GE 268: Alex Theuma Reveals How Starting a Podcast Led to Hosting SaaStock Conference with 3K+ Attendees (podcast)

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:52] Before we jump into today’s interview, please leave a review and rating and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:50] Alex worked in sales for 11 years and began immediately after graduating college.
• [02:25] He learned a lot about SaaS and other software through selling.
• [03:00] He didn’t want to work for someone else.
• [03:40] He began writing a blog, through which he started writing SaaS articles and it gained some traction.
• [05:10] He then decided to do a podcast.
• [05:38] His first guest was the HubSpot CRO.
• [05:50] It snowballed and he has always had great guests.
• [06:01] This hobby helped him develop the idea for SaaStock.
• [07:45] The blog has gone by the wayside, while the podcast is going strong.
• [08:06] The podcast has allowed him to reach influencers in the industry.
• [09:45] The podcast gets 2000 downloads per week.
• [10:03] Their goal for the first SaaStock event was to get 700 people, which was a large goal.
• [10:22] Every other conference starts fairly small, but they wanted to challenge themselves.
• [10:43] The first conference earned them 350,000 Euros.
• [13:00] One of the challenges is that they don’t have monthly recurring revenue.
• [13:25] Ticket sales are sporadic throughout the year and they sell the most within two months of the conference.
• [14:44] Alex knows they need to launch more events to create more consistent cash flow.
• [15:03] They have added 7 additional events this year.
• [17:20] Two people from the team are in charge of all the new events,
• [17:35] They just hired their first Event Manager, whereas they used to outsource that sort of work.
• [17:40] The first 2 years, SaaStock was a sales and marketing organization.
• [17:48] They would use Catapult to manage and put on events. However, it was an expensive line item.
• [18:50] They have a list of 11,000 conference attendees to date.
• [20:05] They weren’t very data-driven in the first year, but they have since gotten much better.
• [20:35] This has helped them set and reach goals more effectively.
• [21:10] They have four full-time marketing employees.
• [21:24] They provide at least 2-3 pieces of content per week on their site (this includes the podcast).
• [23:55] Alex thinks they are providing high-quality content at a consistent pace.
• [24:24] Alex once built up a community on Slack, which has since been moved to Facebook,
• [24:55] Moving it to Facebook allowed the group to double in size very quickly.
• [27:12] If Alex could have had a mentor during his first year, he would have made far fewer mistakes.
• [27:50] Up until a few months before the conference, he didn’t have an idea about what everything would cost.
• [28:10] He ended up losing money on sponsorship deals because of his misunderstanding of costs.
• [28:30] Alex recommends reaching out to someone who has put on a conference and ask for their guidance.
• [30:37] Alex has found that 50% of tickets are sold to people on your email list. The other half are all marketing and word-of-mouth.
• [31:45] Alex loves DocSend and uses it in his work at SaaStock. It has proven to be a very powerful sales tool.
• [33:25] Alex also likes Asana. He thinks it’s cool how it is a collaborative tool.
• [34:10] Alex recommends the book Shoe Dog by Phil Knight.

Resources from the Interview: 

• SaaStock
• Alex on Twitter
• Catapult
• Slack
• DocSend
• Asana
• Must-read book: Shoe Dog

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