Coralie Ladent, from Business Unit Manager to COO & co-founder of a tech company

 As a member of the Business Unit since 2012, Coralie is now Chief Operating Officer of Mindbaz since its acquisition in 2021. With Sébastien Lemire and Pierre-Yve Dubreucq, they are the 3 co-founders and succeed in driving growth at Mindbaz. 

How did Coralie go from intrapreneur to economic leader (Choiseul) and co-founder of a company with 26 employees between Lille and Barcelona? Let’s take a look at her inspiring story.

A look at Spain, the land of email in Europe

During her studies, Coralie moved to Barcelona to join a French company.

“We were working on advertising devices, such as displays and emails for advertisers. As an account executive, I discovered the world of email monetization.“

When she returned from Barcelona in 2012, Coralie got back in touch with Oxygem, a media group she had known from her previous experience. She joined the teams as a digital project manager. She aimed to qualify the group’s databases and find the best segments to send advertising emails. 

“My job, one year later, was to adapt the internal routing tool’s features to the users’ needs. I wrote operational specifications for our data manager, Gregory.”

When Mindbaz became independent, Coralie, Sébastien and Pierre-Yves decided to open an office in Barcelona. 

A successful bet for Mindbaz, 16% of the team has since moved to the other side of the Pyrenees. 

This is just one of the success stories that Mindbaz has known since its creation.

Independence and growth

Becoming independent, a winning bet

Coralie becomes Director of the Mindbaz Business Unit, which is acquired by the M6 Group. She is in charge of tech, customer and product services. She is hiring to expand the team and is dreaming big for Mindbaz.

“Being part of a group such as M6 offers many benefits. Security, comfort for our teams but also for us manager/intrapreneur. We worked with other business units that could be our customers as well as our suppliers… 

But when your own business unit’s numbers keep on rising and the investment for new projects is limited, you start to wonder. We started to think that we were limited in projects.”

“In 2019, we felt like, with Sebastien, taking some new liberties. Mindbaz already had a lot of potential. After a few months of discussions with our management, we confirmed our desire to buy our “baby” and take our independence.”

In 2021, we officially acquired Mindbaz with Sébastien and Pierre-Yves.”

Management, team and unity

“When we announced to our team that we were going independent, everyone followed! Our Business Unit team left the security and comfort of the M6 Group to continue developing Mindbaz in our own way. They trusted us. We would never have imagined one day that it would be possible to go our own way. The team was won over by the challenge.”

The team grows to 26 people by 2023. With two offices, the teams are split between Lille (France) and Barcelona (Spain). An office in a third country is in the works. 

This organization required a lot of planning, discussions with the teams and work on values.

“The entire team has taken the CNIL training on RGPD. Data security is an essential part of Mindbaz. Our customers trust us. They trust a French router also because we are sensitive on data protection.”

Rituals and management style

Coralie has implemented a set of rituals and habits to build team commitment and anticipate obstacles. 

“We value communication at Mindbaz. I’m very spontaneous and it’s helpful when you want to ensure there is no uncertainty. In our processes and products, we go straight to the point. No unnecessary features or products or anything useless.”

Coralie’s management is based on organization and anticipation. As head of the Product and Marketing teams, she is not afraid to insist on anticipating needs, listening to customers and prospects, and understanding the needs of other teams.

We’ve been working on the product for a few years now and the team committed to developing Mindbaz is highly skilled and organized. We started marketing MINDBAZ in 2022 with the arrival of our marketing manager. Talking about Mindbaz outside the company is new to me, but I’m learning and forcing myself to do it.

As far as rituals are concerned, Coralie is constantly testing them. The goal is for each employee to feel heard and to create a healthy environment. 

        Friday morning team breakfast

The French and Spanish teams meet online. Every Friday, a different team is spotlighted and can speak on the topic of their choice.  

“With this ritual, we are all at the same level of information. It’s also a time to introduce newcomers. It’s important for the Spanish team to be fully integrated and to be able to follow the projects even if they don’t all involve them directly.”

        Tuesday morning breakfast

This time, it’s a real breakfast with freshly baked rolls, fruit, croissants, chouquettes… 

“The Friday meeting has a limit: most of the employees speak English during most of the videoconference to ensure that the non-French speaking employees are included. 

But it’s not always easy to open up to others in a language you don’t fully master. So, in 2023, we decided to launch a meeting in our Lille office – this time in French.

On Tuesdays, we take the time over coffee to check on the mood and well-being of our employees.

        Team buildings

This is a ritual launched in 2022: team building for solidarity.

“We wanted to help out, beyond our professional skills. Giving a bit of our time for a cause is great. 

In addition, it allows us to step into volunteer work when we don’t know where to start.”

To check the desire of the teams and find the right topic, the co-founders created a working group to organize the project with employees. This proved to be very successful, and the ritual will be repeated every year.

“These are moments where we get to know each other, our similarities, and sometimes uncommon passions. For example, discovering that a team member is passionate about bees or weather forecasting.”

          And other habits have been introduced

Positive news are celebrated at Mindbaz: New arrivals, births… 

“I also take seriously the departures. We are lucky to have a turnover of less than 2%. When an employee leaves the team, it is important for us to talk with them and to leave on the best possible terms. 

Off-boarding is essential for both parties to share feedback, learn and improve.”

Deliverability: Mindbaz’s reputation

Team knowledge on deliverability has greatly increased. 

“We send billions of emails. That’s a huge amount of data that allows us to understand which messages are delivered and why others are not.

We want to pass on the best practices of Webmails and Internet Service Providers to our customers. 

These guidelines are sometimes unknown to our customers when they arrive. Webmails are extremely watchful of spammers’ practices. Our mission is also to make the world of advertising messages healthier by respecting the best practices of webmails and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

In short, we want to contribute to the fight against SPAM.

Today, the team provides very advanced content on advertising, marketing and deliverability messages in many formats. More is in the works for 2023. Indeed, 2023 is a busy year for every team!