{"id":14676,"date":"2023-10-20T14:04:33","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:04:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/saasboomi\/?p=14676"},"modified":"2024-05-16T08:24:27","modified_gmt":"2024-05-16T08:24:27","slug":"all-about-saasboomi-caravan-23","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/saasboomi\/saas\/initiatives\/all-about-saasboomi-caravan-23\/","title":{"rendered":"A labour of love: SaaSBoomi Caravan \u201823"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

For a long time, some of us have believed that SaaSBoomi is an emotion. A driving desire to be part of something larger than life; make a dent bigger than what a single startup could; trigger that effective altruism aorta to go above and beyond for your peers \u2013 paying it forward. This is not just addictive, but also infectious. That\u2019s what we found at SaaSBoomi Caravan \u201823 in the Bay Area.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"SaaSBoomi
And it starts! <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

Most of us organizers, barring our lead volunteers in the US, landed in San Mateo around September 3, assuming that we would get there and set the stage before the founders – the Caravan attendees – arrived. Instead, it was volte face: around 50 founders, who beat us to it, and welcomed us to Draper University, our ground zero. That sort of became the modus operandi for the next two weeks, where founders and operators – many of them first-timers to SaaSBoomi – just picked up the pieces and ran with them. <\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Standing room only.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

We had a packed agenda for 8 days, starting with the welcome mixer on Friday, September 8. Vinod Muthukrishnan, the lead volunteer at our US Chapter, set the tone – from the simple do\u2019s and don\u2019ts to a primer on the SaaSBoomi ethos. Then began the series of tactical learning sessions. Topics ranged from selling in the US and roping in your first set of design partners to scaling from zero to $1 million ARR in the US and getting to grips with GenAI. The market-making sessions – M&A readiness, IndustryConnect, and VC Connect – were runaway hits with the founders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

IndustryConnect was a pilot we tried out and we were stunned by how it was received by the founders. Over two days, we held 374 meetings between industry leaders in the US and founders selling to enterprises. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the program planning stage, we wanted to earmark a substantial chunk of time for peer-to-peer impromptu learning sessions. But the sheer number of topics we wanted to cover scuttled those initial blocks of time. We worried needlessly. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We had around 240 terrific founders – many of them in the early stages of their startup journeys, quite a few who had scaled, and several who were onto their second or third startup – all of them in one place. Around 124 of them stayed at Draper University, where we had booked mass accommodation. So magic had to happen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is a lesson Avinash Raghava, our founding volunteer and CEO, often tells all of us: \u201cYou just have to be a facilitator or at most the catalyst. Bring amazing people together, and see the magic unfold.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Whoever said late-night sessions would mean empty halls?<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

After almost 10 hours of deep learning sessions at the Caravan, followed by dinners thrown by our ecosystem partners, founders would stream back to Draper, and huddle for impromptu masterclasses by their more experienced peers. These would go on late into the wee hours. And yet, at 8 am, they would be ready for that day\u2019s calendar.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Rakesh Patel created this WhatsApp message in our Caravan \u201923 group about Srikrishnan Ganesan\u2019s late-night session.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Founders\u2019 hustle at 6am: Saravana Kumar of Kovai with Srikrishnan Ganesan of Rocketlane.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n

When we collected feedback from the Caravan attendees, these peer-to-peer sessions topped the charts. \nHere\u2019s the detailed feedback deck for Caravan \u201823: <\/p>\n\n\n