7:45-8:40am
Registration, Continental Breakfast, Networking
8:50am
Introduction Peter Cowen, Conference Chair & Managing Director, Sutton Capital Partners
9:00-9:25am
Panel 1: Culture Eats Strategy for Breakfast
With record-low unemployment and a hyper-competitive market for talent, what are companies doing to attract and retain top employees? How important are culture and diversity to today’s recruits?
Moderator: Kelly Keegan SnackNation
Jennifer Longnion Dollar Shave Club
9:30-9:55am
Panel 2: Are Subscriptions in a Boom or a Bubble?
More than 2,000 subscription-based providers of products and services are now available to consumers, with more launching daily aimed at new niches and preferences. Will the market continue to grow, or is it facing saturation and limits on scalability? What are the best ways to attract customers and increase their LTV?
Moderator: Ro Bhatia LimeLight CRM
10:00-10:25am
Panel 3: Robotics-as-a-Service: A Trillion $ Market Poised to Take Off
How do you define a robot? What are the best ways to charge users of robotics, and to integrate it into their businesses? Is there a key technology, application or industry that will be the tipping point for accelerating adoption? Is the hype outpacing the reality?
Moderator: Ben Kuo SoCalTech
10:30-10:50am
Coffee Break
10:55-11:15am
Presentation: SaaS 2019: A Tale of Two Cities--Huge Valuations for some companies, no buyers for others. Why?
11:20-11:45am
Panel 4: When the Sh*t Hits the Fan, Will Your Company Hit the Wall?
A fast-growing company is likely to face multiple crises that can threaten its survival. Hear how entrepreneurs who faced serious challenges successfully dealt with these setbacks.
Moderator: Perry Wallack CornerstoneOnDemand
11:50-11:55am
Intro to Morning Keynote/Fireside Chat
11:55-12:25pm
Morning Keynote/Fireside Chat
12:30-1:35pm
Lunch: Bayview Ballroom
1:40-2:10pm
Breakout Sessions Part 1
5 CFO Strategies to Grow from $5M-$100M
Mark Terbeek Greycroft
The CFO is the business model architect in charting a company’s growth. As you grow, the models you need to prove change—from revenue to net renewal to profit to expansion. Learn five strategies in measurement and automation that enable you to prove and scale each model. Success at each stage helps you secure the funding you need to grow your business from $5M to $100M.
Vital Pricing Strategy Growth Lessons from 12,140 Subscription Companies
Let’s talk about a hard truth - the majority of companies are still getting their pricing wrong, and ProfitWell has the data to prove it. Join CEO Patrick Campbell in a monetization deep dive to unpack what they’ve extracted from over 12,000 recurring revenue companies on value based pricing strategy and why getting it wrong is not an option. You’ll uncover the top pitfalls, strategic insights on industry trends, and specific tactics start critically leveraging pricing’s capacity.
The Deal: What Investors are Looking for from Series Seed to Series C
Andrew Peterson Signal Sciences
Investors work on investment deals every day while entrepreneurs do it sparingly (or never if it's your first time). Come hear from an attorney and an entrepreneur on lessons learned from successfully raising 100s of millions of dollars. Learn what investors are looking for and how to play the game of investment in a way that helps the entrepreneur succeed.
The 7 Best User Acquisition Strategies Right Now
From Content Marketing Funnels to Micro-Influencers and 3rd Party Behavioral data ad targeting, this session will go beyond the basics and dive into the key drivers, acquisition strategies and channels to scale your revenue.
2:15-2:45pm
Breakout Sessions Part 2
Being a BadAss CEO
David Mandell Chromatic Ventures
Lessons that the media and mentors never taught me as I struggled to build my companies. Two time CEO, Angel Investor and mentor, board member, and advisor to many, many CEOs, David will share the real truth about his hard won lessons about starting, growing, and leading a company. From managing culture, to dealing with a Board, to hiring and firing your friends, David has stories and guidelines that most people don’t ever talk about.
5 Steps to Effectively Scale Your Recurring Revenue Business
Steve Terry Navint
Scaling a recurring revenue business is a continuous evolution of products, geographies, acquisition methods, pricing, and retention techniques--all of which impact efficient operations. In this session, attendees will learn the five phases of recurring revenue growth, and receive practical and in-depth advice and guidance on strategies, tactics, and toolsets to use to navigate through these stages successfully.
7 Mistakes to Avoid when Launching a Subscription Business
Kathleen Greenler Sexton Subscription Insider
When starting your new subscription business, regardless of if you are a pure start-up or converting to a subscription model, there are a fundamentals that you need to get right from the start. Whether it is pricing, product/market fit, competitive analysis, or customer success, this session will over key mistakes to avoid when launching (and scaling) your subscription businesses.
How to Maximize the Sale of your Company: A Case Study
Peter Cowen Sutton Capital Partners
Jason Kiesel Rock Solid Technologies
For years, you've worked tirelessly, sweated bullets and risked failure to build a successful company... and suddenly – a buyout offer! Though the offer feels good, it's likely not the best you and your key employees can get—not by a long shot. In this session, learn about a recent deal where the entrepreneur almost sold his company to the first offer—and benefitted from evaluating multiple offers to pick the best one.
2:50-3:05pm
Coffee Break
3:10-3:40pm
Panel 5: Meet the Money: Top Venture Capitalists
This is a great time for strong recurring revenue businesses to seek capital. SoCal saw a record seven unicorn financings in 2018, a number of strong exits and the rise of some of the hottest venture-backed companies. Hear active investors discuss what they are excited about and investing in, and what they want to hear from you.
Moderator: Peter Cowen Sutton Capital Partners
Jason Finger Oxygen Capital Partners
3:45-4:00pm
Presentation: The State of SaaS & Subscriptions: Lessons from 12,140 Companies
In the past decade the world of subscriptions and recurring revenue has changed dramatically. Long gone are days where we could buy Google Ads for a penny per click or received 99% email open rates. Yet, there are some things that are likely to never change (or are getting more important) - the impact of getting your retention in order, keeping customer experience in the right place, or even making sure your team is aligned to the mission. Using research from over twelve thousand subscription and SaaS companies, ProfitWell CEO Patrick Campbell will be walking through the State of SaaS to give insights on where you need to focus to be successful as the market shifts.
4:00-4:05pm
Intro to Afternoon Keynote/Fireside Chat
4:05-4:35pm
Afternoon Keynote/Fireside Chat
Interviewer: Carey Ransom Ransom Holdings
4:40-5:05pm
Panel 6: The Cybersecurity Challenge: Security vs Usability
Cybersecurity is increasingly necessary, pervasive – and complicated. Meanwhile, users want quick and easy access to their accounts. How can companies both please and protect their customers, offering elegant and intuitive solutions while fending off sophisticated hackers?
Moderator: Dean Larsen II KPMG
5:10-5:40pm
Panel 7: Recurring Revenue Rockstars: Success Stories You Haven't Heard
Our panelists are among SoCal’s hottest innovators, running companies that are hidden gems.
Moderator: Ian Smith Stradling
5:45-5:50pm
Announce Winner for Most Promising Early Stage Company
5:50-6:00pm
Closing Remarks
6:00-8:00pm
Cocktail Party in the Sinder Lounge