In the head of a born global

as Soon as born, as soon as exported : Evercontact, the start-up which updates the address books, has contested since its debut in foreign markets. Explanation, with its founder, Philippe Laval.

Its premises are at the edge of the périphérique, in the incubator Paris Innovation Masséna. After $ 400,000 of revenue in 2014, Evercontact in aims 1 million this year. Dollars ? Yes, in this start-up created by the linguist Philippe Laval, the language of the business is the us: 70% of the turnover is made in the United States, 15% in France, 15% in the rest of the world. And since its inception: Evercontact is a true "born global", a company party at the assault of the world while the ink of its constitution was not yet dry... Explanation, with the creator of this application, which scans e-mails of its users, detects the coordinate information of the sender and automatically updates the address book.

Expansion : Why the USA is so important to you ?

Philippe Laval: The # 1 reason is that our partners, our competitors are american, or even californian. It is therefore essential to be present on this market. We have chosen to focus on it directly : for example, our website, the first four years, existed only in English.

Traditionally, it ensures its positions on the domestic market before thinking about the international. You, not at all...

I didn't want to repeat the mistake with my previous company, Sinequa, which had been adopted precisely the policy that you cite. We had waited 5 years to address the international, and it had been a complete failure (since then, the company has managed to straighten the shot). I deduced that it had to be taken from the outset in the fold of the international.

This is to say that the export is a reflex to take as soon as possible ? Your support is essential. Subscribe for $ 1 support Us

It is more than this : aim for a global market change your way of working. In France, it is through the high that you get to install your software. You have a direct contact, you talk, you adapt your product to the needs of the customer... in Short, you make on-measures. In directly targeting the customers at the other end of the world, we were forced to have a product that is simple to install, self-explanatory : in this way, we industrialize our sales process. Results, the United States, the companies will deploy 10, 100, 1000 posts without making a call. For us it is essential : depending on the case, we will charge for our product 60 to$ 150 per year per position. At this rate, you do not put in place trade policy that is too expensive...

The american market is it not also more mature?

It is true the Americans are more willing to pay. In France, the peaks of purchases are 3 days before the end of the free period, and 4 days after the stop of this period. In the USA, this is the first day. They install, test (or not), it works, they pay.

Why then do not you be directly launched from the Silicon Valley ?

But because France has strengths, including engineers that are well worth those of the Silicon Valley, and less expensive... And then, on the paper, it may well be present on this market through one week per month. The problem is that with the day to day management of the company, this week, by month quickly became ten days per quarter. It's good, but not enough to really be a part of the ecosystem.

You're going to have to have a real local presence ?

This should be the case this summer. In the USA, to summarize, the front office and the marketing, and in France the back-office. Previously, we are going to have the chance to be a part of Ubi i/o, an immersion of two months in Silicon Valley organized by Business France. The opportunity for us to better promote ourselves to potential partners, to find talent to recruit, and to be identified by companies that could one day redeem us, because it is the fate of a start-up. In our short history, we have already received two offers of redemption. The two of us.

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