GE 280: How Front Grows 10% in Revenue MoM and Doubled the Number of Employees in Just 1 Year (podcast)

Hey everyone! In today’s episode, I share the mic with Mathilde Collin, the CEO of FrontApp. FrontApp lets you manage all of your communication channels in one place, thus helping your team collaborate more easily.

Tune in to hear what inspired Mathilde to start her own company, how fast Front has been growing in the past 4 years, and what she does to maintain a healthy work/life balance.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:37] Before we jump into today’s interview, please rate, review, and subscribe to the Growth Everywhere Podcast!
• [01:25] Mathilde was raised in France.
• [01:30] She noticed that no one in her family liked their jobs and she decided it was important to love what she did for a living.
• [01:45] The first job she had was in a software company.
• [01:55] She realized how important email was to her work.
• [02:03] She decided to quit and start Front when she was 23.
• [02:15] They have been operating for four years.
• [02:41] When people have a shared inbox (a general business account), Front is a great tool to help manage the correspondence from multiple users.
• [03:20] After launch, they raised seed money.
• [03:43] There are now 85 people on the team, which is double what they had in 2017.
• [04:10] While raising seed money, Sequoia passed on the opportunity.
• [04:40] Mathilde followed up with them and talked to some partners.
• [05:00] This led to a partnership with Sequoia.
• [05:24] For three years, the office was in San Francisco, but they have since moved the company to France.
• [05:38] Front works as a subscription service: $/User/Month or $/User/Year.
• [05:44] They have different plans based on the features you want.
• [06:10] Front grows 10% in revenue every month.
• [06:33] If you go on Mathilde’s Medium profile, all the company’s numbers and growth rate info is there.
• [07:50] They implemented features to help integrate Front with other tools.
• [08:22] 40% of users use Front for share and individual inboxes.
• [08:50] You can have as many inboxes as you want.
• [10:35] Email is the way logistics companies get work done.
• [11:15] Front’s retention metrics are very strong.
• [12:25] They have integrations with 50 other services.
• [12:40] This helps them to acquire new customers.
• [12:50] Before Front, Mathilde worked for a contract management software company.
• [12:54] She launched a new product for them and cut her teeth doing this intense work.
• [13:35] Mathilde has never worked crazy hours. She had faith in Front and didn’t want to spend too much time on work. Work/Life balance is important to her.
• [14:05] She spends time with friends and playing sports.
• [14:18] Her leisure activities help her be a better CEO.
• [14:45] Mathilde uses the Headspace app, as well.
• [15:10] Mathilde feels that being a CEO can be a lonely job sometimes.
• [16:50] She has dinner with other CEO friends every few weeks.
• [17:18] One of the struggles Front has faced was that there wasn’t an executive team when they started out.
• [17:36] Mathilde has since built an executive team.
• [18:13] Learning new skills every month in order to better your company is a constant struggle.
• [19:10] Mathilde recommends Scoot in San Francisco.
• [20:00] Mathilde recommends the book The Hard Thing About Hard Things.
• [20:38] Check out the Front App and find Mathilde on Medium and Twitter.

Resources from the interview:

• Front
• Sequoia
• Headspace
• Scoot
• Must-read book: The Hard Thing About Hard Things
• Mathilde on Medium
• Mathilde on Twitter

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