Jason M. LemkinCEO, SaaStr · Co-Founder of SaaStr AI, SaaStr Fund, Adobe Sign

The Unstoppable Resilience of a 7-Person Team: How We Overcame a $10 Million Setback

3 Sept 2023 · 0 min

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0:26

Jason M. Lemkin recounts a March 2020 anecdote where his small events team (seven people) at Saster experienced the first major event cancellation due to COVID-19 (by Santa Clara County), resulting in an immediate $10 million loss. Several team members quit that night; one person, Amelia, stayed and led triage and recovery work, resolving the key issues within 30 days though the $10M was unrecoverable. The piece highlights rapid crisis response and team resilience.

Questions this video answers

Seven

March 2020

Santa Clara County

$10 million

30 days

Even with our little team at saster, we have seven people. March 2020 came on. We were the first major event to be canceled by Covid. By Santa Clara county. We lost $10 million in one night. We lost $10 million in 1 night with 7 people. A bunch of the team quit. Amelia, who may or may not be here right there that night. She didn't go home and started dealing with everything and fixed everything. In 30 days. We couldn't get the 10 million dollar back. We fixed all these issues.