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published 2019-04-23
In my last post I told you [1] I had plans that I was not ready to talk about yet. Well, the time has come. I am happy to announce that I am now the CTO and co-founder of a startup called Chilli [2].
Chilli is not a typical startup, it is an eFounders [3] project. You may know eFounders as the first startup studio in France, which originated companies such as Front [4], Aircall [5] and Spendesk [6]. The way they usually work is that they identify a problem that needs solving and find founders to tackle it, providing them both support and funding in exchange for equity. When the studio was created, I had doubts about the model, but later on I became quite enthusiastic [7] about it.
Most eFounders companies are Software-as-a-Service businesses, and several of them were born of a need identified in traditional SMBs and SMEs. However, many pivoted to serve a different market, either tech companies or enterprises, and we can see the same pattern in other SaaS companies as well. So we end up with software that doesn't sell in the market it was originally designed for, and SMBs left on the side of the road with unaddressed digital needs. The reason, we believe, lies with the SaaS-to-SMBs distribution model, and that is the issue Chilli intends to solve.
We are certain that the solution to that problem must involve software. However, we also think technology alone will not be enough; a human touch is necessary, which is why my co-founder and CEO Julien comes from a consulting background. What we will build is a hybrid platform to help leaders identify the pain points in their companies and match them with the best digital tools to solve them. By starting from the customer's needs, we will work around the distribution cost issues and become the missing link between SaaS vendors and traditional SMBs and SMEs.
For me, this is a new and exciting challenge. Despite having been a very early employee at startups twice, I have never been a founder yet, and it is something I have wanted to do for a while. Moreover, it means I will be doing a lot of Product and Web development again, which will change from the last five years I spent mostly in the world of systems software in C and Lua.
On that note, our Web stack is (typed) Python 3 / Flask and TypeScript / Angular, and I am looking for a full stack developer to join the team. This is a junior to mid position based in Paris, France (no remote); since most of the work is on the frontend experience with Python is not a requirement. If you are interested, get in touch [8].
1: https://blog.separateconcerns.com/2019-02-15-goodbye-lima.html#what-are-you-going-to-do-next