Subscribed 2012: New Heights for Both Zuora and the Subscription Economy

by Brian Bell, CMO

 

It’s been a huge week for Zuora, possibly the biggest in the history of our company, and I thought I’d take the time to recap the events of the last few days. First, leading up to our Subscribed 2012 conference, we declared that we are at the Tipping Point of the Subscription Economy, with articles from the WSJ, NY Times and BusinessWeek. Through these articles, we announced to the world the amazing progress we’ve made over the last year, including the launch of our data centers, the 95% customer sat achievement, and the amazing features we have delivered with an engineering team that is 3x the size of our closest competitors.

 

Then, during Subscribed 2012, in front of the core of the Subscription Economy community, we painted a bold new vision for our industry, and launched two amazing new products: Z-Finance and Z-Business, the world’s first Relationship Business Management system, spelling doom for ERP and for Oracle and SAP. The pickup on our story was strong. “Zuora drags Subscription Economy out of the 15th century” one reporter wrote. Zuora is “the spiritual leader of the Subscription Economy“, wrote another.

 

And we’re not done yet! Subscribed’s roadshow continues on. We had a blowout event yesterday in London, and just a few more weeks until we do it all again in Sydney. Hope to see you all there!

 

We’ve been thrilled by the attendance, enthusiasm, and reception of our Subscribed 2012 conference. “Subscribed12 is heavily attended by the right attendees!” declared one Twitterer. Another beamed “Amazing turnout at Subscribed San Francisco! The Subscription Community is growing…” The Subscription Economy deserved a conference that spoke to its diversity, and we got that with the range of companies that chose to attend. We were floored by the cross-industry attendance, the huge participation in person and the over 20,000 viewers who watched the SF event’s live stream on Ustream. We had 10 amazing customer-led sessions around incredible topics such as Pricing & Packaging, Conversion to the Cloud, Key Subscription Economy Metrics, Going Global, and more. Oh, and did I mention these were all customer led? We’re excited that all of these sessions we’ll be turning into webinars, continuing the lessons we learned during Subscribed 2012 and sharing them with entirely new audiences.

 

We put a lot of blood and sweat into making Subscribed 2012 happen, but could not have done it without our customers, partners, and friends. It was a great moment in the history of this business model.

 

And yet, the numbers, while impressive, don’t tell the whole story. I’d like to think that the smaller moments of Subscribed 12 encapsulate the enthusiasm people have for this new business model better than anything. Moments like seeing industry heavyweights from Box and HP make jokes at each other’s expense on stage. Or watching people discuss their stories about converting to the Cloud at a breakout session. Or breaking bread at a birds of a feather lunch, demonstrating that for all of our different products, services, and customers– we still have many ties that bind us together.

 

Dreamforce was also a great success. Once again, Marc Benioff and Salesforce demonstrate that they know how to draw a crowd and put on a heck of a show. Marc, your footwear continues to impress.

 

Our Block Party was our capstone to a spectacular week. It was full of food trucks, dancing, temporary tattoos, photo booths, and many excited conversations with old friends over drinks. We didn’t really know how it would turn out with so many other events going on during Dreamforce, but were humbled by the enthusiasm and buzz we received. Our partner InsideView’s blog declared the Block Party the “Greatest Dreamforce 2012 party” and raved that “The Dreamforce Zuora Block Party was a hit… The last numbers we had were that there were 9000 registrations and it felt like they all showed up.” As someone who stood in a crowded line at one of the delicious food trucks, I can attest to how many attended this year’s event. Rest assured, we’ll be back again next year and can only hope to have so many friends join us.

 

I’d like to take this space to thank all of our partners, customers, and clients who made Subscribed, Dreamforce, and the Block Party so memorable. It was an exceptionally great week for Zuora, but it was made all the better to be surrounded by such great friends. So thanks again to DocuSign, InsideView, Verifi, Litle & Co, Scout Analytics, Totango, GoodData, and Connection Cloud.

 

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