SaaStr Miami 2022: A Trip, Community, and Vibe Report

So we’re back from the third SaaStr Miami meet-up, and by far our best ever.  We had over 100 CEOs and founders in attendance, 3 unicorns, and 3 of the top content sessions we’ve ever had.  All 3 are coming soon to SaaStr.com:

• Kyle Porter, CEO of $2.3B Salesloft, on How to Truly Build an Enduring Culture
• Sam Blond, CRO of $12B Brex, on How to Build a Winning Sales Team; and
• Hillary Capiro, Sr Director of ABM at $60B Snowflake, on How to Make ABM Really Work.

All three were amazing speakers, the outdoor venue was 75 degrees at night, and everyone truly had a great time.  It was great.

But with all the talk of Miami, where is it for SaaS and B2B today?  A few learnings and observations:

#1.  SaaS Has Grown in Miami, a Lot — But It’s Still a Small Part of Miami Tech Overall.  You can trace the growth of our three meet-ups:

• 2022: 362 attendees at SaaStr Miami Meet-Up.  We capped it at 350, so more could have come.  We’ll go bigger in 2023!
• 2019: 184 attendees at SaaStr Miami Meet-Up
• 2018: 68 attendees at SaaStr Miami Meet-Up

#2.  More importantly, the attendee quality has gone way, way up over the years.  We met incredible VPs of Sales, CEOs doing $10m-$20m+ ARR, and much more.  There just weren’t that many in Miami even in 2019.  In 2018, it seemed like everyone at our meet-up was either sub-$1m ARR … or had driven or flown in.  Not today.  With the CEOs of Mural, Ramp, and more in Miami, there are unicorns all around.

But, even though Miami tech has exploded since Covid, a lot of folks there are in Web 3, crypto, etc.  Folks I talked to in B2B and SaaS still felt a bit isolated from Miami tech overall, and rarely attended broader tech events, etc.  That’s something to be aware of.  The SaaS community isn’t quite there yet, and isn’t connected to the whole crypto / web3 vibe.

#3.  Miami is Great, But It’s Still Not Atlanta, Salt Lake, New York, etc.  We love Miami at SaaStr, always have.  But SaaS already had a number of “Second Cities” even before Covid.  Salt Lake and New York are full of SaaS and B2B Unicorns already, and Atlanta isn’t far behind.  All 3 are much richer ecosystems for SaaS.  And importantly, while we’re all running distributed companies now, the VP-level talent in Salt Lake, New York, Atlanta, and even Austin are far, far richer than Miami.  And yes, Austin probably has more in SaaS and B2B than Miami for now, too, although I’m not 100% sure of that.

Here’s a quick look at the geographic distribution of our LinkedIn page.  It looks about right, in terms of where SaaS execs and founders are now:

Geo on our LinkedIn/SaaStr followers

#4. Miami Will Just Keep Growing — It Will Get There in SaaS. Miami has hit critical mass for tech overall, but it’s perhaps not quite there for SaaS.  There clearly aren’t enough VP candidates there, and not quite enough of an engaged community in SaaS. But it feels like it will be there in 2023.  And we’ll help.  We’ll be back for the biggest, best SaaS Miami Meet-Up again in early 2023!   Look for it!