Entreprendre is an adventure punctuated by success and trials, an emotional elevator that Thibault Renouf, COO of Parto, explores in his work Start-up & Down (Ed. Eyrolles). Through his sharp gaze and his experience in the world of start-ups, he reveals the sometimes unknown realities of this demanding universe. For female business o, he shares his vision, his advice and the lessons he draws from his career. An interview without filter on the ups and downs of entrepreneurship.
What prompted you to write Start-up & Down After Start to Scale ?
Thibault Renouf: After Start To Scale, which treated the passage from the start-up to the Scale-Up, I realized that the growth of a business is never a long quiet river. Behind the expansion and successes hide permanent challenges, often underestimated: restructuring, economic crises, internal tensions, strategic pivots … Start-up & Down Explore the back of the decor, the crises that shape companies and the lessons that can be drawn to better anticipate and cross them.
Why do you think that crisis management is an essential competence for an entrepreneur?
Thibault Renouf: Because the crisis is no exception, but a structural component of entrepreneurship. Any company goes through periods of uncertainty: evolving market, strategic errors, financing difficulties … An entrepreneur who does not know how to manage a crisis is likely to undergo events rather than transforming them into opportunities. Knowing how to react quickly, adapting your organization and maintaining the confidence of the teams are key skills that often make the difference between a company that survives and one that disappears.
You talk about exogenous (economic, health) and endogenous (strategic, maturity) crises. Which one seems to you the most difficult to manage and why?
Thibault Renouf: Endogenous crises are often more difficult to manage because they are internal and progressive. An economic or health crisis is brutal, but it affects everyone in the same way, which forces react collectively. Conversely, a maturity crisis or a strategic error can develop in silence, without realizing it immediately. At Partoo, we had to review our organization and our positioning several times to avoid being hampered by our own past choices. It is these invisible crises that can be the most dangerous.
The COVID-19 crisis has deeply upset many companies. How did Partoo have gone through this period and what lessons did you learn from it?
Thibault Renouf: The COVVI-19 was a brutal shock, but it also allowed us to test our resilience. The brutal judgment of commercial activity pushed us to review our priorities: strengthen our fundamentals, improve our financial management and accelerate on structuring projects. We have also become aware of the importance of the speed of execution: in a few weeks, we launched new offers adapted to the context. The main lesson was that in times of crisis, adaptability and internal communication are essential to keep the teams aligned and motivated.
You approach the subject of technical debt as a major challenge of start-ups. What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs to prevent it from becoming a brake on growth?
Thibault Renouf: The technical debt is inevitable, but it must be mastered. My main advice is not to underestimate your impact from the start: taking shortcuts to go fast is tempting. But if the technical architecture is wobbly, it will eventually slow down the whole business. It is necessary to find a balance between speed and robustness, invest early in a scalable architecture and avoid accumulating too much useless complexity. It is also essential to provide moments dedicated to the “reimbursement” of this debt before it becomes paralyzing.
You talk about the need for an entrepreneur to “find pleasure in adversity”. How to cultivate this daily resilience?
Thibault Renouf: Entrepreneurship is a roller coaster, and if there is no satisfaction in the challenge itself, there is a risk of quickly exhausting. Cultivating resilience goes through several things: knowing how to step back, celebrating small victories, surrounding yourself with positive people and keeping a long -term vision. Accepting that the difficulties are part of the path allows them to live them better and not to be overwhelmed.
You often cite the importance of the speed of execution in a changing environment. How to find the balance between speed and quality of decisions?
Thibault Renouf: Speed is an asset, but it should not lead to precipitation. You have to know how to differentiate reversible decisions (where it is better to act quickly and then adjust) and irreversible decisions (which require more analysis). A good practice is to favor short experimental cycles: test quickly, measure the impact and adjust. At Partoo, we have learned that taking too much time to validate a decision can be more risky than taking it quickly and adjusting it according to the results.
Fund lifting and speculation are recurring subjects in your book. Do you think that the start-up ecosystem is changing the model?
Thibault Renouf: Yes, clearly. The period of massive lifting and growth at all costs is at its end. The economic crisis recalled the importance of profitability and healthier growth. Many start-ups that had based their model on successive lifters had to review their strategy. Today, investors are looking for companies capable of generating cash and holding over time. It is a return to the fundamentals: a company must one day be viable and generate profits.
The intensification of competition is a key subject in Start-up & Down. What are the weak signals that allow you to anticipate a change in competitive dynamics?
Thibault Renouf: Several elements must be monitored:
- the arrival of new players on the market,
- evolution of customer expectations,
- technological changes,
- and investor movements.
A frequent error is to focus only on its direct competitors when the real threat can come from an actor who changes the rules of the game. At Partoo, we have seen how changes like the development of AI or new regulations can impact our market, sometimes unpredictably.
You have experienced the hypercroissance of parto. What was the biggest challenge of this start-up transformation into a scale-up?
Thibault Renouf: The biggest challenge has been to structure the company without losing the agility that was our strength. Going from 15 to 400 employees in a few years implies completely rethinking its organization, setting up processes without weighing decision -making, and above all, preserving corporate culture. It is a difficult balance to find. Each new growth phase brings its share of maturity attacks to manage.
Is there a crisis or a failure that has particularly marked you in your journey and that has changed your way of undertaking?
Thibault Renouf: The acquisition and closing of Pulp was a significant experience. We were convinced of the strategic interest of this redemption, but we underestimated the impact of the change in economic conditions. We have also learned that an acquisition is not limited to financial and operational integration: corporate culture, the adequacy of the teams and the compatibility of the processes are crucial elements. This failure has taught us to be more cautious and to better structure our expansion decisions.
What advice would you give to entrepreneurs who are launching today in an uncertain economic context?
Thibault Renouf: Three tips:
1. Favor frugality and profitability: do not only rest on successive fundraising to finance growth, but build a solid economic model from the start.
2. Anticipate crises as a certainty, not a possibility: each entrepreneur will be confronted with it, as much to prepare for it from the start.
3. Not isolate yourself and surround yourself well: in difficult times, the decisions to be made are complex. Having co -founders, mentors or investors who bring hindsight is a real force.
Entrepreneurship is more demanding than ever, but it is also a good time to build sustainable and solid companies.
