SaaStock is dead: founder kills Europe’s biggest SaaS conference and launches Shift AI
April 15, 2026 – 1:25 pm
SaaStock founder Alexander Theuma is retiring Europe’s biggest B2B SaaS conference after a decade and replacing it with Shift AI. The Austin event on 15-16 April is the last SaaStock; the first Shift Europe runs in Barcelona on 13-14 October 2026.
Theuma cited $2 trillion in SaaS market cap erased in Q1 2026 and the structural collapse of per-seat pricing under AI agent pressure.
SaaStock’s Legacy:
SaaStock, the conference that spent a decade as the gravitational centre of Europe’s B2B software founder community, is no longer. Its founder, Alexander Theuma, announced on LinkedIn this week that the SaaStock brand is being retired and replaced by Shift AI, a new event focused on the impact of AI agents on enterprise software.
The final SaaStock conference will take place in Austin on 15 and 16 April. The first Shift Europe event will be held in Barcelona on 13 and 14 October 2026.
Theuma’s Take:
“In Q1 2026, $2 trillion in SaaS market cap was erased,” wrote Theuma. “The per-seat model is under structural pressure it won’t recover from. AI agents are replacing the workflows our customers pay for. The companies that win the next decade will not look like the ones that won the last one.”
SaaStock’s Rise and Fall:
SaaStock launched in Dublin in 2016 with 700 attendees from 34 countries. Within two years, it had doubled to 1,500 and began expanding globally. At its peak, the conference drew more than 4,000 founders, operators, and investors across five continents. Companies that passed through SaaStock’s stages include Intercom, Paddle, Calendly, Miro, and Personio.
The decision to kill the brand is not due to declining attendance or commercial pressures but rather a recognition of the evolving nature of the SaaS industry. Theuma’s shift reflects the reality that the per-seat pricing model and the playbooks of the past decade are no longer relevant in an era dominated by AI agents.