Interview with a founder
Foleon CEO
Daan Reijnders
1. In one sentence, what does your company offer for who? We’re on a mission to democratise the creation of impactful, personalised content. Foleon is an easy-to-use content experience platform (CEP) that allows anyone to quickly create content experiences that increase reader engagement, provide actionable reader insights, and avoid design bottlenecks.
2. How did you make your way into the world of SaaS and start your company? We started out as a creative agency specialising in custom digital publications. We were looking for a platform that would enable us to operate at scale with more templatising. When we couldn't find it, we decided to build it ourselves.
3. Foleon is recognized as one of the leaders in the web content creation category. How did you find and establish the competitive advantage in a complex market? Initially by adopting an inbound-driven approach to sales. This helped us onboard customers relatively quickly. Short feedback loops enable us to meet customer demand.
4. The team has grown from 7 people in 2015 to over 100 now. How do you build an agile organization that learns and adapts fast? By keeping the organisation flat and quickly expanding to new markets. We started in 2014, opened our UK office in January 2016 and our US office in 2017.
5. Foleon operates in Amsterdam, London and New York. How do you compare the different entrepreneurial ecosystems in different markets? The US market is more advanced. Customers have higher expectations when it comes to services (CSM) and expect all common integrations to be available out of the box. This is pushing our platform to the next level.
6. What are your main learnings in scaling the company from Europe to the US? Rather than trying to reinvent the wheel in a new market, apply the same methodology with a few small pivots. Scaling to the US is an expensive process. You need at least $1 to 2 million to get the first traction.
7. There is no easy path to success. What was the biggest challenge you went through and what was your biggest achievement? The main challenge is constantly having to adapt the organisation to implement the next growth phase. Our main achievement has been onboarding some of the world's largest companies. It’s tremendously rewarding to see big brands using our platform the way we envisioned it.
8. The Covid-19 pandemic causes a lot of uncertainties, risks but also opportunities. How is Foleon doing during this special period? How do you mitigate risks and seize opportunities? We made some changes in the organisation to absorb a potential downturn in growth. But our growth rate has actually increased. Reduced face-to-face contact is making digital experience more important.
9. As a CEO, what do you know now that you wish you had known in the beginning? I wish I’d known how complex it is to (quickly learn how to) create scalability when your solution is horizontal. With hindsight, it would have been better to define a single use case and scale it from there.
10. What advice would you give to other founders in the B2B SaaS industry? Enjoy the ride! Seek things that excite you. Surround yourself with people who inspire you. Be clear about what you expect from your team.