We’re 21 days out from SaaStr AI Annual 2026 (May 12-14 in the SF Bay Area), and the attendee data just crossed a point worth sharing. 2,548 registered so far. 1,800 paid. 748 on comps. Based on every prior year, we’ll comfortably 2x+ that by the time doors open.
But the headline isn’t the raw count. It’s who’s in the room.
Half the Room Runs the Company
Here’s the seniority breakdown as of this morning:
- Founder: 16.8%
- CEO/President: 16.7%
- C-Suite: 16.0%
- VP: 7.5%
- Head of: 6.1%
- Director: 9.7%
- Manager/Lead: 7.7%
- IC: 5.7%
Add the top three: 49.5% of attendees are Founder, CEO/President, or C-Suite. Stretch it to VP+ and you’re at 63.1%. Add Directors and you’re at 72.8%.
This isn’t a room of interns sent to “learn about AI.” It’s a room where the people with actual budget authority showed up themselves. That matters enormously for what the week feels like — conversations on the expo floor, at dinners, in the hallways — they’re peer-to-peer, not vendor-to-junior-buyer.
The Function Breakdown Tells the Real Story
By function, the mix reflects a B2B world actively rewiring itself around AI:
- Founder/Exec: 29.3% (the buyers)
- Engineering/Tech: 12.0% (the builders)
- Marketing: 10.0%
- Sales/BD: 9.6%
- Product/Design: 4.4%
- Operations: 3.6%
- Investor: 3.2%
- Customer Success: 1.5%
- Finance: 1.7%
- People/HR: 0.4%
- Legal: 0.1%
Four observations worth pulling out:
1. Engineering/Tech at 12% is the new normal for a GTM-adjacent event. Five years ago this would have been 3-4% at a SaaS conference. AI has pulled the builders into the room alongside the buyers. If you sell to engineering leaders, they’re here. If you are an engineering leader and still think SaaStr is “a sales event,” the data says otherwise.
2. Marketing and Sales are neck-and-neck at ~10% each. Marketing is slightly ahead (274 vs 265), which tracks with how much faster AI is reshaping marketing workflows than sales workflows right now. SDR automation, content generation, lifecycle, paid — all of it is being rebuilt. Sales will catch up, but marketing is the early adopter.
3. Customer Success at 1.5% is the surprise (or is it?). Given how much CS is being reworked by AI agents, perhaps it’s not a surprise. But that so far is a low for us.
What The Final Mix Probably Looks Like
What we can project now, approximately:
- ~2,500 Founders, CEOs, and C-Suite
- ~1,500 Directors, VPs, and Heads of
- ~600 Engineering/Tech leaders
- ~500 Marketing leaders
- ~450 Sales/BD leaders
- ~275 Investors
That’s the density that makes SaaStr AI Annual work year after year. It’s never been a volume play. It’s a seniority-per-square-foot play. When you walk up to a stranger at the coffee bar, the base rate says they run a company or report to someone who does.
The Signal
Half the attendees sign the checks at their companies. That only happens when the budget is already moving. SaaStr AI 2026 is where B2B leaders learn to keep … winning in the Age of AI.
That’s what May 12-14 is actually about. And the attendee data is telling us the market already knows it.
