In episode 682, Rob Walling interviews Alex Theuma, the founder of SaaStock, a conference for SaaS founders. They discuss the challenges of bootstrapping an event and the pros and cons of large startup events versus small startup events. Alex also shares his experience of building credibility and authority in the industry, the importance of maintaining a positive attendee experience, and ensuring financial sustainability. Episode Sponsor: Tired of searching endlessly for highly skilled software developers? CloudDevs is your solution. Gain access to over 8000 pre-vetted senior devs distributed across their Latin America and global talent pools. All their remote developers work within your own time zone and can get onboarded within 24 hours. The CloudDevs team can help you recruit full time hires, or part time, project based freelancers. And every hire comes with a week-long free trial, making sure you get the right person for the job. All of our listeners get a 15% discount on their first month of collaboration. Hire trusted tech talent efficiently without breaking the bank by visiting CloudDevs.com. Topics we cover:  2:44 – How Alex bootstrapped SaaStock in the early stages 4:32 – Laying the groundwork and building credibility 6:59 – Figuring out sponsor subsidies 8:53 – Reflecting on the first event, growing afterwards 12:59 – Event sizing and event types 19:44 – Setting up event programming 23:00 – Swapping crazy event stories Links from the Show:  Microconf Mastermind Matching SaaStock SaaStock (@SaaStock) | X SaaStock |  LinkedIn Alex Theuma (@alextheuma) | X The SaaS Revolution Show ChartMogul Web Summit ProfitWell Dunbar's number SaaS.City Muck Rack Patrick Campbell’s “Churn” talk If you have questions about starting or scaling a software business that you’d like for us to cover, please submit your question for an upcoming episode. We’d love to hear from you! Subscribe & Review: