BILLIONS

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Des Traynor, co-founder of Intercom.In 2023, his company was stuck at 10% growth. Customer service teams were shrinking. The old model was dying. So he did something radical: he launched an AI agent priced at $0.99 per resolved conversation. Not per seat. Per outcome.The result? Growth doubled to 25%. $343M in revenue. And a complete reinvention of a $1.3B company in 18 months.TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:01:02 : Des Traynor - Intercom00:01:02 - 00:05:22 : The $1.3 billion bet on AI : moving 15 days after ChatGPT launched00:05:22 - 00:09:08 : Why building AI is not building SaaS00:09:08 - 00:12:51 : The "torture test" for engineering reliability00:12:51 - 00:20:14 : Developing the "white smoke" moment for product00:20:14 - 00:25:16 : Defining what "good" looks like in AI00:25:16 - 00:34:53 : The Blockbuster warning: Adapt or die00:34:53 - 00:40:27 : Killing hallucinations with actor-critic logic00:40:27 - 00:48:55 : Outcome-based pricing and the future of CRM00:48:55 - 00:55:56 : The end of frontline customer service jobsREFERENCES : ⁠Fergal Reid⁠ ⁠Ciarán Lee⁠ ⁠Eoghan McCabe⁠⁠Marc Andreessen⁠ ⁠If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies⁠⁠OpenAI / ChatGPT⁠⁠Zendesk⁠⁠Salesforce⁠ ⁠Fin.AI⁠⁠Gong⁠ ⁠ClickUp⁠⁠DALL-E⁠⁠Cursor⁠ ⁠Windsurf⁠⁠Devin⁠⁠Claude Code⁠⁠Attio⁠⁠Clarify⁠⁠Netflix⁠⁠The Cheeky Pint

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Wilfried Juncker.He's the Managing Director for Odoo's Americas a Belgian software unicorn that just hit a €8 billion valuation.Under Wilfried's watch, Odoo's Americas operation exploded from 35 people in 2016 to over 950 in America only.In this episode, we're digging into how Wilfried built Odoo's American war machine, what it takes to conquer a new market from scratch, and how he's fighting high SMB churn while scaling at breakneck speed.While SAP and Oracle charge millions for ERP, Odoo's open-source model is democratizing enterprise software and Wilfried built the Americas war machine that's making it happen.Wilfried, thanks a lot for being here!TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:01:05 : Odoo's explosive growth from 70 to 2,000 employees00:01:05 - 00:02:30 : The early days and Wilfried's journey at Odoo00:02:30 - 00:05:25 : Entering the US market with channel partners strategy00:05:25 - 00:09:25 : Open source model and freemium conversion tactics00:09:25 - 00:14:20 : Building the partner ecosystem and revenue sharing00:14:20 - 00:18:07 : Scaling partner relationships and management approach00:18:07 - 00:24:12 : Hiring and retention philosophy - promote from within only00:24:12 - 00:27:14 : Industry specialization vs size-based team structure00:27:14 - 00:34:32 : Managing SMB churn while maintaining growth00:34:32 - 00:42:17 : Demo-first culture and bottom-up sales approach00:42:17 - 00:48:20 : Resource allocation and offline marketing strategy00:48:20 - 00:52:27 : Unconventional customer acquisition tactics00:52:27 - 00:54:29 : Building local ecosystems and final thoughtsREFERENCES :- Oracle NetSuite- Microsoft Dynamics- SAP- Acumatica- Sage- Epicor- Infor- QuickBooks- HubSpot- GitHub- Lemlist- Clay- Lucia- NPR- NASA

Anish Acharya, entrepreneur-turned-VC who sold startups to Google and Credit Karma and now invests at a16z. He discusses why today feels like 2008 for builders. He maps the AI model competition and why multi-model and aggregator apps matter. He explains product-first distribution, AI companionship opportunities, and lessons from scaling consumer fintech like Credit Karma.

Zack Kass, former Head of Go-To-Market at OpenAI who helped commercialize GPT models and forge enterprise deals, including with Microsoft. He recounts selling nascent AI to skeptical Fortune 500s. He explains why ChatGPT’s chat interface clicked, the lightning growth and scaling scramble that followed, his burnout and exit, and big-picture ideas about AI, geopolitics, and education.

Antoine Le Nel, a product and growth leader who scaled Candy Crush and later helped Revolut reach massive scale. He recounts zero-spend growth hacks, a Facebook lives trick that reached 70% of users, and why Revolut prioritizes unit economics and exponential LTV. He also discusses charging for cards to buy engagement, building autonomous teams, and bold brand plays like Audi F1.

Ross Andrew Paquette, founder and CEO who bought back his company and built Maropost into a $1.7B profitable SaaS. He talks about prioritizing profit over growth, the $37M buyback and why founders should avoid dilution. He explains acquisition-led expansion, integration pains and why young, hungry teams beat veteran execs. He outlines IPO thinking, self-service product moves and the two metrics he obsesses over.

Cornelius Schmahl, a startup operator-turned-angel investor who helped scale Uber in hostile markets and backed companies that became unicorns. He recounts launching in places like South Africa and Russia, the tactics used to force a $3.7B deal, and why he shifted from ops to investing. He also shares his current, more cautious approach to building and backing billion-dollar outcomes.

Noah Kagan, entrepreneur and AppSumo founder who built a $100M/year bootstrapped business, tells the comeback story from losing big at Facebook. He discusses monetization timing, lifetime deals and building durable distribution. He talks hiring through trials, protecting community quality in the AI era, and choosing small habits that create discipline.

Stan Massueras, an early Facebook Europe sales hire who later scaled Twitter, Intercom and ElevenLabs, shares scaling lessons. He breaks down why US playbooks fail in Europe. He explains how AI changes sales, flat orgs and hiring for AI fluency. He covers hybrid go-to-market, creative vs enterprise motions, ethics around voice cloning, and mission-driven growth toward accessibility and translation.

Arthur Waller, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of fintech unicorn Pennylane, shares his journey from selling his first company to Booking.com to tackling the accounting industry. He reveals the power dynamics among co-founders and discusses fundraising strategies that minimize dilution. Arthur emphasizes transforming accountants from adversaries into allies, while navigating the complexities of European expansion. He also touches on the importance of remaining private versus going public, and offers invaluable advice for aspiring founders.