Sébastien Lemire has shared his time between sales and customer service and has joined forces with Coralie Ladent (COO) and Pierre-Yves Dubreucq (CTO) to lead Mindbaz. After experiencing the fun of the 90’s and the internet bubble, Sébastien found himself at the heart of an ambitious project: Mindbaz.
Our sales manager explains the behind-the-scenes story of Mindbaz’s beginnings and the challenges of the business development of a fast-growing French SaaS.
From a BU to a growing business
The Mindbaz business unit (BU)
In 2008, Mindbaz was registered for the first time.
“At the time, Coralie and I were working on the databases of a Web publisher, Oxygem, and other email databases such as Deezer, Promovacances, Maximiles… It was, and still is, a subject not well perceived by the Saas market. Yet, there was a real niche to capture, we just felt it.”
The small Mindbaz team was then a business unit of Oxygem. It quickly developed an expertise in PRM and decided to market a routing tool dedicated to PRM players. This tool is truly adapted to their needs, unlike other solutions on the market
Mindbaz going independent
In 2016, the M6 Group decided to buy Mindbaz to adapt the product to their internal issues.
“We were frustrated that we couldn’t reinvest the margin we were generating to grow. During the COVID crisis, we had the opportunity to reflect on our potential growth. In 2021, we decided to take the plunge and acquired back Mindbaz with Pierre-Yves and Coralie.”
The growth is definitely there and the team is having a string of successes:
2021: Mindbaz raises 1,5 M€.
2021: Mindbaz opens an office in Spain
2022: French leader in email advertising and in the top 3 in Spain
2023: Tech500
Mindbaz in 2023: building on deliverability expertise
“We have a lot of ideas for growing Mindbaz. Our success in Spain has confirmed our assumptions: our team can convince and succeed in increasing the deliverability of companies that trust us. The international development is therefore rather obvious :
Our next commercial step with Mindbaz is to turn to Italy and Southern Europe from 2023.
However, we are looking for market diversification opportunities and a good part of our team is working on this new project.
While bulk message routing has been the gateway to Mindbaz’s business, it has mostly revealed needed optimizations in the industry.
Knowledge of best practices on deliverability
“Optimal message deliverability requires the sourcing of addresses and the relevance of messages sent to the target.
This is our customers’ responsibility, but the technical specificities of each webmail must be taken into account so that messages arrive in the inbox.
Our customers are key players in terms of deliverability and we are committed to supporting them in these ever-changing practices with our training sessions, blogs, audits, etc.”
“Our teams have in-depth expertise in message deliverability. These two observations led us to offer free services to guide as many people as possible towards these best practices. I refer to our blog, our podcast dedicated to email and deliverability, our emails…
But we quickly realized that these global contents were not enough for some players with specific needs. That’s when we developed our service offer with audits to identify areas for improvement and provide strategic and operational solutions.
Optimize efficiently your email campaigns with an adapted audit
At the same time, we also opened our training program for those who prefer to understand and decide on solutions based on their business knowledge. This is very useful when changing positions in a company. New employees, and older ones for that matter, need to work on their knowledge of deliverability. “
Email training: deliverability, deduplication and reactivation of inactive people
The business department of a SaaS in 2023
The Mindbaz experience
The guiding principle of the Mindbaz sales team is the quality of the customer relationship. By managing the business developers and the customer service, Sébastien ensures that this approach is maintained.
“I am convinced that a link must be created between a supplier and its customer, especially in the tech industry where solutions can be technically interchangeable. Contact and support are real competitive advantages at Mindbaz.”
While many companies emphasize the quality of the relationship, Mindbaz has made it its main distinctive feature, as customers testify.
“In 2021, we had deliverability issues and SMTP errors. The deliverability rate dropped. Agathe, Deliverability manager at Mindbaz, took charge. She quickly analyzed the situation, proposed solutions and conducted tests.
She also set up a follow-up to anticipate deliverability issues. The support is optimal.”
Listening to customers since the early days
Sébastien has been cultivating this expertise since he started working in the Mindbaz business unit.
“We were being pushed towards other industries. But we stayed the course because we were aware that our prospects were already enthusiastic during our first discussions. Our PRM and media customers have specific needs that are different from those of e-commerce players. We listened to them and adapted the product to their business constraints.
Especially since Webmails and end-users, i.e. people who receive emails, are demanding improved advertising messages.
“It’s even more obvious with Gen Z. They have more sophisticated requirements than their elders in terms of marketing pressure, personalization and segmentation. That’s one of the strong issues right now for advertising players.”
Sales Managers stay in touch with field operations
“I still want to do operational work. It’s important for me to stay in touch with the field. In fact, I still manage historical clients of Mindbaz who have trusted us since the beginning of the project
I want to keep this link in order to have direct, unfiltered feedback. This field connection allows me to follow up on customer satisfaction and industry knowledge.”
“We have great managers with experience. We have set up rituals to ensure employee satisfaction and anticipate internal issues. I want to keep the word out.
With new technologies, work and personal lives are more intertwined than ever before. It is important to take into account the mental load of each person to build the project over time.Teams are part of the value of Mindbaz. It’s essential to take care of them.”
The empowerment of managers is one of the basics of Sébastien’s management. Top-down logic has no place in teams:
“If we want to keep growing, micro-management cannot be a solution. We have to keep in mind the right to make mistakes. We can make mistakes, that’s normal. What matters is not to make the same mistakes again.”
Mindbaz: business development and hiring new profiles
With a very low turnover rate for a tech company, Mindbaz manages to recruit and retain talent invested in the company.
This is good news as Mindbaz has recruited extensively in 2022 and is continuing its momentum in 2023. This growth has allowed the company to join TECH500 : the ranking that lists the 500 most attractive tech companies in 2023.
MINDBAZ is among the 500 tech companies to join in 2023 🏆
” For the coming years, we’re looking ahead to other European countries. We have the technical skills. What we need now is to find the next team members who can help us break into a market.
Mindbaz to conquer Italy
“It’s official! We’ve confirmed the economic importance of entering the Italian market. The multi-cultural dimension of Mindbaz is important and we have decided to develop it. This vision is important: We are the first message router for the advertising industry in France. Now, we will expand and use our expertise for other markets.”
Why should a business developer join Mindbaz?
“We still have so many things to say. When you join Mindbaz, you become a key player in your job. For someone who wants to contribute to the adventure and who has ambition, this is the right place. Yes, you need to have ideas and take initiatives. We will always support those who stand up for themselves.”
Mindbaz also has some benefits for its teams:
🙋♀️ An ambitious and close-knit team in Lille and Barcelona
🏣 Modern premises in the center of Lille
🛋 Hybrid remote work possible
🧠 We are curious and we train our employees