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The premier networking event for SaaS (software-as-a-service) companies looking to scale up is back this month for its second edition after the success of the first edition of SaaSx1 last March. The 2nd edition of the event SaaSx2 is scheduled to happen on 7th October in Chennai. SaaSx2, an iSPIRT initiative, will see around 150 SaaS entrepreneurs gathering for structured networking sessions and learn from successful SaaS businesses, the knowledge needed to grow SaaS business from zero to $10k to $100k to $1Mn.
The 1st edition was around 6 months ago where about 50 startups travelled from Bangalore in a bus to Chennai. The 2nd edition will see speakers such as Hiten Shah, co-founder of Quick Sprout, who is also the keynote speaker for the event; Girish Mathrubootham, CEO of FreshDesk; Sumanth Raghavendra, CEO Deck App Technologies; and Aneesh Reddy, CEO Capillary Technologies, among others.
SaaS companies are witnessing phenomenal growth all over the world, and India is also seeing an uptick in this sector. Chennai is emerging as the SaaS hub of India, with India’s hottest SaaS startups such as Freshdesk operating from there. The event will be a mix of formal and informal sessions with successful SaaS entrepreneurs sharing their journey and the things that worked for them.
The event will start with a Pre-Event Playbook session done by product entrepreneurs, where one of the topics would be what does it take to fund SaaS companies. Shekhar Kirani of Accel partners and Karthik Reddy of Blume Ventures will conduct the event. The second Playbook session will be on growth and will be conducted by Avlesh Singh of WebEngage and Arvind Kumar of Attune Technologies.
Post that, Girish Mathrubootham CEO of Freshdesk, will share his journey with the participants, telling them about the first two years of Freshdesk. These will be succeeded by Fireside chat which will be moderated by Sumanth Raghavendra CEO of Deck App technologies. Another Fireside Chat with Aneesh Reddy of Capillary Technologies will ensue.
There will also be OneThing sessions, where about five SaaS founders share the one thing that worked for them. These sessions are usually for 3-5 minutes. Vijay Sharma of BelongCo, Vinod of CloudCheery, and Arvind Kumar of Attune Technologies will share the one thing that worked for them.
Following this would be a group event, where in companies would be divided into groups such as those with revenues from $1-10 Mn and $10 Mn and above. This would be an informal session with Girish, followed by the launch of the SaaS Landscape Report by iSPIRT.
The event will conclude with a keynote address by Hiten Shah, co-founder of Quick Sprout, on “Getting The Product Market Fit First & Then Growth.”
We spoke to some SaaS entrepreneurs, here is what they have to say about the event:
Natwar Maheshwari, Founder, Around.io, a social media marketing tool for online sellers, stated, “ SaaSx2 is a great platform to learn from fellow SaaS entrepreneurs. While running a SaaS business from India, there are a lot of techniques (or experiments or growth hacks) that work, and a lot more that don’t. So, to come together as a group and share our learning with fellow product entrepreneurs on what works and what doesn’t, can make a huge difference.
And as always, there are reasons behind why things (experiments/techniques/growth hacks) work and why they don’t. One who lives through it knows the reasons and to share that with other helps a lot more people in the ecosystem. I believe that is why we have SaaSx’s. I look forward to meeting some awesome Saas-preneurs.”
Arvind Parthiban, CEO & Co-Founder Zarget (FKA Osmnez), said, “We strongly believe this is the best place to meet the peers and enthusiasts of SaaS industry. We look at it like an educational platform that stages the most important business lessons of the industry.
Understanding where your peers are, what they do and what drives them, gives you so much insight into your own significance in the business world. And of course, like every other participant we look forward to serendipitous networking.”
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