Lyes Bekalti

This time last year, we hosted the first-ever Ecosystem-Led Growth (#ELG) event in Europe alongside our friends and ELG Alliance member, Stripe. As the inaugural event of its kind, we were uncertain about the demand, so we kept it fairly small. 😳 Little did we know, it sold out shortly after we announced it. 🤝 Fast forward to today, and we are thrilled to be hosting another ELG event in London, once again in partnership with Stripe. A lot has changed since last year: 🔺ELG has exploded in popularity 🚀 Everyone is talking about it, and we see this reflected in the numbers every day—from the growth of the ELG Index to the fact that the banner in the picture below now reads "20k customers" (43% ⬆️). 🔺 In response to this growth, we've adjusted the format accordingly. What started as a couple of hours' meetup has evolved into a full-day conference, following our successful event in Austin, TX last month 🇺🇸 Don't miss out on this incredible opportunity to be part of the ELG movement. With only a few tickets left, now is the time to secure your spot and join other SaaS industry leaders and GTM operators for a day of insightful discussions, networking, and growth. Book your tickets today before they sell out 👉 https://bit.ly/3RKLGft

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€25M, to build the one finance platform to rule them all. Proud to be partner of Pauline Glikman and Joseph A. from Day 0! When we first invested in Payflows, there were many other FinTech SaaS startups focusing on individual pain points felt by CFOs and their teams. Some of these companies try to improve accounts payable or procurement. Others tackle cash management or try to modernize the payment stack. Payflows stands apart by offering this and more as modules within an automated platform bigger than the sum of its parts. Each module can be purchased and deployed independently, but the offering becomes much more powerful when all the pieces of the puzzle are combined.   We partnered with Payflows team on their €5M Seed round, together with Ribbit Capital - all thanks to an intro from my friend Salomon Aiach, GP at Origins Fund. Their product quickly turned out to be such a customer hit that they never had time to announce the round. Fast forward one year. Customers include both public enterprise companies as well as growth-stage tech companies like Ornikar, Spendesk, and Swile and Podimo. Welcome Balderton Capital in today’s combined €25M funding round! In the comments, the story on Les Echos and an in-depth piece on why we invested. Can't wait to continue seeing the ultimate financial automation platform come together! (Photo by Samuel Sotto)

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Best tools for startup and scaleup CFOs - French tools only 🇫🇷 Whether you're launching your company or scaling your finance stack, we've got you covered. This list is not exhaustive, and we also want to share our feedback after nearly 2 years of using these tools at Hyperline. --- 🏦 Banking: Qonto / Memo Bank → We use both! Qonto handles our daily operations, while Memo Bank manages our term deposits (DAT in French). 🥸 Accounting: Pennylane → We've chosen Pennylane as the go-to accounting solution (and our accounting partner loves it too!). Bonus: seamless integration with Hyperline to collect all invoices. 💳 Spend management: Spendesk → A must-have as your team scales. Bonus: your team will love their autonomy with own card! (Lucas Bédout, as former VP of Engineering, insisted we include them in the list...🤪) 💸 Billing and invoicing: Hyperline → We love using our own product daily. The best solution on the market for managing finance operations from quote to cash (I'm not biased at all 😇). 💼 Procurement: Pivot / Payflows → If you're looking for a procurement solution, that's a good sign for your business. Simplify your life with next-gen procurement solutions! 🦸🏻‍♀️ People and Payroll: PayFit France / Lucca → We've been using PayFit since day one at Hyperline. I remember closing the first payroll with just myself 😂. Very user-friendly with excellent support, perfect for an admin novice like me. 💰 Cap table management: Equify → Your investors will appreciate a clear view of your latest round and future prospects. This was one of the first tools we implemented after our Seed round. --- I’m probably missing some tools. Please help me to complete this list in comment.

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A woman co-founder built one of the most successful apps in Europe, without millions in VC money. Here’s how: Julie Chapon, along with François MARTIN and Benoit MARTIN, launched Yuka in January 2017. From day one, Julie knew they weren’t going to be just another startup chasing big fundraising. Yuka was about impact and value, helping people make healthier choices by scanning barcodes to see the real health impact of food and cosmetics. They grew fast, but on their own terms. By January 2018, they hit over 1 million users, far beyond their expectations. They raised a small round in June 2018, not from VCs but from business angels who aligned with their mission. It was just enough to grow the team and add cosmetics analysis, all while staying true to their values. Since then, Yuka has grown organically with their business model, proving that profitability and purpose can go hand in hand. Fast forward to today: Yuka has over 40 million users worldwide, including millions in the U.S., where it’s quickly become a favorite for conscious consumers. This is a success story about focus, transparency, and doing it without chasing the biggest checks. Know other women founders who’ve built successful startups without VC money? Tag them below. 👇 _____________________ 👋🏻 Hi there, welcome! ✨ I'm Sarah. I help women founders develop winning business models, gain market traction, and secure funding through my FundHER accelerator program. As a woman founder, follow me here on LinkedIn for insights and support to help you launch, grow and fund your startup.

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Following the excellent example Rows.com, here's another from another hot company 🚀 folk (from renowned French studio Hexa, neé eFounders, with a $9M seed from Accel, Scott Belsky, Arash Ferdowsi, Nir Eyal, Nicolas Dessaigne and more) and their great UI... What I love about this one = smart empty states A lot of products are now using "cards" as a pattern when a user first lands into the product, to encourage them to take key actions But folk does a couple really smart things that I haven't always seen: 1️⃣ Sets priority Horizontally stacked cards often don't have this, and offer equally weighted CTAs for all the cards... but users want to make fewer decisions ⬇️ 👉 Folk makes the first CTA filled and contrasting with the others, so it's even easier to get started. 2️⃣ Generates data for me Often products require new users to do a bunch of work or commit to importing data before there is any reward or value. This creates friction and means more people miss the aha moment 🙈 👉 Folk offers "sample contacts" to use instead of my data, so I can get to see the value of a CRM without committing This reduces waiting time and prevents me bouncing Thanks Simo for the submission -- great example to other #founders to submit your user onboarding or in-app flows if you want some recognition 🔦 Even if you think its not the best, share an in-app flow to Chameleon's User Onboarding Olympics to earn cash and be in the pot for our 3 x $300 gold medals 🥇 We're all learning together 😇 Click here to upload a screenshot now: chameleon.io/go/olympics 🔵🟡⚫️🟢🔴 Or please repost ♻️ or comment 💬 to help your network find this great opportunity! I regularly share examples of good UI/UX and best practices for user onboarding and PLG, so follow me 🔔 (Pulkit) for more of that in your feed 👋

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Palantir stock is 🆙 Up 152% Year-to-Date (!) 📈 Trades at 34x ARR (!) and ⤴️ Is Growing New Customers +41% 🔥The Fire of the Fire in SaaS🔥 5 Interesting Learnings: #1. Growth Has Re-Accelerated tp 27%, from 13% a Year Ago Fueled by commercial and government contracts, and by AI-related demand in both, Palantir is seeing growth re-accelerate from 2023.  Pretty impressive, in a time when almost everyone else that is public is seeing slowing growth. #2.  Artificial Intelligence Platform (AIP) is a Year Old But Fueling $159m in Q2 Bookings Alone To some Cloud and SaaS leaders, AI is a table-stakes addition.  But for Palantir, it’s a true accelerant. #3.  Commercial (Non-Gov't and Defense) Customers Fueling Growth.  Up From Almost None in 2020 to 295 Today. Palantir is closing big, big deals and its roots are in government and defense.  When it IPO’d, commercial customers were a tiny bit of their business.  Fast forward to today, they are closing 300 of them.  And revenue is up +55%.  This potential for a decade of growth at scale here helps justify the high revenue multiple Palantir trades at. #4.  Closed 27 Deals Over $10,000,000 and 96 $1,000,000 Deals — Just Last Quarter Palantir is very enterprise. #5.  Profitability Has Increased Even as Growth Has Reaccelerated Do you have to do it all today, at least once you are at scale? Grow AND be more efficient?  Yes, you do.  And Palantir has risen to the challenge. It's pretty impressive to do both.

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🚨 Myth-busting alert! 🚨 We’ve teamed up with the legends at Microsoft to put an end to all those “marketplace myths” floating around! 💥 No, you don’t need a PhD in tech wizardry to join, and no, it’s NOT just for the “big guys”! Together, we’re making it easier (and way more fun) for partners to dive into the marketplace with confidence. Got doubts? Let’s bust ‘em! 💡 Ready to partner? Let’s rock the marketplace! 🎸 #PartnershipGoals #MarketplaceUnlocked #MicrosoftPartner #MythBusted #TechCollab

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YC Demo Day Survival Guide: What VCs Say vs. What They Actually Mean 👇 What VCs say: "Not aligned with our strategy" > What they mean: "We have no idea what our strategy is, but it's definitely not this, mate." What VCs say: "That's a fascinating idea." > What they mean: "I think Juicero was a better startup idea than this." What VCs say: "We need to see more traction." > What they mean: "Your graphs are as flat as Kansas. I don't see any graphs with the line going up. Line must go up. Line must go up." What VCs say: "Please keep us in the loop." > What they mean: "Forget that you have my email. In fact, forget that email exists. If you message me again, I will call the Sopranos." What VCs say: "It's not you, it’s us" > What they mean: "It’s absolutely, unquestionably, definitively you. But if I tell you, you'll write an exposé, I’ll go viral on LinkedIn, and my partner will send me to a spa in Novosibirsk, Siberia for 6 months." What VCs say: "We’re really excited about your vision" > What they mean: "Your vision is wonderful. It’s your current business model that reminds me of a horror movie. Frankly, I may need therapy after seeing your revenue and churn." Any others? What am I missing?

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🔥 This is me, introducing our new Payment Provider Explorer by Hyperline In June last year, we released our beloved SaaS Pricing Explorer (#1 on Product Hunt!). Since then, we've been waiting to launch another free tool for SaaS operators... Getting the right info to build your payment stack is painful. We decided to build the best tool to challenge your payment stack by collecting all the data on every leading payment provider to make info super easy to find - all in one tool. A major thanks to the partnership teams of the providers who've participated in this project (Gabriela from Mollie, Vincent from GoCardless, Cyril from Checkout.com, Romain from Mangopay, Paul-Louis from Payplug, Christo from Airwallex, Irene and Hugo from Adyen, and others). 👉🏼 Now it's your time to explore: https://lnkd.in/gEuw3c4E (Considering a switch to acting or TV presenting as suggested by Jérémy Goillot 😂)

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These rules work most time: - When building a product, you try to make it to fit into end users’ daily routine or workflow. - When raising money from VCs, you try to make it to fit into their investment thesis. - When raising money from LPs, you try to make it to fit into their portfolios strategy. But then once in a while, some genius just tears apart all the existing patterns and tells everyone else to either change their habits or get left behind. Overtime, an innovation becomes a pattern again. The cycle repeats.

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The five big ideas from our conversation with Alexandre Zolko, founder at $400M customer loyalty platform CRMBonus 👇🏻 1️⃣ Focus is Key From his own experience, Alexandre highlights the danger of diluting efforts across multiple ventures. A concentrated focus on one business at a time is crucial to effectively grow and manage a startup 2️⃣ Foster Ownership Mentality Emphasizing the ownership mentality among team members can drive commitment and performance, ensuring that employees treat the business as their own 3️⃣ Embrace Customer-Centric Innovation CRM Bonus's success is largely due to its ability to innovate based on specific customer needs, enhancing loyalty by offering tailored rewards that encourage repeat business 4️⃣ Stay Adaptable Alexandre stresses the importance of adaptability and humility in leadership. Recognizing mistakes, being open to change, and adapting strategies are essential traits that can steer a startup through volatile phases towards success 5️⃣ Build with Purpose Alexandre advises founders to build their companies with both profitability and purpose in mind. This approach not only ensures the business can thrive independently and sustainably but also prepares it for potential sale and fundraising PS: Head over to our channels on YouTube, Spotify and Apple Podcast to watch / listen to the full conversation. For deeper insights into the episode - check out today’s five big ideas newsletter 🗞🔗 link in comment Olga Maslikhova #thejcurvepodcast #podcastrecommendations #techpodcast #businesspodcast #crmbonus #fromlatamtotheworld #venturecapital #startup #founderstory #leadership

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💥 BOOM! Here comes a super intriguing post that's gonna make you go "Hmm"! 🤔 But hold up, let's not just focus on the numbers; let's delve into the real deal - what’s it like to be on the inside of these mega-companies? 🍀 Lucky me, I’ve got this exclusive insight from my journey at Rippling and now at Deel. And let me tell you, it’s been nothing short of incredible! 🚀 But here’s the catch! 🙌 The comparison seems to overlook a vital point - what’s the employee experience really like? If you're aiming to build a generation-defining company, you only get there through a stellar culture, leaders who lift you up, and tons of opportunities to grow. You gotta strive to be 1% better every single day by working with kick-ass people! So here’s my two cents! 🤑 Check out the reviews on Glassdoor! Peel back the layers and get a true sense of how companies operate from an employee perspective. Trust me, it's always a worthwhile read! 🎯🔍 🎉 Before I sign off, a special kudos to the phenomenal synergy fostered by Ryan Freeman's dynamic leadership and the visionary minds of Deel's founders, Shuo Wang and Alex Bouaziz. Together, they transform Deel into a vibrant workspace that pulsates with excitement each day.

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SAFE is a tool to accept investment with minimum paperwork and negotiation with investors. It's really good at the beginning and helps both investors and founders save time. You just need to understand how the tool works to use it correctly. Mistakes happen when people don't know how it works: ✅ There’s nothing wrong with using a Valuation Cap. As a founder, you should understand that if you raise funds at a valuation lower than the valuation cap in your SAFEs, you’ll end up giving away a larger portion of your company. That said, you really want to pay attention whether the SAFE contains the MFN (Most Favorable Nation) provision or not and make sure you understand how this provision works. ✅ There’s nothing wrong with anti-dilution protection against future options. In fact, it gives investors a clearer understanding of the minimum equity they’re receiving and prevents founders from manipulating the Cap Table after the investment is accepted. If you’re a founder using a SAFE or an angel investor, please take the time to familiarize yourself with this tool and understand how it works. It’s only a 5-8 page document and is well-written (kudos to the YC lawyers).

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The most important fundraising KPI: 1st pitch → 2nd meeting conversion rate Is yours low? (< 30-50%) Something is wrong. Here's how to diagnose your issue and fix it: There are two types of potential problems... 1️⃣ Investor targeting 2️⃣ Pitching 𝐈𝐍𝐕𝐄𝐒𝐓𝐎𝐑 𝐓𝐀𝐑𝐆𝐄𝐓𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is targeting the wrong investors. Usually you're reaching out to investors that focus on a different stage or industry. Do some research on the investors that didn't convert to a second meeting. The most important resource: their portfolio page. Ignore the "about" section, or their blog. That's mostly about marketing to potential investors in their fund. Instead, look at what they've actually invested in and the stage at which they invested (Pre-Seed, Seed, Series A, etc.) Remember: trust the portfolio, not the thesis. __ The other main issue is unclear outbound messaging. Investors think you do one thing (industry, business model, tech, etc.) but you actually do something else. I recommend sending your outbound email template to 5+ friends that don't know anything about your startup. Ask them: • What kinds of customers do you think we serve? • What benefits do you think we provide for them? • What product features do you think we have? • What technologies do you think we use? If more 20% of your friends answer these questions incorrectly, you need to write new outreach emails. 𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐂𝐇𝐈𝐍𝐆: The most common issue is just that your pitch is weak. Usually because you aren't telling a story. You're just sharing disconnected data. The best pitches are stories that foreshadow the only possible outcome: your startup's tremendous success. It feels inevitable. The easiest test to figure out if you're telling a story: try connecting the main idea of each of your slides with "but," "so" or one of their synonyms. If the natural link between slides is "and" or if you can move the order around, you don't have a story. Chronology matters in storytelling. Go back to the drawing board and try to write your inevitable success story. __ Maybe your overall pitch isn't weak. But VCs may still be spotting a red flag when you pitch. It turns them off right away. If you think this might be your issue, it's important to start asking questions. Most pitches have time for you to ask questions at the end. Here's my go-to to diagnose this issue: "What would you need to see in order to get excited about investing in <<STARTUP>>?" If they tell you a primary KPI that you need to improve, then you've probably identified the issue. The other possibility: They try to avoid giving you a specific answer. If they're evading your question, you NEED to dig in to get to the bottom of it. Your fundraising success may depend on it. —— Was this helpful? 👍 like and ♻️ repost it to help other founders!

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Passive churn exists because payment processors don't trust subscriptions. Repeat charges on default raise a red flag for most. Especially on certain types of goods. If you're seeing higher than usual declines, look into @ButterPayments.

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The 4 speakers I'm not going to miss at SaaStr Annual 2024 (and neither should you)👇 1️⃣ Christoph Janz, Point Nine : In my 13+ years as a SaaS entrepreneur, I've come across few resources as valuable as The Angel VC. Everyone in SaaS has probably read his "Five ways to build a $100 million SaaS business" post (and the "five years later" sequel that followed). I can't wait to check out tomorrow’s "Metrics That Matter: How to Convince SaaS Investors with the Right Data" session. 2️⃣ Andrew Bialecki, Klaviyo: From bootstrapped beginnings to a $9.2B IPO, Klaviyo's journey is the stuff of legends. The company’s success has also been crucial in elevating Massachusetts’ position as a tech hub. I’m looking forward to the insights from his session, "How to Build a Product Customers Love & Drive Nearly $1B in Revenue Along the Way". 3️⃣ Bella Liu, Orby AI: In a world where many companies are just slapping a surface-level layer on top of OpenAI’s models, I love what Orby AI’s doing to reimagine the applications of AI in tech. Excited to be present at her session, "Cutting Through the Noise of Gen AI: How to Find Your Differentiation," where she’ll be sharing the stage with other pioneers of AI in SaaS. 4️⃣ Tim Zheng, Apollo.io: Apollo.io is name-dropped in LinkedIn posts and comments all the time, making it hard for anyone to miss the company’s meteoric rise to success over the past few years. Eager to catch the company’s growth story in Tim Zheng’s "Transitioning from Sales-Led to Product-Led Growth and Scaling to $100M ARR" session. P.S. Ravi Madabhushi and I will be at both #SaaStr and SaaSBoomi's #SBCaravan24. If you're going, let's meet up :)

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With early stage VC funding picking up steam I hope the next generation of founders are ready for the possibility that unfriendly funding structures will force them to denature their companies into obsolescence. 🚀 🚨 What I mean: 👉 VCs fund companies with the hopes that the success of one company will cover the failures of 10-20 companies 👉 This means that a lot of companies with healthy margins and growth rates still may not be on track for VCs to get the return they are hoping for 👉 So the VC would rather push a company to its limits in order to achieve one of two outcomes: failure or unicorn status 👉 A failure is no big deal for a VC -- their model accounts for it -- but it is a huge deal for founders, employees, and customers There are A LOT of founders who have been pushed to failure despite having perfectly good companies that generated cash, grew at 5-10% year over year, and had an army of loyal customers. Founders, stay vigilant: ✅ Bootstrap if at all possible ✅ Understand the terms of your funding: Ensure you know what you're signing up for and what the expectations are. ✅ Seek alignment with your investors: Look for investors who share your vision and values, not just those offering the largest checks. ✅ Have a plan B: Always have alternative strategies in case the pressure from VCs threatens the core values and mission of your company.

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Alexandre L. and I created our app - Pluvo - because we felt that CFOs, controllers, and decision makers needed better insight into their financial position than what is currently afforded by Excel or G sheets. It’s not that you can’t do great things with standard spreadsheet tools, it’s the fact that it's SO DIFFICULT and TIME CONSUMING to achieve these things. 🔊 For all my CFOs out there - remember the very first time you had to figure out how to do a rolling forecast using Excel? Exactly my point. 😬 With Pluvo, we’re addressing three huge problems left by spreadsheet reporting: - Poor data integrity as a result of human error - Excessive manual labour  - High barrier to entry on advanced financial analysis The simple fact is this: When you spend a lot of time working on (ultimately) incorrect data, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. Your bottom line suffers, your projections suffer, your business suffers. Pluvo will make sure that you’re achieving optimal performance at all times. Sound like something that interests you? Shoot me a DM. 😁 Sebastian Fallenbüchl, BASc. | Andrew Ingram | Rain Technologies Inc. #fpanda #scenarioplanning #forecasting #excel #spreadsheets

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