Billions

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Ross Andrew Paquette, the CEO who broke every Silicon Valley rule: he bought OUT his investors before buidling a 1.7 billion dollar empire. He founded Maropost in 2011, and by 2016, it ranked #7 on the PROFIT 500 as one of Canada's fastest-growing companies.Ross, thanks a lot for being here!TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:01:12 : From lifestyle business to a $1.7 billion empire00:01:12 - 00:03:32 : The 75% ebitda secret and why growth at all costs is a trap00:03:32 - 00:05:37 : Founder mode and signing clients every single day00:05:37 - 00:08:18 : Why "experienced" executives fail and the return to young and hungry teams00:08:18 - 00:12:14 : The $37 million wire transfer to buy out investors00:12:14 - 00:16:18 : Why advisory boards beat professional investor boards every time00:16:18 - 00:26:48 : The contrarian ipo strategy for australia and canada00:26:48 - 00:33:08 : Why you should never take vc money if you want to keep your drive00:33:08 - 00:51:56 : The brutal reality of m&a and culture integration00:51:56 - 01:00:48 : Two metrics that actually matter: revenue and profitREFERENCES :- Adam Robinson - Larry Ellison - Patrick Campbell - Elephant & Highland Europe - Summit, Insight, TA - Shopify Plus- Atlassian - Oracle - Attentive & Klaviyo .- Groq - Neto & Retail Express - Australian companies acquired by Maropost - Findify - Swedish search/merchandising company acquired by Maropost- ProfitWell & Baremetrics- Stripe

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Cornelius Schmahl — a college dropout who keeps finding his way into billion-dollar outcomes.At 23, Uber sent him to markets nobody wanted. South Africa. Uganda. Ghana. No playbook. Figure it out or fail.By 27, he was running Uber Russia. One problem: Yandex was winning.He helped engineer a 3.7 billion dollar merger — then walked away from operating entirely. Started writing angel checks. Lime. Liquid Death. BillionToOne.Climeworks. Four bets. Four unicorns.What does this guy see that everybody else misses?Cornelius thanks a lot for being on BILLIONS.TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:03:58: From college dropout to Uber's unwanted markets00:03:58 - 00:09:02: The brutal reality of launching Uber in hostile territories00:09:02 - 00:16:06: Engineering violent price cuts and discovering the utilization game00:16:06 - 00:25:47: The Russia war - infiltrating Yandex and burning millions strategically00:25:47 - 00:32:35: The $3.7 billion merger and why timing beat fundamentals00:32:35 - 00:44:26: Angel investing reality check - why unicorns on paper don't pay bills00:44:26 - 00:52:28: The three-step framework that creates billion-dollar companies00:52:28 - 00:58:52: From billionaire dreams to therapy - the consciousness shift00:58:52 - 01:01:48: Marc Benioff email scandal and building leverage through controversy

Today on BILLIONS, I’m sitting down with Noah Kagan — the guy who got fired from Facebook before it was worth a trillion… and turned that loss into the biggest comeback story in online business.He went from losing a fortune on paper to building AppSumo, a $100 million-a-year bootstrapped empire - all without raising a single dollar of VC money.Noah, thanks a lot for being here!TIMELINE00:00:00 - 00:02:10 : The trillion-dollar miss at Facebook00:02:10 - 00:06:43 : Leadership lessons from Mark Zuckerberg's billion-dollar rejection00:06:43 - 00:12:13 : The lifetime deal dilemma destroying software value00:12:13 - 00:19:40 : Why most entrepreneurs never take action00:19:40 - 00:26:49 : Building discipline through small daily choices00:26:49 - 00:33:10 : The scary reality of AppSumo's uncertain future00:33:10 - 00:42:09 : Community quality crisis in the AI era00:42:09 - 00:48:58 : Testing new models before it's too late00:48:58 - 00:57:07 : Hiring secrets for bootstrap businesses00:57:07 - 01:04:29 : Finding contentment beyond the billion-dollar dreamREFERENCES- Mark Zuckerberg - Peter Thiel - Marc Andreessen- Sean Parker- Dustin Moskovitz- Soleio - Bill Gates - Steve Jobs - Moody- Christine Rogers- Jesse Mecham – - Ayman Al-Abdullah- Reid Hoffman- Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan- AppSumo  - TidyCal  - Airbnb   - Asana  - Lemlist   - Reclaim- Bolt- Hostinger- Emergent- Pika  - YNAB- Vercel- Tabby  - YC

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Stan Massueras - the guy who's scaled companies to billion-dollar valuations not once, but multiple times.He was one of Facebook's first European sales hires in 2008, then helped Twitter expand across the continent and after that, he spent six years scaling Intercom to unicorn status. Now he's doing it all over again at ElevenLabs, the voice AI company that went from zero to $6B+ in under three years.In this episode, we'll dig into what it actually looks like to scale sales, how selling AI is fundamentally different from selling SaaS, and what Stan had to unlearn from the typocal Saas playbook to succeed at ElevenLabs.If you want to understand what it takes to repeatedly win at the billion-dollar level - and what breaks inside companies growing this fast - this episode is for you.Stan thanks for being here today!TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:01:17 : From Facebook to ElevenLabs: Meet the billion-dollar scaler  00:01:17 - 00:05:21 : Why selling software in Europe breaks the US playbook  00:05:21 - 00:10:10 : The AI sales revolution: Killing the SaaS sales hierarchy  00:10:10 - 00:13:56 : No middle management, no titles: How ElevenLabs runs flat and fast  00:13:56 - 00:18:34 : Inside ElevenLabs’ $300M ARR sprint: Remote, lean, relentless  00:18:34 - 00:22:47 : Mastering two motions: creative tools vs enterprise AI  00:22:47 - 00:26:39 : Expanding from voiceovers to luxury AI agents  00:26:39 - 00:30:54 : Taking updates seriously: enterprise upsell strategy and product marketing  00:30:54 - 00:34:22 : Deepfake fears & Hollywood deals: AI voice ethics in action  00:34:22 - 00:40:45 : Billion-dollar impact: AI accessibility, ALS, and global translation  00:40:45 - 00:54:44 : Career regrets, recruiting lessons, and the real rocket-ship mindset  REFERENCES :- Sheryl Sandberg - Jason Fried - (Basecamp) - Carlos Reina - Guillaume Kabane- Dave Gerhardt- Arthur Waller (PennyLane)- Harry Stebbings (20VC)- Matthew McConaughey- Bruce Springsteen- Mark Zuckerberg - Skyblog (Note: Mostly inactive now; legacy site)- Lemlist- Deel- Salesforce- Oracle- Canva- Figma- Zendesk- Lovabl- Synthesia- HeyGen- Coinbase- Sales Navigator (LinkedIn)- Y Combinator- Station F- SaasStock

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 structure00:03:37 - 00:08:08 : Why the earn-out worked and 3.5 years at Booking00:08:08 - 00:13:58 : Coming back stronger - choosing accounting as the next battlefield00:13:58 - 00:18:12 : Seven co-founders sharing power and equity splits00:18:12 - 00:24:01 : Fundraising strategy - diluting less than 10% early rounds00:24:01 - 00:30:34 : Making accountants allies instead of enemies00:30:34 - 00:36:08 : European expansion vs US market strategy00:36:08 - 00:41:56 : Secondary transactions - $30M for employees, $70M for founders00:41:56 - 00:46:38 : Staying private vs going public - the Stripe model00:46:38 - 00:48:43 : The one advice for young foundersREFERENCES : - 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)