The Business of Software (BoS) Conference USA 2025 has wrapped up three incredible days in Raleigh, North Carolina, marking our third year in the city and our first at The StateView Hotel.
This year’s event brought together founders, CEOs, product leaders and builders from around the world to connect, learn, and share real experiences about building enduring, profitable, and people-first software businesses.
The venue was new, but the BoS spirit was the same: honest conversations, practical insights, and an extraordinary sense of community (plus a few hot peppers, of course).
Oh. And this year, hot peppers were officially added to the BoS tradition.
Missed BoS USA?
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Day 1 – Facing Growth Ceilings and Finding New Paths
We opened the conference with Jason Cohen, Founder and CIO of WP Engine, whose talk “Escaping the Growth Ceiling” hit home for many founders. Jason unpacked the invisible forces that slow growth as companies scale, like leadership bottlenecks, unclear accountability, and fear of change, giving a framework for evolving as leaders alongside your business.
“The next stage of growth won’t come from your product. It’ll come from you.”
Next, Chris Savage and Chris Lavigne of Wistia took the stage to share what happened after raising $17.9M in debt to buy out their investors. Their talk, “Building Beyond the Investment Next Round,” explored how independence has become Wistia’s competitive advantage, unlocking alignment, freedom, and creativity.
Georgiana Laudi, Co-founder of Forget the Funnel, followed with “AI’s Impact on SaaS GTM Strategy.” Gia explored how AI is reshaping go-to-market models and messaging, urging leaders to focus less on “best practices” and more on deeply understanding their customers.
“Be a painkiller, not a vitamin.”
Next, Kristie Jones (known to many as the Sales Enchantress) captivated the crowd (cape and wand included) with her talk, “Building a Sales Team That Scales.” She tackled one of the hardest challenges for founders: letting go of sales and building a repeatable process.
To close Day 1, Joe Leech, Founder of Mr Joe, followed with a crowd favorite “Designing Your Ideal Leadership Team.”
Joe tackled one of the toughest (and most often ignored) challenges in scaling a business: building a team that leads with you, not one that depends on you. He showed how founders can move from being the decision bottleneck to enabling their top team to think strategically, act autonomously, and make faster, better decisions.
Day 2 – Leadership, Change, and Rediscovering Purpose
Day 2 opened with Claire Lew, CEO of Canopy, and her talk “What Leaders Are Missing Most in the Age of AI.” Claire reminded us that the biggest barriers to progress aren’t technical: They’re human.
“The biggest barrier to AI adoption isn’t technology; it’s organizational change.”
Next up, Mark Stephens and Chika Emebo of IDR Solutions shared “Turning Generational Diversity Into Your Superpower.”
The duo (Gen X and Gen Z) brought humor and honesty to the stage, showing how multi-generational collaboration can unlock creativity and resilience.
The afternoon brought one of the most emotional talks of the week: Joel Gascoigne, Founder and CEO of Buffer, with “Navigating a Multi-Year Decline to New All-Time Highs.”
Joel walked attendees through Buffer’s 20% ARR decline over four years — and the deep reflection, cultural renewal, and persistence it took to rebuild to new highs.
“It’s not about avoiding decline — it’s about how you show up when it happens.”
Amir Salihefendić, Founder and CEO of Doist, followed with “AI Where It Matters.” Amir shared how his fully remote, 100-person team uses AI as an invisible engine, improving productivity and eliminating repetitive work, not replacing humans.
“Don’t ship AI for AI’s sake. Ship outcomes.”
Day 2 wrapped with five lightning talk speakers who brought energy and insight in quick bursts:
- John Knox – “The Introvert’s Guide to Networking”
- Ivan Barajas Vargas – “Top 15 Reasons the Vibes Are Off with AI-Assisted Coding”
- Art Koenig – “Land and Expand? Oh, Really Now.”
- Raj Mahajan – “Fragile Deals: Enduring Lessons.”
- David Robison – “How to Hire Your Next Employee.”
Each one left attendees inspired and often laughing with stories and lessons they could immediately apply.
Day 3 – Ownership, Value, and Vision
The final day began with Pierre Chamberland, Founder and CEO of NetGovern, whose talk “Just Make Everyone a Shareholder” reframed ownership as the foundation for accountability and alignment. He shared the African proverb that became the theme of his talk:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Then, Chris Mele of Software Pricing Partners joined Bill Spruill of Global Data Consortium for a live conversation: “The Price of AI.” Together, they unpacked how companies can price AI-driven features, capture value, and avoid the pitfalls of short-term discounting.
Finally, Bruce McCarthy, Founder of Product Culture, closed the conference with “Evolving Clear Strategy from Emerging Vision.” Bruce showed how to translate an uncertain vision into an actionable strategy that inspires teams and drives growth — and then shared a (slightly fiery) toast with Mark to close out BoS 2025.
A Community That Keeps Giving
BoS has always been about more than talks. It’s about the people, the hallway conversations, the spontaneous introductions and the moments that make founders realize they’re not alone.
This year, we were joined again by the incredible CED, who brought fresh energy and ideas from across North Carolina’s startup ecosystem. Our continued partnerships with Quiet Light, Atomic Object, The GFO, and GrepBeat helped make this year’s event the most connected yet.
And, as one attendee put it best:
“You come for the speakers. You come back for the conversations.”
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