And the Winner of the International ‘Show Us Your SaaS’ Video Contest is…

What the “Show Us Your SaaS” international contest is (and why it works)

The premise is simple: international SaaS teams create a short video explaining why they want to attend SaaStr Annual and
why the community should rally behind them. Submissions are capped at 90 seconds, then the community votes, and finalists
are judged by the SaaStr team. In other words: you don’t win by saying “we’re disruptive”you win by making the internet
care in under a minute and a half.

The mechanics are also a big reason the contest is fun and useful. A time limit forces clarity. Community voting
rewards storytelling and audience empathy. And having judges involved keeps it from turning into a pure “who has the
biggest email list” contesteven if founders, being founders, will absolutely attempt Olympic-level hustle.

The prize structure has historically made the contest feel like a genuine community event, not just a marketing stunt:
grand-prize perks (tickets + travel help) plus recognition across a wide field of entrants. That “everyone gets love”
vibe mattersbecause the real win isn’t only the trophy. It’s the video asset your team can reuse everywhere.

And the winner is… Auror

The international grand prize goes to Aurora New Zealand-founded SaaS company focused on helping retailers
prevent crime, reduce loss, and make stores safer through retail crime intelligence and collaboration workflows.

In the winner announcement, Auror’s prize package is the kind of thing founders screenshot and set as their lock screen:
four tickets to SaaStr Annual plus $5,000 in travel expenses, along with the most powerful
currency in SaaS: “Oh, you haven’t heard of us? That’s adorable.”

If you’re wondering why a retail-crime intelligence platform resonated in a SaaS video contest, it’s because the story is
instantly understandable: there’s a concrete problem (store safety, repeat offenders, operational friction), a clear user
(retail teams and partners), and a straightforward “what changes after you use us” outcome. Even if you’ve never worked
a day in retail, you can still follow the stakes.

And yesbecause SaaS founders cannot resist a good bitthe announcement also included a wink about “bringing Batman.”
Which is the correct level of ridiculousness for a contest where people once made SaaS jokes about biscuits, interns,
and “SaaStr Oms.”

A quick tour of the “official runners-up” energy

One of the most lovable parts of this contest: it doesn’t pretend only three teams did a good job. The winner post made
the runners-up list feel like a world tour of scrappy buildersteams across multiple countries and categories, from
collaboration tools to customer platforms.

If you’re building SaaS, it’s a reminder that “great storytelling” doesn’t belong to one market. It belongs to teams who
can (1) name a real problem, (2) show they understand the user, and (3) communicate like humans instead of a slide deck
that gained sentience.

Why Auror’s win makes strategic sense (even beyond the jokes)

1) A fast hook beats a perfect intro

Product videos rarely fail because the product is boring. They fail because the first few seconds are a slow walk
through a hallway of context no one asked for. Strong demo guidance emphasizes grabbing attention quicklythink hook,
thumbnail, and “why should I care” upfront. In contest videos, this matters even more because the viewer didn’t arrive
with purchase intent; they arrived with a scroll finger.

2) The 90-second constraint forces the “one big idea”

Great demos resist the urge to show everything. A helpful approach is to plan your demo around a single “big question”
you’ll answerone takeaway the viewer can repeat without pausing. This is how you avoid the classic SaaS failure mode:
“Here are 14 features, none of which feel like a solution.”

3) Clarity wins votesand clarity is a growth superpower

Auror’s category naturally lends itself to clarity: connect incidents, identify repeat patterns, collaborate with trusted
partners, and reduce harm. But the deeper lesson is universal: if your team can’t explain the product in 90 seconds, your
prospects will feel it in the sales cycle. A contest video is basically a clarity audit with public scoring.

4) Short doesn’t mean shallow: it means edited

Multiple video marketing studies and platform guidelines converge on a practical truth: shorter videos often perform
better for top-of-funnel attention, with many audiences preferring under two minutes for brand or
explainer content. The contest’s 90-second cap isn’t arbitrary; it matches how people actually watch online video.

5) A human tone builds trust faster than “enterprise seriousness”

The best contest entries tend to feel like humans made them on purpose. Humor helps, but you don’t need to be a comedian.
You need to sound like someone you’d want to meet at the conference. That’s why playful references (“Batman”) work:
they signal confidence and personalitytwo qualities buyers subconsciously associate with competence.

Steal this: a “winning SaaS video” framework you can reuse on your website

Even if you never enter a contest, the same structure is gold for homepage videos, LinkedIn clips, sales emails, and
onboarding explainers. Here’s a reliable framework that stays punchy without feeling like a template:

1. Cold open on the pain (one sentence your ICP immediately agrees with).
2. Name the consequence (what the pain costs: time, money, risk, stress).
3. Show the product early (not a logoan actual moment of “this is how it works”).
4. One big capability (the “big question” your demo answers).
5. Proof (a metric, a recognizable workflow, a quick testimonial line, or “used by…” if true).
6. Outcome (what changes for the user tomorrow morning).
7. Clear CTA (exactly what you want viewers to do next).

That final step matters more than founders like to admit. Marketing guidance repeatedly emphasizes including a call to
actionbecause views are not a business model. Your CTA can be “book a demo,” “start a trial,” “watch the full walkthrough,”
or “download the checklist.” Just don’t end with “Thanks for watching,” like you’re wrapping up a middle-school science fair.

Turn a contest video into an SEO and conversion asset (Google and Bing-friendly)

Here’s where SaaS teams leave money on the table: they post the video, celebrate, then let it rot in a forgotten tweet.
A better move is to treat your video like a multi-channel asset with a search footprint.

Use a dedicated landing page, not a “random embed”

Video landing pages work best when the video is the clear focal point, supported by a short headline, a few bullets, and
one primary CTA. Keep it “short and sweet” and avoid autoplaying with sound (a classic way to annoy people into leaving).

Add captions and a transcript (accessibility + SEO)

Transcripts and captions don’t just help accessibility; they also give search engines crawlable text that can expand the
terms your page ranks for. In practical terms: your spoken “retail crime intelligence” line becomes searchable content,
not just audio.

Use video SEO best practices

If you host videos on your own site, search engines can display richer video features when they can fetch the video file
and understand what’s inside it. Adding structured data can help, and “key moments” (chapters) can make the experience
more navigableespecially for longer demos and webinars.

Repurpose the video into “snackable” cuts

One 90-second video can become: a 15-second hook clip, a 30-second feature tease, a 45-second testimonial cut, and a
short founder intro. You’re not “reposting.” You’re translating the same story for different attention spans and platforms.

A practical weekend playbook: make a contest-quality SaaS video without losing your mind

Step 1: Decide your “big question”

Write one sentence: “After this video, viewers will understand ______.” If you can’t finish that sentence, your script
will become a feature buffet. And nobody wins contests by serving a buffet in a shot glass.

Step 2: Script for the ear, not the eye

Read it out loud. If it sounds like a press release, rewrite it. Your best lines should sound like something a smart
human would say to another smart human over coffee.

Step 3: Storyboard the “show” moments

Identify 3–5 shots you must capture. For a SaaS demo video, those usually include:

• A quick “before” moment (the messy reality).
• A clean product view showing the core workflow.
• A proof moment (dashboard result, alert, report, customer quote).
• A closing CTA screen with one action.

Step 4: Make your screen recording look intentional

Hide bookmarks bars, silence noisy notifications, and remove irrelevant fields. Your viewer’s brain notices clutter even
if they can’t name it. Also: zoom in. If your product is unreadable on a phone, your “mobile-first video strategy”
becomes “mobile-first confusion.”

Step 5: Edit ruthlessly

If a line doesn’t move the story forward, cut it. If a scene repeats an idea, cut it. If you have a perfect joke that
costs 8 seconds… congratulations, you now have a perfect joke for the blooper reel.

If you’re running a SaaS video contest: what the “Show Us Your SaaS” approach teaches

This contest format works because it balances structure with creativity. If you’re an organizer thinking of running a
similar campaignconference, accelerator, community, or brandthese elements are worth copying:

• A tight time limit that forces clarity (90 seconds is a sweet spot for attention).
• Community voting to drive sharing and engagement.
• A judging layer to keep quality and fairness in play.
• Participation rewards so entrants feel valued even if they don’t win.
• Clear guidelines on originality, safety, and acceptable promotion tactics.

Also: assume founders will hustle creatively. Plan for it. Build rules that discourage manipulative vote-buying while still
leaving room for legitimate enthusiasm and social proof. The goal isn’t to eliminate hustleit’s to keep the contest fun
and credible.

What this win signals for SaaS marketing in 2026

In a world where buyers research more on their own, video is increasingly the quickest way to communicate “what it is”
and “why it matters.” The trend isn’t just “make more videos.” It’s “make fewer videos that do a specific job.” A contest
entry is a perfect forcing function: it must attract attention, earn trust, and land a pointall while staying short.

Auror’s win is a reminder that a strong product story can travel. When you lead with a real-world problem and a clear
outcome, your SaaS becomes understandable across industries and geographies. That’s not just good contest strategy.
That’s good go-to-market.

Bonus: of real-world “contest experience” lessons SaaS teams take home

Teams that enter a “Show Us Your SaaS”-style contest often discover something slightly uncomfortable: the hardest part
isn’t filming. It’s agreeinginternallyon what the product actually means. In the day-to-day grind, different
teammates carry different narratives. Sales has one version, product has another, founders have three, and marketing is
quietly trying to turn it into a landing page without starting a civil war. A 90-second video forces alignment. You can’t
fit four competing value props into a minute and a half without the viewer feeling like they got hit by a feature-shaped
confetti cannon.

Another common lesson: the camera is an honesty machine. Vague claims that slide by in a deck (“streamline workflows,”
“improve efficiency,” “unlock synergy”) sound painfully empty when spoken out loud. The teams who do well replace those
phrases with specifics: what gets faster, what gets safer, what gets simpler, what gets measured. Even if the final video
is funny, the underlying story is precise. Humor becomes seasoning, not the meal.

There’s also the unexpected benefit of seeing your product through a stranger’s eyes. Once you share the video publicly,
you’ll notice where people pause, what they quote, and what they misunderstand. That feedback is wildly valuable. It’s
essentially lightweight message testingexcept the “focus group” is the internet and the incentive is a conference trip.
The teams that pay attention to comments and watch-time drop-offs often end up refining their homepage copy, onboarding
screens, and demo flow afterward. The contest becomes a catalyst for tightening the entire funnel.

Internally, making the video is team bonding with a deadline. Engineers see the marketing constraints. Marketers see the
product constraints. Founders see how long it takes to get one clean screen recording without a Slack notification popping
up like an uninvited raccoon. When done right, the process creates empathy across functionsand empathy makes shipping and
selling easier.

Finally, teams walk away with an asset that keeps paying them back. Even if you don’t win, you now have a compact,
high-energy product story you can reuse in sales outreach, investor updates, recruiting, partnership intros, and social
clips. The best entrants don’t treat the video as a one-and-done contest entry. They treat it as the first draft of a
repeatable storyand then they iterate. In SaaS, iteration is the real prize.