How I Met My Co-Founder is a unique format that allowed us to tell the story of our meeting and our unwavering desire to do something great together. We come back to our ups and downs. We also demonstrate our ambition and our realism. We were strongly advised against starting a company together, being best friends. The past few years have proven otherwise, and the future will continue to do so. Alma is above all 400 employees, 10 merchants supported, €000 billion in transaction volume each year, more than 1,5 million euros raised (not counting half a billion € in debt).

"It's okay to be wrong, and it's important that you understand that." 🦸 ♀️ For this new episode, we discuss with the excellent Louis Chatriot, CEO and co-founder of Alma, who answers Yacine Sqalli's questions. Alma is our French nugget of Buy Now Pay Later. Since 2018, the startup has been offering payment in installments to SMEs. Alma is above all 400 employees, 10 merchants supported, 000 billion € in volume of transactions each year, more than 1,5 million euros raised (not counting half a billion € in debt). The startup is a member of the NEXT 200. 🇫🇷 🦄 Louis went through Stripe, learned to code at 40 years old, and plays Tetris during his calls (game he developed himself). An episode without filter! On the program for this second part 🌶️ Rationality in entrepreneurship 🌀 Corporate culture 🦾 Its most beautiful fails 💎 Radical humility 🛎️ A resale of Alma? Thank you Louis for your feedback ✨

“The concept of unicorns is a concept that makes no sense. 🤑 For this new episode, we discuss with the excellent Louis Chatriot, CEO and co-founder of Alma, who answers Yacine Sqalli's questions. Alma is our French nugget of Buy Now Pay Later. Since 2018, the startup has been offering payment in installments to SMEs. Alma is above all 400 employees, 10 merchants supported, 000 billion € in volume of transactions each year, more than 1,5 million euros raised (not counting half a billion € in debt). The startup is a member of the NEXT 200. 🇫🇷 🦄 Louis went through Stripe, learned to code at 40 years old, and plays Tetris during his calls (game he developed himself). An episode without filter! On the program for this first part 🦄 The concept of unicorns: nonsense? 🤑 His vision of fundraising 🥖 The French market: "a weird market" 🦸 ♀️ Alma: obvious 🧠 His curiosity, code and games Thank you Louis for your feedback ✨

When we hear that factoring represents 18% of GDP in France, we feel that there is a very good development opportunity for this young start-up created by former colleagues from Spendesk. Morgan breaks down the value chain for us and explains in detail the needs of SMEs for short-term financing. Deploying an easy-to-use API, Defacto makes it possible to obtain financing, transparently in the blink of an eye. We are doing a quick update on the BNPL in 2023, on the notions of B2B checkout, vs BNPL B2B. There is also talk of the collaboration with the Viola Credit fund recently created by the Israeli VC and the upcoming creation of a common securitization fund. We also focused on partnerships with FinTechs on the international deployment strategy and on the evolution of the typology of customers. Finally, we understand Defacto's long-term strategy and you will still see that risk plays a central role in it!

When you want to use your debt capacity to invest in real estate, you often hesitate between buying your main residence and investing in rental property. The second option is interesting because it allows you to build up wealth while generating additional income. But, it requires a lot of effort: property search, negotiations, discussions with banks, work, tenant management, etc. Nadim Takchi (CEO of Livret P) embarked on his first rental investment at the age of 25. Nadim makes maximum use of its borrowing capacity and follows a rigorous investment methodology. Barely six years were enough for him to build up a heritage of 13 real estate properties. At the microphone of Matthieu Stefani, co-founder of CosaVostra, Nadim shares with us his method of rental investment based on debt. ## Why is it worth going into debt to invest in rental property? Obtaining a bank loan to invest in rental property allows you to benefit from a powerful leverage effect: the rents collected make it possible to cover all or part of the loan maturities. Result: the property is self-financing and the investor can even succeed in generating a positive cash flow (when the rent is higher than the loan repayment deadlines). It is an excellent way: to broaden one's assets; prepare for retirement; and create additional income. ## Stock market vs Rental real estate: Nadim's opinion Nadim prefers to invest in rental real estate. According to him, the return is more interesting, safe and creates value. He gives us the following example: a person has €10 in savings. It can either invest them in the stock market or use them as a contribution to invest in real estate. Scenario 1: she invests her €10 in the stock market and obtains a very high return of 000%. Annual profit: €2. Scenario 2: She borrows €100 and invests in real estate (using her €000 savings for her contribution). His apartment gives him a 4% net return. Annual profit: €4. Scenario 2 (more pessimistic than the first) produces a result twice as important. Knowing that real estate is less fluctuating than the stock market. ## Good practices for investing in real estate thanks to a bank loan Here is the list of good practices highlighted by Nadim during our episode: When you want to invest in a big city, take taxi rides, and ask questions to drivers. They know the best neighborhoods in town! Once you have targeted a specific neighborhood, go chat with merchants and residents. This is a good way to make sure the neighborhood is a good place to invest. Use your debt capacity to the maximum, to invest and benefit from an optimal leverage effect. Focus on “liquid” properties: they must be able to be rented at the right price quickly and be sold under the best conditions (quickly and without loss of value). Go through a broker to get the best possible loan. When visiting, ask to go first. If you like the good, make an offer very quickly. When you find a property to buy, ask different real estate agents what they think of the selling price. Some may offer you a similar property for a better price. Buy without condition precedent: it is very risky, but if your situation allows it, it reduces the cost of acquisition. Always negotiate the purchase price and the borrowing rate, in order to benefit from the best possible conditions. You can follow Nadim on LinkedIn and discover Livret P here. Pros: Good news! With the code MARTINGALE, you benefit from 10€ offered during a first investment at Livret P. And you will receive the Excel file used by Nadim for its rental investments.

Recreating a startup after building a unicorn is the story of Jordane who - with Morgan and Marc-Henri - is developing Defacto, a fair and instant financing solution for SMEs. For this new episode of the How I Met My Co-Founder podcast, I welcome them to discuss with them: - Their first meeting in California for Marc-Henri and Jordane and the "Chinese restaurant" brainstorms to do ideation - Their matrix concept with the following criteria: B2B project, international market, replacement market, product-led acquisition strategy, high barrier to entry - The customer discovery phase which began with the Spendesk adventure where Jordane and Morgan - MBTI type tests/50 questions to open the discussion and get to know each other professionally - The role of routines in their relationship as co-founders with 2 meetings per week (Monday/Friday) + 1 offsite per quarter - Their method of 3-way decision-making with a scoring method - The 2 equity fundraisings with GFC (David Sainteff), Headline (Jonathan Userovici) and Northzone - Their debt raisings first with Business Angels then with Viola Credit - Their first recruitment (cc Antoine Cheron) and their reverse recruitment process - The structure of their team (without head of) and their desire to stay lean.

After great experiences in start-ups and scale-ups, Edouard decided to undertake. Co-founded with Logic Founders, Numeral enables businesses to send, receive and reconcile payments through their banks with a single API and Dashboard. It is a technical discussion, but not only accessible and fascinating. As I like to understand in detail, I asked Edouard to describe the Spendesk and Swile "use cases" to us to take what has been deployed, but also to perceive their value proposition and their USP. We cover many topics: the contribution of Logic Founders, the new customer integration project, the productization of banking integrations, maintenance, the European Payments Council, the business model… This in-depth discussion also brings us to talk about FinTech choices leaving their BaaS provider and its consequences. Finally we talk about market evangelism, development strategy and building an ecosystem.

A conversation that covers many topics, from scaling a business in payments to Twitter and the timing of IPOs. In this episode, I speak to Josh, a banking lawyer who worked at the US Federal Reserve, Deutsche Bank, Crédit Agricole and Bank of America before joining the FinTech world at Checkout.com, the payment processing company. Josh takes us through the macro and micro steps Checkout.com took to prepare for their international expansion when he was COO. He uses Saudi Arabia as an example, providing insight into how the team was assembled, core functions established, and local teams deployed. We look at the benefits of deploying from Europe, where a standard of excellence is established in the key areas of anti-money laundering and data protection. We learn that data has always been key to their scaling, and get a first-hand look at how it's processed to be very efficient at resolving bottlenecks very fast. We also dive into their regulatory strategy for expanding outside of Europe. Josh joined Wilson Sonsini, a tech-focused US law firm, a few years ago and we learn about their relationships with big tech companies like Netflix and Apple. Discovering a start-up history, from its formation as a legal entity to more complex litigation cases, is a special treat. You'll also learn about the key roles that these top notch advisors play. If you want the inside scoop on IPOs, we pinpoint the exact timing required to make it a success.