Event category: Company Building
Events
November 16, 2022
04:35 PM - 04:55 PM EDT
The Evolution of a Company & CEO Through Chapters of Growth
Over the last eight years, Toronto-based B2B software startup Loopio has grown from 3 Co-founders to a 280-person strong company boasting over 1,400 customers. From 3+ years of bootstrapping, to being VC-backed for another 3+ years, and most recently, their Private Equity investment ($252 million CAD), Co-founder & CEO Zak Hemraj has had to constantly evolve himself and the company. In this session, you’ll learn about Zak's key takeaways from each distinct chapter of growth, how he's had to evolve as a CEO, and some challenges & failures along the way.
November 17, 2022
02:15 PM - 02:45 PM EDT
Where Do We Start? Prioritizing Your People Ops Roadmap
What gets prioritized when it comes to building your People & Culture function? Often things like culture, events, recruiting, and values. And those are GREAT. But what is missing? Often, the things that we skip over (or do too late) have the biggest impact on our organizations. Things like a defined organizational structure, a clear compensation philosophy, a deep commitment to DEI, and the tracking and sharing of People metrics. In this talk, VP of People at Loopio, Alexis MacDonald will share her lessons learned growing the Loopio team from 80 to 280 employees. She'll dive into the "less sexy, less talked about" People & Culture topics that drive impact.
November 16, 2022
10:35 AM - 11:05 AM EDT
A Recession, Lower Valuations, Investment Pullback. What’s A Founder to Do? Three Seasoned Investors Weigh In
The investment frenzy we all witnessed in the fall of 2021 has suddenly come to a standstill. Investors are pulling back the reigns to re-evaluate their portfolios and investing strategies. The fallout of this free-for-all has seen SaaS start-ups downsize and brace for lower valuations.
Many startup founders are asking: what’s the path to weather this economic downturn? We curated three seasoned investors to convey their perspectives on the state of the market and what this means for valuations, resource allocation and raising money during this precarious time.
01:45 PM - 02:20 PM EDT
An Inside Look at Canada’s Best Managed SaaS Company with $500 million in Revenue, Valued At Over $5B USD
At a time when many tech companies are either stalling their employment expansion plans or cutting jobs, this company has hired 500 people already, was recently recognized in the Globe and Mail’s 2022 Report of Canada’s Top Growing Companies for the fourth consecutive year, and has a valuation topping US$5-billion. This makes it one of Canada’s most valuable privately held or publicly traded technology companies.
Join Sean Silcoff, Tech Reporter for the Globe and Mail as he talks to Mike Wessinger, Co-Founder and Executive Chair at Pointclickcare. They’ll discuss: How Pointclickcare operates, how to run a healthy software business, their recent acquisitions and more.
November 17, 2022
02:55 PM - 03:30 PM EDT
Lessons Learned from First Time Founders
Dear first-time founder, starting and scaling a SaaS business is a true test of a person’s grit. Entrepreneurship is lonely. It's a difficult road full of ups and downs. Right away you are always asked to deal with what is most difficult.
A founder’s journey is a unique one. It can be stressful, an emotional rollercoaster – but also incredibly rewarding and fulfilling. In this session, we’ve gathered a handful of first-time founders to share what they’ve learned and are learning on their journey as they grow and scale their businesses.
02:15 PM - 02:45 PM EDT
Bootstrapping from 0-5 Million ARR. How to get Scrappy, Profitable, and Build a Scalable SaaS
Pierce Ujjainwalla is a career marketer and entrepreneur who has learned from the most well-respected marketing stakeholders in the game. In 2015, he founded Knak, the codeless email and landing page creation platform for enterprise marketers. Throughout the years the company has reached various milestones and recently raised a $25M Series A. In this session Pierce talks about his lessons learned from bootstrapping to $5M and beyond. This session is for those who are currently raising or holding to raise so they can learn what they can do to grow/bootstrap their SaaS while the market is tough.
November 16, 2022
03:20 PM - 03:55 PM EDT
Is Sustainability the Secret to SaaS Success in Times of Turbulence?
There’s been a major push in recent years from tech leaders toward sustainability. Leaders recognize that not only are sustainable businesses more profitable than conventional ones, but they also perform better during times of economic turbulence and uncertainty. A study from A.T. Kearney during The Great Recession tells us sustainable businesses outperformed their less-sustainable counterparts over a six-month period by 15% during the previous massive downturn.
SaaS businesses looking to survive and thrive in the future should focus on sustainability (if they aren’t already) to make their business calamity-proof. In this session, Michael Denham will sit down with Charles Assaf, Co-Founder & CEO at Novisto and Stephany Lapierre, Founder and CEO from Teal book to discuss ways leaders can create and execute a solid ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) strategy. They’ll talk about: how to develop an ESG strategy, why is it so important, what the benefits of a strong ESG strategy are, how to measure ESG performance and impact and more!
