How I plan to make the most out of SaaStr Annual 2021 as a Startup Founder

This year, I'll be attending the SaaStr Annual 2021 with my other co-founder Muhammet Enginar.

I've prepared myself to make the most out of this SaaStr Annual, I've already scheduled some meetings to connect with my network, highlighted the key events, even prepared myself a personal landing page. 🤓

There are going to be thousands of founders and execs attending this event, and as someone who has done a lot to prepare, I figured I should share my insights on my plan.

So bear with me!

7 Things to make sure you do on this SaaStr

3 days of a conference might make you say, “Okay, I think I have plenty of time to do everything, right?”

No, you don’t.

SaaStr will have hundreds of events and over 10,000 attendees; so believe me when I say you don’t have the time.

Here’s how I plan to make the most out of SaaStr Annual 2021, and I’m sure this could apply to anyone so bear with me:

1- Connect, connect, connect 🤝

There are going to be thousands of seasoned SaaS executives and decision-makers at the SaaStr.

Especially if you’re not a Bay Area local, this might be your shot to connect with people who are already in your network and expand your network by meeting new people.

Try to meet new people, connect with your network, engage in fruitful conversations on how you could help each other, and more. For me, this should be the priority of the SaaStr Annual.

2- Learn and get inspired… 📚

Another thing you obviously have to do is to learn and get inspired by the talks and the workshops.

Hundreds of experts from various fields do their best to share with everyone innovative, insightful, and valuable content. So make sure you consume as much as you can on the spot.

3- … but try to be a little bit picky 😒

Consume all the content you can, but there’s no way you can consume them all.

Don’t even try to, it’s outrageous.

Try to be a little bit picky. Highlight the challenges that you most struggle with at the moment, and prioritize the content that can help you with them.

Attend relatively unrelated events only if you have some spare time.

4- Don’t fill up your schedule 📅

Seriously, don’t go into SaaStr Annual with a schedule full of meetings and talks. 

Once you’ve included key events and activities in your schedule, stay flexible on your free time and do what feels right.

5- Take notes 📝

There are going to be tips, tricks, insights, ideas, inspirations flying all over the place during the talks, workshops, and the average conversations. You need to find a way to record it all.

Open up a Notion page, bring a notebook with you, doesn’t matter. You need to take notes; they don’t have to be fully organized since you can organize them post-event.

6- Do what I did! 📺

I’d say this personal landing page I’ve created for SaaStr Annual is actually a pretty good practice too.

I’ve already had a bunch of people book some meetings with me and connected with some others, so it helps. You can easily create something similar with one of the free tools out there.

7- Most importantly, have fun! 🎉

You know it!

In addition to learning, networking, and getting inspired; SaaStr is a place where you can have plenty of fun! Make sure all your evenings are available for the evening events and Happy Hours that will be all over the place.

I'll see you out there

As I've suggested on the 4th tip above, I have the bigger part of my schedule clear.

So if you want to connect and discuss how we could help each other, or just to chat, you can use my landing page to set up a meeting.

I'll see you out there!