Bootstrapping to 8 Million from Brittany – Digitaleo CEO Jocelyn Denis (Part 2)

Sramana: Where was your business positioned after its first year?

Jocelyn Denis: After a year into it business, was growing. I was constantly investing in new capabilities. I was very user focused but maintained a focus on the texting platform. I was lucky because in 2004 I started with the SaaS model. That was a good choice for me.

Sramana: In terms of product scope, were you still primarily focusing on customer notification?

Jocelyn Denis: Yes, primarily for car dealerships. It was very easy to sell into that market because once a user gave me a requirement, I could develop a new feature knowing that the other dealerships would have the same needs. I courted all of the dealerships in the western part of France.

After a year Peugeot called me and asked me to come to Paris to demonstrate the capability for them. During the meeting, they asked me to deploy my SaaS service for all Peugeot dealerships in France. That was the first national market opportunity for me.

Sramana: How big was that deal?

Jocelyn Denis: It encompassed all dealerships owned directly by Peugeot, which was just over 100. The deal was worth about 150,000 euro per year. This was a good deal for me because in the SaaS business the cost is not huge. At that time I hired an assistant to help organize things. I also decided to work with a French call center to help me do demonstrations by phone. I did not want to have to go everywhere in France just to show my product because my product was simple and easy to use. This let me sell nationally, not just regionally, which expanded my available market size.

Sramana: Was your software in French?

Jocelyn Denis: Yes, the interface and everything else was in French. Today we do a lot of languages, but at that time I was thinking only about France.

Sramana: How many car companies operate in France? How many national deal opportunities were there?

Jocelyn Denis: There are a lot of small car dealerships. [At the time] there were 3,500 dealerships in France, and several of them were larger national brands.

Sramana: Did you have the call center call the owner of the company or the dealerships?

Jocelyn Denis: We called the dealerships directly. If they were organized into a business group of 30 or 40 dealerships, then we would call the relevant person who headed that group.

This segment is part 2 in the series : Bootstrapping to 8 Million from Brittany – Digitaleo CEO Jocelyn Denis
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