Enterprise SaaS: Making unsexy tech sexy | Olivier Pailhes, Aircall

The Balderton Podcast: Tech Investment | Venture Capital | Startup Funding

Olivier Pailhes is the Founder and CEO of Aircall. Aircall is an telephony service that is the built on top of the newest technologies for realtime communication: Websockets, WebRTC. Aircall brings its customers a new approach for managing their business calls. 0100 Very early in Aircall's life, Olivier and the founding team took the company to the USA to participate in the 500 Startups accelerator programme. Olivier explains why the decision was made to take the company to the USA during their early stages. 0345 As many early-stage entrepreneurs will be deciding whether they apply for accelerator programmes, Olivier explains how a founder should chose which programme that they will participate in. 0415 Olivier urges fellow European tech entrepreneurs to spend time in the USA. 0530 After their successful spell with 500 Startups, the Aircall team set up their headquarters in Paris. Olivier shares the reasonings behind coming 'back' to Europe. 0725 On the subject of opening a second office: Olivier explains some of the questions that were asked when Aircall made the decision to open a second office in New York. For example, how did they select NY over SF? 0930 On the subject of opening a second office #2: Should entrepreneurs try to replicate the culture they have built in their original hq? Or is it wiser to tailor the culture to each environment. 1105 Olivier talks about the challenges he faced and overcame when growing his team at speed over a 4 month period 1530 When Aircall were raising investment, Olivier met with 125 investors. He admits that other entrepreneurs only met around 25 before closing their round. He explains why he was happy to wait and make the 'right' decision, rather than closing early. 2100 On Enterprise SaaS: Enterprise SaaS is not cool. Oliver explains how Aircall are attempting to make enterprise telephony a far 'sexier' technology, and why other SaaS entrepreneurs should do the same, by focusing on their product.