Description
Today on BILLIONS , I’m sitting down with Arthur Waller , one of the sharpest French founders of his generation. He sold his first company to Booking.com in his twenties — and instead of retiring, he came back to build Pennylane , a fintech that turned accountants from enemies into growth partners and became one of europe fastest-growing unicorn. In this episode, we will discuss how six co-founders actually share power, what founders get wrong about fundraising terms and dilution , and what Arthur thinks about secondaries, freedom, and building a company that lasts twenty years . If you want to understand what it really takes to scale, cash-out without selling out , and keep your ambition alive after success - then this episode is for you! TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:03:37 : First exit to Booking.com at 25 - the $80M deal structure 00:03:37 - 00:08:08 : Why the earn-out worked and 3.5 years at Booking 00:08:08 - 00:13:58 : Coming back stronger - choosing accounting as the next battlefield 00:13:58 - 00:18:12 : Seven co-founders sharing power and equity splits 00:18:12 - 00:24:01 : Fundraising strategy - diluting less than 10% early rounds 00:24:01 - 00:30:34 : Making accountants allies instead of enemies 00:30:34 - 00:36:08 : European expansion vs US market strategy 00:36:08 - 00:41:56 : Secondary transactions - $30M for employees, $70M for founders 00:41:56 - 00:46:38 : Staying private vs going public - the Stripe model 00:46:38 - 00:48:43 : The one advice for young founders REFERENCES : - Booking.com - Felix Blossier - Tancrède Besnard - Alexandre Roquoplo - Charles-Philippe Letellier - Brian Halligan - Partech - PayFit - Alan - Qonto - Indy - QuickBooks - NetSuite - Salesloft - Outreach - Sequoia Capital - Carta - Cegid - Shine - Stripe - Revolut - Andreessen Horowitz (a16z)