Raising funds, yes, but for what? Pennylane, who is developing a cash management solution, in conjunction with accountants, asked the question. And rather twice once, the startup having completed two rounds of funding this year, of 15 million euros each, in January and June. Unlike other startups who need millions to finance their very expensive marketing campaigns, Pennylane has made the choice of frugality. ” We only spend 15,000 euros per month on marketing », Congratulates Arthur Waller, co-founder and CEO of the company. And there is no question of pushing up the bill because the startup can now afford it. Quite the contrary.
If all startups want to build the best possible product, for Pennylane, the challenge takes on another issue, that of the distribution of its solution. ” We have a product to distribute widely at a competitive price. But it is not possible for us to distribute it directly to VSEs-SMEs », Which represent more than 95% of French companies. Too time consuming and too expensive.
So the startup has the idea of developing a new distribution model: going through accounting firms, which would offer the solution to their clients – with the argument that it saves time for both parties. A strategy that Pennylane copied from its model: the Silae payroll software. ” In a few years, he took 50% of the market share with only four salespeople. », Says, dazzled, the entrepreneur.
Lower the cost of customer acquisition
For this, the startup has taken up a double challenge: technological and usage, so that the solution offers all the functionalities offered by its competitors and that its user experience manages to convince accountants who use another solution ” eight hours a day, for 20 years ». « These are solutions that have been around for decades and have insane functional depth. We had to catch up with the entire functional scope with many modules so that it saves time for entrepreneurs and increases the productivity of accounting firms. »
Developments that the two successive fundraising events have accelerated. ” It was a booster, recognizes Arthur Waller. Our investors wanted us to be more aggressive, but with commercial growth of 20% each month, it would not have been possible to do more because our sales teams would not have held up. On the other hand, where we thought we could be more aggressive, it was in terms of technological investments. »
The startup thus evaluated the number of recruitments that it could envisage ” without all engineers being training others ». With: « technical exercises showed us that we could raise the gauge to 280 people in the product teams “. And recruitments followed.
Economies of scale
At the same time, the sales teams, for their part, have grown little or not, stagnating at around fifteen salespeople. But the change in distribution mode has had its effect: while the Pennylane solution was 80% marketed directly, via an online form, at the start of the year, it is now 70% marketed via experts. accountants. A winning bet, for Arthur Waller, who believes that the investments made in the product ” are money that we will not need to invest in customer acquisition over the next few years. We can scale without recruiting salespeople ».
The startup is only at the beginning of its growth. Indeed, the indirect distribution model promises growth ” exponential “Considers the manager:” a small firm of accountants has several hundred clients; a large cabinet, several tens of thousands », Weighs Arthur Waller. However, there is no question of relying only on accountants to distribute the solution; Pennylane soon reached the ideal split between direct and indirect distribution. ” It’s always good to keep a little direct sales, both to bring business to our partners and to enhance our notoriety. This is also why the startup should boost its marketing budget next year: work on its positioning and its brand image. But with the serenity of companies that don’t need to pick up customers in the metro.
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