The SaaS Revolution Show is a weekly podcast that brings insights and tactics from leading SaaS entrepreneurs and operators across the world. Hosted by Alex Theuma, the show is brought to you by SaaStock. You can subscribe on iTunes, Stitcher, Overcast.

A Math PhD dropout, Florian Douetteau, was only 20 when he first got the startup bug. The practical ways of learning through immersing himself into startups appealed more to him and he has never looked back.

The SaaS Revolution Show latest guest, Florian started Dataiku, his latest venture, five years ago in Paris. The collaboration platform for data scientists was profitable from the early onset.

Florian had seen the struggle of growing a company in France, where there is a steady growth up until a few million in revenue but then a stagnated growth when it comes to getting to the next stage. Maybe it was because the European market was not dynamic enough or the companies would become almost too European.

Florian wanted to avoid that at all cost. So he took the leap head on and scaled the company into the US when they were just a dozen people. Florian decided on New York.

The true cost of scaling became obvious as the company lost that initial profitability and instead heavily relied on three funding rounds, two of which were raised in the US. Having American investors would help greatly in moving upmarket in the US and signing customers such as NPR.

It has not been a journey without its warts. Currently the company is making an 8 digits revenue and has staff of 135 people, split between 3 offices.

Listen on to hear:

  • How he initially scaled into the US when Dataiku was very small
  • What were the factors that helped Dataiku with American customers, including NPR
  • How he organises his time between the three locations and spends enough time at each

P.S.

Florian is one many excellent speakers we will host at SaaStock on Tour Paris on May 3rd. He will be joined by the likes of Rachel Delacour, VP for Startups at Zendesk, Christoph Janz, Managing Partner at Point Nine Capital and Philippe Botteri, Partner at Accel among others. Get your early bird tickets before April 12th.