Turning Ideas Into Action: Lessons from our Journey to SaaS North
We are finally here. With just a few days between us and the opening of the first ever SaaS North conference I’m not sure what to feel — excitement, anticipation, exhaustion…
It is hard to imagine that less than one year ago the concept of bringing together the best of Canada’s SaaS community was just a seed of an idea.
As friends of L-SPARK will know, day to day we work with entrepreneurs to concentrate their efforts to achieve a repeatable sales process, establish metrics (including MRR, MOM, LTV, CAC) as well as build customer success and onboarding processes in line with the SaaS business model.
Our high intensity program is meant to kick start momentum and build a sense of urgency for founders to meet self-set goals. We think in terms of actions and results.
When the conversation began about how we could create one central destination for Canada to grow a strong SaaS community… there wasn’t much of a conversation at all.
Instead, Leo Lax, L-SPARK’s Executive Managing Director, had a short and simple reaction:
“ Let’s do it! If it works, we will double down and do it again even harder. If it fails we will stop and change.”
This is a #whatwouldleodo phrase that is all too familiar to the companies in our portfolio. So it was no surprise that he had this same answer for the L-SPARK team when we contemplated putting on a national conference with no experience, background or know-how…
You see, this philosophy is the foundation on which L-SPARK is built. As a startup ourselves, we are constantly in the mode of turning ideas into action. Leo pushes our team to continuously set stretch goals that might seem unattainable, maybe even unimaginable to some. But it is this confidence, this unabashed sureness that has propelled us to reach exciting new heights in the two short years that L-SPARK has been in operation.
Since launching our first round of applications for the L-SPARK Accelerator program in September 2014, we now have 23 companies in the portfolio. Of those, 22 have revenue and 9 have raised venture funding in aggregate of over $11 million.
Most recently, FileFacets announced the close of their first $4 million venture round — featured today in the Financial Post!
So that was it! We set a date for the conference and a goal — 1000 people in Ottawa from November 30-December 1, 2016.
Our first step was to form a steering committee to develop a content-driven agenda that would generate Canada’s future SaaS Playbook for scaling a SaaS company.
The SaaS industry is still in its infancy. Best practices and tactical strategies are still being formed. We founded SaaS North to bring leaders and practitioners of SaaS companies together to help us build what we hope will be a future playbook for scaling a SaaS company here in Canada. This vision and mission has stayed with us every step of the way in the planning and execution of the conference.
It was not long before we realized how naïve we were to the intricacies of the conference business. Logistics, vendors, décor, oh my! We knew we needed an event production partner to help bring the vision to life.
This brings me to another important philosophy in the L-SPARK toolkit — understanding that we just don’t know what we don’t know. Having an experienced mentor on board as a partner to guide the growth of this conference has been invaluable.
The partnership with CUBE Business Media has enabled SaaS North to grow into a leading industry conference and we really could not have achieved such significant growth without the tireless efforts of Mark, Dave, Meena, Michelle and Jani from the CUBE Business Media team. They’re all experts and professionals in the field of conferences and events — and they truly have been a stabilizing force as mentors to our budding startup.
In two days, for the first time on Canadian soil, SaaS leaders from around the globe will converge in Ottawa. A lineup of local and international experts including executives from Microsoft, Salesforce, SurveyMonkey, Hubspot, Hootsuite, Shopify and FreshBooks will share their experiences with 900+ delegates expected in attendance from Vancouver, Calgary, Toronto, Waterloo, Montreal and Ottawa.
Finally, and certainly not least, Canada’s foremost leaders in tech will be sharing their vision for where the Canadian SaaS community is going. Bruce Croxon, investor and former dragon on CBC’s Dragons’ Den, Mitel Chairman Sir Terry Matthews and Canada Innovation Council member John Ruffulo will take the stage over the course of the two days.
If you are planning to be at SaaS North — reach out to one of the L-SPARK Directors — we’d love to chat about our 4 month FOUNDATION program.
With less than 2 weeks away from the cutoff date now is the time to consider joining Canada’s Best in SaaS. If you have a product ready to go to market and early sales traction — apply now!
