What it’s like to join eFounders
I always wanted to be an eFounder…
I first heard about eFounders thanks to a former classmate of mine, Pauline Tordeur from Hivy. When I was dreaming of leaving investment banking I would pore over the eFounders blog- I think I even applied for an intern or analyst position!
I really admired their vision as well as their successes (Front, Aircall), they were early visionaries in the B2B SaaS space and I had a lot of respect for what they did.
So I was beyond thrilled when eFounders reached out to me for an exciting project!
The phonecall
Late in 2018 I was contacted by Julie, the HR rep at eFounders. She offered me to jump on a screening interview with her for a new project- at the time called WalletX.
After a successful screening call, the marathon of interviews began! 😅
I had calls with Amaury (COO), my future CTO, Théo, as well as Quentin (Founding Partner). Quite franckly, I did not do well with those last two- I was going through multiple interview processes at the time and did not focus properly. The next step proved to be decisive since I had left a so-so impression: I had to create an investment deck on the company vision and present it to Théo and Quentin. I worked like hell, and did well: I won their hearts back and had another interview with Theo to work on a new feature integration and the related roadmap.
The final step was a long interview with Thibaud (Founding Partner). The whole process was intense, nerve-wracking, but ultimately exciting. I loved the project and the people. I was so thrilled when I heard they wanted me to join as CEO.
Hitting the ground running
I joined full time in February 2019 and Théo and I stayed in the offices until June, when against all odds, we got accepted to Y Combinator (you can read all about my co-founder’s take on YC here). Four months might seem like a short amount of time to spend in the eFounders offices, but we learned a ton while we were there- especially about structure and pacing. Every week, I would work on a single topic: GTM strategy, product, operations. This allowed us to go fast while remaining hyper focussed.
Learning everyday
As soon as your business is launched, eFounders encourages you to get external funding. This pressure was sometimes uncomfortable, but the best way to learn not just about pitching a vision to investors but the entire fundraising process. I learned the art of storytelling, how to create FOMO with investors, and most importantly negotiating terms.
Hiring and building a team was also something that eFounders helped us with. Because Multis is deep tech and we’ve taken longer to find a PMF we initially hired at a slower rate compared to the norm for eFounders- this proved to be the right call: being in the office and observing interview rounds and hiring processes at other firms was really instructive for us and has helped hire a talented team (join us here to build the future of banking 🤗). And we’re still leveraging their HR playbook.
eFounders is particularly strong in building a strong cofounding team and core team. My previous entrepreneurial attempts failed because of the founding team we put together. I was looking for a complementary cofounder, aligned on vision and values and I found this thanks to them.
Challenges
In a word: eFounders is intense. There is no “onboarding process”- you jump into the deep end and start swimming.
So day one, I was the CEO and was expected to make decisions on the spot. I had to get comfortable being opinionated right away, even if I was far from having 100% background knowledge on everything. You’re also expected to make your mark on the company vision and culture- this is where communicating and seeing eye-to-eye with your cofounder is key. I’m still grateful Theo have let me own it since that day one.
By the second day on the job, I was pitching my product even though I still had little knowledge of product or end users. You start at warp speed at eFounders and you have to be okay with not mastering everything right away.
My take on eFounders
I absolutely recommend joining eFounders for any budding entrepreneurs- honestly building a company with eFounders is like “riding in first class” (like my good friend Nicolas Bendy from Swan always says). The value you get from mentoring, to connections with investors and fellow entrepreneurs is incomparable. My advice to anyone thinking of joining is to look for a co-founder with complementary skills as yours-this was key to Multis success. You’ll leave the nest at some point and the team at eFounders will be less active.
I’m proud of being part of the eFounders family and what I’ve learned with them has enriched not only my company, but also the way I work, hire, and think about leadership. I’m also grateful I got to work and learn along those fantastic and brilliant people I have yet to mention: Jon, Meg, Clem, Didi, you guys rock- thank you ❤️
