Women’s History Month is one of the most important celebrations in the equality calendar. The event recognises the achievements of female academics, adventurers, and activists who have defined society as we know it but are regularly left out of the important and the everyday discussions. It is recognised by businesses, organisations, and Government bodies across the globe, leading to increased awareness of gender inequalities.
The Tech and SaaS world is crying out for a more diversity but is speckled with some amazing and inspiring women – some of which we’ve been lucky to have speak at BoS. Throughout March we are going to be sharing some of the brightest and best talks from BoS to celebrate the wonderful women we have welcomed on stage (often after they’ve been in the audience first).
We know you’ve been waiting patiently to find out the full line up and schedule for the upcoming Europe Conference in Cambirdge UK on 27-28 March 2023.
We are fine tuning the finer details but here it is:
Whenever and wherever you are travelling, it’s good to get some local knowledge of the best places to stay.
As Cambridge UK is the hometown of BoS, we are perfectly positioned to give you a low down of the best and highest regarded hotels in the city.
Obviously we recommend that you book the onsite accommodation for the Europe Conference at Churchill College, but if prefer to get away to something a little more luxurious, or if you’re in Cambridge not during conference ties, here are some great options for staying in the city in 2023.
Much like BoS, Avalara helps businesses of all sizes.
Their comprehensive, automated, cloud-based solutions are fast, accurate, and easy to use and their Compliance Cloud™ platform helps customers manage complicated and burdensome tax compliance tasks imposed by state, local, and other taxing authorities throughout the world. Avalara offers more than 500 pre-built connectors into leading accounting, ERP, ecommerce and other business applications and process billions of indirect tax transactions, file hundreds of thousands of tax compliance documents and tax returns every year.
This year, they are coming to BoS to find out how they can help you and the rest of the BoS community automate compliance needs.
Following our Product Symposium on Wednesday 8 Feb, Brad Bell at Point of Rental shared some notes from the sessions. With permission – and thanks – he’s said we can share them with the world alongside some of the other key takeaways from the day.
Late in 2006 Mark Daoust, received a call from a good friend and fellow entrepreneur who was considering selling his 8-year-old web hosting website. Just 10 months prior Mark had sold his own profitable website and was looking for a new direction. Quiet Light was founded with this phone call.
Fast forward a few years and Quiet Light is now a leading player in the business of selling and buying profitable online businesses and have sold over 600 online businesses with over $300,000,000 in total transaction value. In 2022 they sold over 100 companies.
Even though they’re recognized as one of the most successful M&A advisors in the marketplace, Quiet Light still take an attitude of continual improvement to their processes. This is where BoS and Quiet Light make magic.
David and Christopher from Quiet Light enjoying some conversations at BoS Europe 2022
Alex Osterwalder is probably best known as the creator of the Business Model Canvas and is undoubtably one of the world’s leading thinkers, experts and practitioners on business strategy and innovation. You might not think of him as an apprentice CEO.
One of the defining characteristics of the most successful entrepreneurs is their commitment to learning and growth and Alex is no exception.
In this online session, Alex spoke about his journey from well known author and speaker to what he describes as being a ‘real’ entrepreneur over the past 10 years.
He discussed what he feels are the most important aspects of his leadership journey and the five things he consider most important in his path to becoming the leader of a self-funded, fully remote, software company employing over 50 people. He discussed:
Coaching
Emotional Literacy
Three Books That Shaped Alex Osterwalder’s Approach to Leadership
Organisation Structure
Explore and Exploit – OKRs vs AKIs
We’re sharing some notes below but if you want to watch the talk when it is published, you need to get on the BoS newsletter and you will be the first to know.
Back in 2019 I was asked for a couple of predictions for 2020. Obviously no one seen Covid coming and hitting as hard as it did, but I did have a feeling that remote working would be further embraced and become much more normal.
Since Elon Musk’s (shudders at the mention of his name) $44bn takeover of Twitter, and the abhorrent way he has fired and cleared out the employees and wiped billions of value off the platform, everyone has been looking for the new ship to jump on where we can share cat gifs, sassy comments, important news, views, and find out what other people are up to.
So tell us: What you think the ‘new Twitter’ will be:
Learn how great SaaS & software companies are run
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Join our friendly list for event updates, ideas & inspiration.
At the beginning of 2022, having come out of a difficult 2021. We were really excited about 2022 and we’d also found that the online conferences that we’ve been running had really struck a chord with people. Many people who attended the online conferences found that they were getting better networking and better conversations than they were in the in person events.
The brightest software entrepreneurs from across the world will be meeting at BoS events throughout 2023 to interact with their peers, discuss the big issues around running a software business, and participate in interactive sessions led by experts.
Every year at Business of Software Conference, the generosity of our supporters allows us to offer full conference tickets to deserving entrepreneurs and leaders who otherwise wouldn’t be able to attend the event.
This is a brilliant way to get a leg up in the industry and meet some extraordinary people who want to help you succeed.
You will leave with ideas that will make a difference and an amazing network of people who can help you make it happen.
Interesting conversation with Christopher Moore at Quiet Light Advisors on the state of the economy and how it has affected acquisition activity for SaaS and software companies.
2021/22 has been a frantic time for exits with a huge amount of capital deployed in rollups and acquisitions. However, many aggregators have found it harder than they expected to find the deals that work for them and the cost of capital has risen so while there is still an active market, many are being more choosy about the deals they do.
Christopher discusses what buyers are looking for, the outlook for the market and how entrepreneurs can best prepare for their sale. You might be surprised to hear an M&A guy say that many entrepreneurs should not sell. He explains why he thinks that is the case and why entrepreneurs should run their business as if they will never sell but be in a position to sell tomorrow if they had to.
Starting January 2023, we’re running a programme where you’ll join a small group of others in a similar situation and together we’ll define your goals and timelines and thrive through this exciting and challenging time. For more information…
Learn how great SaaS & software companies are run
We produce exceptional conferences & content that will help you build better products & companies.
Join our friendly list for event updates, ideas & inspiration.
I was an avid traveler, lived on the road and full time RV’d with my family – building our business, schooling kids, & living as cheaply as possible. Full stop March 2020.
I’ve admittedly been afraid to leave the house since. I’ve been working up the courage recently, but found many excuses not to travel – even to nearby cities. I’ve attended BoS online conferences since 2020 and they have forever changed the way we work and run our business; the talks are welcoming, intimate, and – most importantly – the people and organizers of BoS are always there to help with anything. The BoS community is unlike anything I’ve come across.
I missed the first “post Covid” in-person spring European conference this year out of fear. I regretted it, and committed to the conference in the fall.
I decided a 9 – 12 hour drive from Ontario to Boston might be a better first step than a flight. So, that’s what I did!
This was my second time attending the BoS conference in-person, and I learned that’s a common denominator of the event. Bob Moesta told me, “you don’t ask ‘have you ever been to BoS’. You ask ‘how many times have you been?”
This event draws people in again and again, and for good reason. The content is of the highest quality, the people are friendly and approachable, and – as a woman traveling alone – I always feel safe at this event (and I can’t say that for other events). This time, I walked away with an explosion of inspiration, and I couldn’t wait until I got home to put things together.
Flying nearly 6000 miles to Boston and back in two and a half days to see some of the world’s most talented product, marketing, and startup leaders? Count me in!
You know when you go to a conference with all the intention of applying what you learn? You turn up, you get a good seat, and then you listen to the presenter sharing their take on a subject. You nod away in agreement to what they’re saying, and you take what seems like 100+ photos of their slides, all with the best intentions of applying the learnings when you get back to the office.
And then you don’t do a single thing with anything you’ve learned. Not a single thing.
For me, this is what made BoS a completely different conference to what I had attended previously.
That’s because it was the first conference I attended where I *actually* came home, applied what I learned, and have started to see results.
As a newbie, I was pleasantly surprised by the tight-knit feel and authenticity of the whole thing. And the questions from the audience were just… *chef’s kiss*.
But, what made it really worth it was when I got home I instantly put into practice a lot of my learnings, for both my own business and for my clients.
Over the course of the conference, I watched a number of speakers present, including Elizabeth O’Neill, April Dunford, Bob Moesta, Katherine Thompson, Bill Spruill, Asia Orangio, and Bruce McCarthy. Some I had seen speak previously, others were new to me.
There’s something about in-person events that are just different. Although I can rattle off a list of awesome things that happened ‘over the pond’, some of the most exciting moments for me certainly lay with seeing people connect with other like-minded people over coffee, dinner, and – most importantly – happy hour.
The magic may have happened in these moments but what really lifted the event were the world class speakers who nailed their sessions throughout the week.
After BoS Conf USA 2022, the BoS Team decided to head out to Fenway Park to watch the Boston Red Sox play against the Baltimore Orioles. Did we know anything about baseball? Did we know the names of the players? Did we realise it was going to be three+ hours and very little scoring? Did it matter?
In baseball you’ve got to not only hit the ball (which is very hard) but then make it to the first base before your opponent can get the ball to the first base ahead of you. You’ve then got to make a call of can you go further or will you wait for you team mate to also hit their ball and both of you can progress in hope of scoring points.
We face the same issues in work life and in personal life. We might strike out a few times, but when we do hit the ball, we have to make quick decisions and trust our team mates can help us get round the diamond of life and help us make a difference.
Some of us are pitchers. Some of us are catchers. We all take our turn batting. We all need to be able to trust our team to have our backs.
“What’s this got to do with BoS USA 2022, Kirk?” I hear you ask. Well,
