On finding your tribe and some SaaS revelations — 5 #SaaStock17 takeaways

I tend to begin my pieces with a quote. Let’s say I’m putting these countless hours of reading to some use, apart from the obvious — enjoying wondering away to other worlds. Here is today’s one:

Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people. Eleanor Roosevelt

Let me start like an average humble writer’s mind, with an event. Last month I partaken in a very special gathering with quite a number of great minds discussing impressive ideas. The event was SaaStock17 and among many a ground breaking talks and workshops there were few branding/product/growth/business revelations, I’d like to share with you:

• “I practically trained myself pitching to 39 VCs before I approached Sequoia that was my ultimate target” Christian Reber, Founder of Wunderlist said while being interviewed by Robin Wauters of Tech.eu. That highlighted for me the amazing value of persistency. Sometimes I get stubborn. If I see the bigger picture, know my goal, I keep getting at it. Never before had I thought of this as something positive. Also, there’s another lesson in it. We’re not great at everything from the very beginning. Practice makes perfect and with rejection comes learnings (as long as we’re open to them). So, I keep on grinding — getting better with every article, every public speaking gig, every challenging task out of my comfort zone.
• be fearless, own it, make it awesome, be a good human — Steven Broudy of MuleSoft nailed it on Scale Stage proving that A-players want to play with other A-players and it’s ok as long as you keep the right, humane approach. Striving for greatness is not for everyone, but it’s not a sin, either. I found MuleSoft company culture endearing, Steven Broudy naming what I felt makes up the perfect company culture and I’m not feeling bad about it ;)
• “I always look for smart money — right partners. You need to do due diligence as a founder just so VC do theirs” Rachel Delacour, Co-Founder of BIME (acquired by Zendesk) shared more than just this startup gold while interviewed by David Scanlon at Startup Grind evening meetup at Google HQ in Dublin. The evening was the best possible inspiration for any woman needing a kick to jumpstart her own thing in tech or otherwise. With the kick of inspiration coming from a filigree CEO with a hell of experience, knowledge and reason.
• “Expect turf wars!” Pedro Magriço, shared his thoughts and experiences from being Director of Growth at Typeform along with ways to overcome the problems by developing strong growth culture. Over-communicate on purpose and setting boundaries is not an easy task (I experienced it first hand) but it is indeed crucial and can only be achieved with full support from the founders.
• When guillaume cabane, VP of Growth at Drift explained what he means by growth hacking mindset, I felt my career choice has been sealed for I found my calling ;) “You need that to keep failing and testing and failing and testing” and… you get the drift (pun intended).

There’s this saying “Great minds think alike”, a bit cliche, maybe, but for me SaaStock was this unbelievable boost of the right kind of energy, powerful thoughts from likeminded individuals who inspired me to be my best self and keep improving. Not everyday can be like that, we need a special place and special time and that’s why SaaStock happens once a year ❤️.