{"id":3209,"date":"2022-04-04T08:55:09","date_gmt":"2022-04-04T08:55:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/saasboomi\/?p=3209"},"modified":"2024-05-23T11:45:37","modified_gmt":"2024-05-23T11:45:37","slug":"playbook-to-build-saas-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dev.matsio.com\/matsio\/saasboomi\/saas\/initiatives\/iplaybook-to-build-saas-community\/","title":{"rendered":"It takes a village to build a company. It takes many villages to build a community."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

So far at SaaSBoomi<\/a>, almost all our offline events have been following a similar format \u2014 we pick a prime tech city in the country \u2014 Chennai, Bangalore, or Hyderabad, and host large-scale conferences with 80% focus on content and 20% focus on networking. In fact, all major tech events follow this playbook in general.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They work, no doubt, but we knew that we could do so much more to help build the Indian SaaS community<\/a>. Adding the pandemic\u2019s effect to this, we found an opportunity to experiment with a new event structure we\u2019ve never tried before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It all started with a conversation with Sameera Vanekar<\/a>, co-founder of PathFix<\/a>, at SaaSBoomi\u2019s first social gathering with founders in Bangalore. She thoroughly enjoyed the discussions that happened before the networking drinks. She kept talking about how she loved the energy of such social meetups, and how people come together and create serendipitous connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was after almost two years that we were doing an in-person event in Bangalore as part of SaaSBoomi<\/span> in the week of February. We had around 120\u2013130 people in the evening and the energy was buzzing, with everyone meeting, greeting, and hugging each other after a long time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We realized that while content is one of the reasons why people come to events, the connections and friendships they form there are what make them stay back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few days later, my colleague Tarun and I were reflecting on the event and we wanted to create similar energy in all major cities in the country. We came up with a solution \u2014 organize social gatherings in every city with no agenda and organic conversations. And that\u2019s how Tarun came up with the name and the positioning statement of the SaaSBoomi Social<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As an event organizer, I believe that this is a new and powerful format we have stumbled upon. The impact has been phenomenal \u2014 we have touched 650+ founders and probably made 2000+ connections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is the playbook that we have followed and if someone is trying to do something in their city, we would be happy to support the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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1. Accessibility<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Instead of making SaaS founders from across the country come to our events, we took the events to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We planned to start with Hyderabad (as Tarun is the brand ambassador for HYD), followed by Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, and Delhi. Around 650+ founders were invited to attend the socials in 6 cities with more than 1100+ applications. It was truly magical to see cities like Pune having over 100+ founders attending the event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Firstly, huge congratulations for organizing such a great event, it was a bold yet right move to schedule an in-person event.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was great to give names to faces to folks whom I helped via the group, but never saw them. Few people (Rohit from Darwinbox, Outplay team, Sreedhar, Bhanu from Highradius and more), I heard great things about, but never met, I got to see them, meet them. Most interestingly, I got to connect with a US friend who also returned to India, but never saw each other. Overall, I would definitely do this again when done next time. The event without an agenda is a great idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Sudheer Bandaru, Founder \u2014 Insightly Analytics<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

We understood the impact of SaaSBoomi Social when we started receiving requests from all over the country. We want to include a special callout to the SaaS founders from Surat, who all traveled all the way to Mumbai for the event. We\u2019re really looking forward to meeting them in their own hometown in the next edition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. Agenda-less conversations<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Unlike our previous events, SaaSBoomi Social had zero planned content and a 100% focus on networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We wanted to offer a secure platform for free-flowing conversations and unexpected connections to happen. In fact, after the Hyderabad and Chennai chapters, we avoided distributing the name badges in the other cities, as a way to encourage serendipity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even though we initially wanted to invite non-SaaS founders, a few friends, and sponsors as well to the meetups, we finally decided to make it an exclusive SaaS founder-only event, to make it a safe space for openness and synergy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it worked. We witnessed numerous deep and pure conversations where founders opened up like never before, especially during the last legs of the events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The people behind this<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Tarun and I wanted to thank the city champions who played an active role in making this happen, right from finding the venue, inviting the right people, and helping out with the overall logistics. We couldn\u2019t have done this without you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Fabulous indeed event it was. Great thanks to the team for making it an unforgettable joyful moment. Unlike other formal meetups, this was super helpful to spread the energy and positivity to everyone that every founder needs in the initial stage. The event proved that there are a lot of areas to discuss beyond PMF, GTM, Traction, Growth that no boxed agenda would solve. \u201cNo Agenda\u201d was the right pick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

– Vijayanand Kailash, Founder \u2014 PerPilot<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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Our curation engine was managed by Prajna Chandra (PC). He was uncompromisingly committed to curating the right attendees for the event. We also want to thank Varun, Gana, and Sadhana for creating the buzz on social media and helping us with all the content possible. All the catchy lines that you saw on Twitter and in the event were personalised by them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I am the founder of Provakil, but have been in the B2B enterprise software industry for my entire professional career (Sabre and Innovaccer.) This was my first rodeo with SaaSBoomi and I hope to engage, collaborate, and contribute more in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At Provakil, we were originally based in Noida. In August of 2019, we decided to move our base away from Delhi NCR, and picked Pune as the place we wanted to grow (above Bangalore, where I have an extensive network and spent my early career there). By the time we settled ourselves in Pune, the lockdown hit and of course our offices have only opened sporadically since. Pune is a completely new city for us and covid made our experience more isolating because we haven\u2019t been able to embed into the local community of entrepreneurs and startups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To that end, for us, the SaaSBoomi social was not a breath of fresh air, it was a tank full of oxygen! It was heartwarming and exciting to meet fellow SaaS founders from Pune \u2014 remarkable individuals building remarkable companies. I took away conversations to cherish, and have connected with a lot of folks with whom we would be connecting again soon.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I am not only looking forward to being a part of it again, but would also like to extend our help and support to SaaSBoomi \u2014 please feel free to reach out if we can contribute in any way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pulkit, Founder \u2014 Provakil<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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What we could have done better<\/h2>\n\n\n\n