37: Live from Gavin's kitchen - Our B2B SaaS Journey

In this episode, Mitch and Gavin are finally recording together in person from the Gold Coast – live from Gavin’s kitchen, no less. They dive into their huge week delivering the Volunteering WA conference, prep for Laracon AU, and share some honest lessons learned from the front lines of building SixSides.

Chapters

(00:00) - Intro and live from the Gold Coast
(01:22) - Volunteering WA recap: our first big conference
(04:05) - Fixing the iPhone photo upload bug (HEIC issue)
(06:30) - 629 photos and a working notifications system
(08:15) - Turning one event into 9 sales leads
(09:40) - Why we need a CRM now
(10:25) - Laracon AU prep and the 1,000 photo challenge
(13:00) - Repositioning SixSides as a community platform
(15:10) - New features: check-ins, better themes, notifications
(17:35) - SaaS pricing model vs per-event
(18:50) - SixSides goes international: Cambodia!
(20:00) - Founders Collective and structured networking
(21:30) - Gavin’s new podcast and wrapping up

In this episode, we cover:

Volunteering WA: what went right and what we learned
The emotional moment seeing SixSides on three massive screens
A weird iPhone bug with photo uploads and how we fixed it
How one event turned into nine real leads for 2026-2027
The magic of notifications and user momentum
The upcoming push at Laracon AU (and the 1,000 photo challenge)
Designing themes that don’t look amateur
Shipping check-in functionality just in time
Why we’re shifting towards a SaaS model instead of one-off events
Using events as marketing content and lead gen flywheels
Our first international simultaneous event use – in Cambodia!
When it's time to get a CRM
The future of SixSides as a community-building platform
Lessons from last year’s EventKit vs this year’s SixSides
Getting people to connect with structured networking prompts
Gavin’s new podcast: The Leap by the Founders Collective
Our upcoming conference as exhibitors (gulp, $$$)

Expect a candid, behind-the-scenes look at what it really takes to launch a B2B SaaS company from scratch – completely bootstrapped.

Got questions or topics you want us to cover? Email us at journey@sixsides.co

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Connect with us

SixSides: sixsides.co
Book a call with Gavin: call.sixsides.co
Mitchell on Bluesky: mitchdav.is
Mitchell on LinkedIn: mitchdav
Gavin on LinkedIn: gavintye
Gavin on YouTube: gavintye1
SixSides on LinkedIn: sixsides
SixSides on X: sixsidesevents
SixSides on Bluesky: sixsides.co
SixSides on Youtube: sixsidesco
SixSides on Substack: sixsides