With SaaS eating the world its time to make sure you know what the market opportunities are and how, if you’re a SaaS startup, to up your game.
SaaStock is a huge European conference that is kicking off their first Asia conference right here in Hong Kong – and so we wanted to make sure you all knew about it and had a chance to get involved.
We sat down with founder and CEO Alex Theuma to get a little more insight into his conference and why you should go.
Hi Alex, tell us about about yourself:
Hi StartupsHK, I’m the Founder and CEO of SaaStock. In 2015, while working in SaaS sales, I decided to start a blog and podcast that would help SaaS founders and execs to grow their businesses. I began by interviewing key influencers in the SaaS space, hosting SaaS meetups, and building relationships that would later be crucial when he launched the first SaaStock conference in Dublin in 2016.
What is SaaStock?
SaaStock is a global community of SaaS founders, execs, and investors. Now in its fourth year, our flagship conference is the largest SaaS gathering in Europe with 4,000 attendees over 3 days. In May 2019 we are bringing this experience to Hong Kong with the first edition of SaaStock Asia.
Who should attend and why?
SaaStock Asia is designed specifically for SaaS founders, execs, and investors. It brings an unprecedented line-up of some of the brightest minds in SaaS in order to deliver focused learning, actionable insights, and highly-relevant networking. The agenda will focus on scaling a SaaS business in Asia and overcoming the unique challenges that the Asian market faces. Some of the most successful Asian SaaS companies, as well as global companies who have successfully entered the Asian market, will provide the playbook on how to take advantage of the huge SaaS market opportunity in the region.
Who are some of the speakers and activities around SaaStock in HK?
SaaStock Asia kicks off with a full day of hands-on workshops as part of SaaS.City on May 14. These workshops cover topics such as Sales Leadership delivered by Patrick Cai, Managing Director, China at Winning By Design, and Growth Marketing delivered by Eric Siu, CEO, ClickFlow, and Meena Sandhu, VP of Marketing & Growth at Predictable Revenue.
Also kicking off on May 14 is the Startup Program. This is an opportunity for SaaS startups to partner with SaaStock Asia at a much more accessible price, with additional benefits and perks. Qualifying startups amplify their visibility by getting similar benefits as our partners, complemented by a tailored day of practical workshops, matchmaking with investors, and further support from SaaStock’s partners. Applications close on May 3.
This is followed by the full conference day on May 15 with speakers such as:
- Pieter Kemps, Principal, Sequoia Capital
- Anna Gong, CEO & Founder, Perx Technologies
- Patrick Cai, Managing Director, China, Winning By Design
- Dave Ng, Principal, B Capital
- James Gilbert, APAC Director, HubSpot
- Vinod Chandramouli, Global Head, Pre Sales, Freshworks
- Cameron Priest, CEO & Co-Founder, TradeGecko
- Nathan Latka, CEO, The Latka Agency
- Jeffrey Paine, Managing Director, Golden Gate Ventures
- Hande Çilingir, Co-Founder & CEO, Insider
The full speakers list is available here and full agenda here.
The main conference day will also include a SaaS exhibition with exhibitors including Akkroo, Blueprint, Centi, Chargebee, FE International, PayMe from HSBC, Leaseweb, Tencent WeStart, and Zendesk.
Finally, on May 15-16, SaaSociety gathers a curated audience of entrepreneurs who have achieved annual recurring revenue exceeding $3M for a founders-only retreat in luxurious surroundings. This offers a unique opportunity for founders of scaling SaaS businesses to connect and share.
What are some observations about the SaaS market in Asia?
In order to grow a SaaS business in Asia, entrepreneurs need to figure out not only how to secure funding, but how to overcome the many challenges of operating in a fragmented market: tackling local regulation, how to deploy a lean sales ‘machine’ across a diverse region, navigating different languages and payment methods, and getting buy-in from enterprise organization not accustomed to buying from startups.
The relative immaturity and rate of adoption of SaaS in Asia represents a huge opportunity for Asian SaaS startups, as well as for global SaaS vendors aiming to expand into the region. Where the competitive landscape in other parts of the world is incredibly crowded, there is still so much untapped opportunity here in the Asian market.
Asian SaaS companies face very different challenges to those faced by their western counterparts, and this creates a need for a dedicated space for SaaS companies in the region to come together and learn from the successes and failures of others who are on the same path. That’s what SaaStock Asia is all about.
All the details – location, time and link to buy tickets:
Links:
- SaaStock Asia event site
- Get Tickets for SaaStock Asia
- Agenda
- Speakers
- SaaS.City
- Startup Program
- SaaSociety
Locations and dates:
- SaaStock Asia (full conference day), May 15, Cyberport
SaaS.City Workshops:
- Sales Leadership, May 14, Blueprint, Quarry Bay
- Growth Marketing, May 14, Blueprint, Quarry Bay
- Startup Program, May 14, Location TBC
- SaaSociety, May 15-16, Auberge Discovery Bay
A special offer for StartupsHK readers – apply the code “STARTUPSHK-50” here to get a massive 50% off your ticket!
