Experiencing Microconf for the first time
This week I attended Microconf Portland, where I heard exceptional talks by exceptional speakers and enjoyed a tremendous hallway track with other SaaS and software founders. I wanted to capture my thoughts on the experience.
Microconf is a conference series organized by Rob Walling, who is famous for building and selling Drip for life-changing money. He’s entirely focused on helping bootstrapped founders grow and sustain their business, and he has a series of tools and products aimed at them. He also does a podcast called Startups for the Rest Of Us.
The Value Of Connection
Being a founder is a lonely business. There’s often no one to connect with, and it can be difficult to find others who have been where you are or are going where you’re going. Enter Microconf – it provides an opportunity to not just meet but to genuinely connect with founders that understand the problem space and can help.
I enjoyed a number of talks by Jason Cohen and Rob himself, but the true value of Microconf happened outside the ballroom, in the hallway. I met a founder who was doing big business in the laundromat space, and another who was building a CRM for financial advisors – both niche businesses that are positioned to do exceptionally well. Both were started by people “scratching their own itch”, too. These two were not the only ones – there were dozens of niche and specialized businesses targeting real sectors that were well-positioned for success.
The conference was small – under 250 people – which made it big enough to feel robust but small enough to connect with virtually everyone. I probably met over 100 people in my few days there, and it was a great experience.
Why does connection matter so much? Because it can be lonely, and because we need the help. As solo or pairs of founders we often think we have a good idea what to do next, but really we’re guessing. Talking with folks who are there or have been there gives us tremendous value, and helps shorten the cycle of discovery and failure from months to weeks in some cases.
No pitch == no pressure
Nobody pitched me on any service or offering – a distinctly refreshing experience at a founder-driven event. In fact the only real pitch came from Rob himself when he talked about how great the Reykjavik, Iceland Microconf would be in September.
The truth is that we’re all tired of hearing pitches from various folks on various topics. Everyone is trying to sell us something and it’s overwhelming. SaaS founders hate being marketed to, and we want to see value, not ad copy. So it was refreshing to be in a room where folks were genuinely interested in helping, not selling.
That doesn’t mean I didn’t walk away without any leads or connections that might buy my services. But that wasn’t the point – genuine connection was the goal.
Tactical advantages
Hearing Jason Cohen talk about the Elephant Curve and Rob talk about AI was super helpful in terms of understanding the different tactical advantages that we can bring to our businesses. Still, the best takeaways weren’t tactical – they were strategic. Jason pointed out that churn effectively caps the maximum MRR for a SaaS, demanding that we reduce that churn if we want to keep growing. And Rob pointed out that AI is nascent but growing, and smart integration into a software stack makes sense – but only if it’s done thoughtfully.
These are the kinds of thoughtful strategies and tactics that only come from really experienced speakers who have been around for a long time. And yet, the fact of the matter is that these individuals are humble, too: Rob pointed out from stage that he had originally come up with only three uses for AI in SaaS, and that this number had expanded to seven as he had polled Tinyseed companies and others about their uses, including one that was significantly important but totally missed in his first pass. This kind of humility (and willingness to rewrite a talk to match) comes from real people who care deeply about what they do.
What I’d do differently
Every conference has opportunities for improvement and Microconf was no exception. The receptions were loud (likely a function of that many excited people in a confined space) and the fact that the space outside the ballroom was split by a long hallway inhibited conversations that might naturally have taken place. These were structural issues related to the venue, not organizer decisions – and there’s always tradeoffs whenever putting on an event.
I didn’t love the use of Whatsapp for communication, but I did love that there was a way to communicate with many attendees. And the gender gap was real – something they can’t fix overnight – but something I noticed.
Still, I will go to another Microconf, and I hope to see you there!