you and be sure that you will catch his attention. Even if it’s just for a smile, you made the first contact.
It is all about being different and prepping up.
If you want to see what you will learn on a technical aspect, go check this post from Alan Gleeson.
We loved the exceptional experience, thanks to everyone and for all the positive vibes! We’ll be there in 2019 to represent Africa again with once again a great product!
