Episode Details

Alex Theuma had no background in events and no great business idea. He just started writing about SaaS. A blog turned into a podcast, which turned into meetups, which turned into a B2B community building success that drew 700 people to Dublin in its first year. By 2020, SaaStock was running SaaS community events across five continents with 4,000 attendees.

Then the pandemic wiped out his revenue overnight. Within two weeks, Alex had a new product live and was generating revenue again. He shares how B2B community building through 12 months of content and free meetups created the audience that powered 37 ticket sales on day one, and why the pivot to SaaS Remote attracted 2,700 attendees.

Alex reveals why building community before monetizing is essential, how speaker social proof drove 50% of ticket sales, and what he learned about cash flow in an events business.

Key Lessons

• 🎯 Build a B2B community before trying to monetize it: Alex spent 12 months creating content and running free meetups before launching a paid conference. The audience generated 37 ticket sales on day one.
• 💰 Know your costs before setting B2B community event pricing: SaaStock lost 60-70K at its first event because sponsorship pricing was set before production costs were known.
• 🤝 Use speaker social proof to grow your SaaS community events: Getting names like Des Traynor committed early created a viral effect - roughly 50% of attendees came because of the lineup.
• 🔄 Pivot fast when your B2B community building model breaks: When the pandemic killed in-person events, Alex pivoted to online within two weeks. SaaS Remote generated revenue within two weeks of launch.
• 📉 Adapt your community content to what members need: SaaStock switched from generic "growth" content to "adapt, survive, thrive" pillars during the pandemic, dramatically improving engagement.

Chapters

• Introduction
• What SaaStock is and the mission behind it
• Starting the SaaS blog and podcast
• Launching meetups and building community
• The decision to run a conference
• Doing customer development with The Mom Test
• First SaaStock Dublin 2016 - selling the first 37 tickets
• Strategies for selling 700 tickets over 9 months
• Why SaaStock lost 60-70K at the first event
• Recruiting high-profile speakers without connections
• Scaling from Dublin to global events
• Managing spiky cash flow in an events business
• How the pandemic wiped out revenue overnight
• The war room pivot to SaaS Remote
• Lessons from the first virtual event with 2,700 attendees
• The future of hybrid SaaS community events
• Lightning round
• Where to find SaaStock and Alex

Resources

• Full show notes: https://saasclub.io/256
• Join 5,000+ SaaS founders: https://saasclub.io/email