We just wrapped SaaStr AI 2026, and the sponsor engagement leaderboard is in.
It measures the one thing a sponsor actually cares about: how many leads they pulled from 10,000+ B2B + AI founders, operators, and buyers on the floor.
Here’s the full top 15 by engagement:
- Replit — 1,423 leads (Vibe Coding / AI Dev Tools)
- Lightfield — 1,062 leads (AI-Native CRM & Revenue OS)
- Aurasell — 1,046 leads (AI Sales & Revenue)
- Salesforce — 1,027 leads (All-in-One CRM, API & Platform)
- Rippling — 921 leads (HR & Payroll)
- OpenRouter — 915 leads (AI Infrastructure)
- Google for Startups — 817 leads (Startup Ecosystem)
- Vivun — 793 leads (AI Sales Agents & Automation)
- Lovable — 605 leads (Vibe Coding / AI App Builder)
- Revolut Business (Fintech & Payments)
- Artisan (AI Outbound & Sales)
- Aircall (Customer Support & Comms)
- Relevance AI (AI Agents / No-Code)
- Reevo (AI-Native Sales & CRM)
- Glyphic (AI Sales & Conversation Intelligence)
Sort the whole list by what the product actually does and three themes carry the entire leaderboard: Building, Selling, and Running the company. Every sponsor in the top 15 maps to one of them. And the split is not even close.
Selling Owns Almost Half The Leaderboard
Count the revenue tools in the top 15 and the number is hard to ignore. Lightfield, Auraseli, Salesforce, Vivun, Artisan, Reevo, Glyphic. Seven of the fifteen highest-engagement sponsors sell software that helps you sell software.
The hardest problem in B2B + AI right now isn’t building product. Vibe coding solved a lot of that. The hardest problem is distribution: getting the leads, working the pipeline, closing the deals. So when revenue tools show up at an event full of founders trying to grow, founders line up.
The more interesting signal inside the selling category is the AI-native shift. Lightfield, an AI-native CRM, beat Salesforce by 35 leads. Vivun pulled nearly 800 leads selling AI sales agents, a category that barely existed two years ago. Artisan, Reevo, and Glyphic all made the list selling AI-first revenue products. The revenue stack is getting rebuilt around AI, and buyers came specifically to see what’s new, not what they already own.
If you sell into revenue teams, this is the clearest demand signal you’ll get all year. The budget is moving toward AI-native, and it’s moving fast.
Building Took the Top Spot
Replit pulled 1,423 leads, the most of any sponsor, and it wasn’t close. The #2 finisher came in 361 leads behind.
That’s not an accident. The room was full of founders and operators who now ship their own software. Vibe coding stopped being a side project in 2026. Teams that never had engineers are building internal tools, customer-facing apps, and agent workflows themselves. When a buyer can build the thing instead of buying the thing, the tool that lets them build becomes the most valuable booth on the floor.
The category showed up four times in the top 15: Replit at #1, OpenRouter at #6 on AI infrastructure, Lovable at #9 as an app builder, and Relevance AI at #13 building agents with no code. Build the app, run the models, build the agents. The buyer mindset moved from “what do I buy” to “what do I build,” and the leaderboard rewarded the companies that arm that buyer.
OpenRouter at #6 with 915 leads is the quiet one to watch. 915 execs went out of their way to engage with model routing and infra. As more teams push AI features into production, cost per token, model fallback, and latency become CEO-level questions because they land directly in the P&L.
Running the Company Still Pulls Real Demand
The third theme is the unglamorous one that never goes away: the tools you need to actually operate:
- Rippling at #5 for HR and payroll,
- Revolut Business at #10 for fintech and payments,
- Aircall at #12 for customer support and comms.
None of these are AI-native stories, and they still landed in the top 15 at a B2B + AI event. That’s the useful reminder. Founders are spending on the new AI stack, but they’re still running real companies that need payroll, banking, and a support line. The back office didn’t disappear because agents showed up. It just has to coexist with everything new.
Rippling pulling 921 leads, ahead of several pure-AI companies, says the operational stack still commands founder attention even when the headlines are all about agents.
Google For Startups Showed Up, Won Big
Google for Startups at #7 is the ecosystem play: credits, programs, distribution, and a door into a bigger platform.
Every builder in the room wants the best AI infrastructure and a shortcut into the ecosystem. Ecosystem access is its own form of leverage, and founders clearly value it.
Where B2B Buyer Budget Is Actually Going
Strip away the booths and the swag and the leaderboard is a clean read on 2026 priorities. B2B execs are spending to build their own software, to drive revenue, and to keep the company running. Building got the single biggest booth, selling got the most booths, and the operational stack quietly held its ground.
That’s where B2B budget is of the moment.
The budget moved to AI-native, and the companies meeting that buyer where they are now are the ones filling the funnel.
See you at SaaStr AI 2027, May 11-12 in SF Bay!!
