Failure leads to success, a story by Alain Mevellec @Sellsy
Today we have the pleasure to welcome Alain Mevellec serial entrepreneur who will tell us about his adventures and what let led him to create Sellsy.
In this article we will discuss the hidden face of entrepreneurship, the one that few people mention but which is the most important: making mistakes.
1993, APM: advertising agency
Alain created his first company at the age of 23 in 1993, an advertising agency in Paris, specialized in entertainment, he called it APM. Rapidly, it went from 1 to 8 and soon after that from 15 to 40 employees. Without any particular training, he worked with clients such as Disney, Gaumont or Universal. He even organized the release of the film The Sixth Sense. At that very moment, APM was making $2.25 million in sales and Alain had a very good income, especially for his young age.
We made the first websites in France in entertainment
It’s at APM that he started realizing there was a big need for invoicing softwares. He actually had the idea of creating one for his customers internally. That’s when it all began.
All the responsabilities he had, especially at this young age took him away from his family. He has 2 children but couldn’t see them anymore. He decided to file for bankruptcy, completely disheartened.
In France, when you file for bankruptcy, the state begins to manage your company. You no longer have a word about a single thing.The State takes over. Salaries are paid automatically. This led APM with a debt of more than $670,000 and 40 employees fired overnight. Everyone starts to turn its back on him. His best friends become bailiffs. His wife is expecting a third child. That’s a turning point in Alain’s life.
He was trialed by the Commercial Court, sentenced to a $112,000 refund and a ban on running a business for the next 7 years. For the next 8 years, he will owe $1120 each month to the State.
You could have thought that Alain would never undertake another project at that time. However, Alain recovers his most loyal customers and a few former employees and starts freelancing for a few years. During this time he is working on a new project with his former partner Fred, which leads him to found Cleargay.
If you are interested in the incredible story in detail, you can read this article (sorry English readers):
2006, Cleargay: dating site
Cleargay starts in 2006. it’s a dating site for homosexuals but with a clean side (before it was very gory.). As for APM, Alain very quickly succeeded in growing Cleargay, registering 400,000 subscribers after just 1 year and a half and generating nearly 150,000 unique visits per month. It was quickly spotted by the Meetic group, then bought back in 2008 for more than 5 million. Thats was it, Alain came back from the dead.
However, the takeover by Meetic had its flaws. This sale lays the foundations of Sellsy on the financial side. In addition, this dating site with its online software format and subscription-based business model inspired Sellsy’s structure.
2009, Sellsy: invoicing software
Sellsy is an online invoicing software as well as a CRM. The idea emerged from APM and the business model inherits Cleargay’s. It’s also a question of timing, when Sellsy was born, other startups like Salesforce and Mailchimp emerged. The SaaS model starts becoming a trend and Sellsy raised a first round of funds at $1.68 million. The project worked immediately, Sellsy acquired its first customers and headed for a second round of funds of $7.86 million. Today Sellsy has 75 employees, customers like Feed or Vinci and more than 20,000 registered users.
Sellsy’s strong corporate culture plays an important role. Indeed, every year Alain organizes a national event in France for startups: the French Startup Cup. The most beautiful startups compete in a regatta followed by a huge evening in an outstanding place for the weekend. Sellsy has also a very low employee turnover rate for the technical team. The working conditions at Sellsy are amazing, whether it is the location (100 metres from the sea), a dive or competitive benefits and salaries. Sellsy is a success and continues to grow.
Sellsy works so well because Alain has learned from his mistakes and has been able to put them to good use in these new experiences. He is very careful with money and plans his finances ahead, in case a difficult time would come. The model of the spitting startup based on investors’ money is not the one he chose. Of course, that means having a more limited growth, but he will never find himself in the same situation as his advertising agency.
Alain’s determination and motivation never left him. Alain is an entrepreneur who will never stop creating new projects. Isn’t this the entrepreneur’s spirit afterall?
And who knows, Sellsy is probably not his last company…
Thank you very much Alain! Very inspiring story
Want to be part of the Blotter’s community? The community is:
- 🎙️ The article of the week in preview
- ⚙️ The presentation of an incredible new tool
- 📆 Startup events not to be missed
- 📰 Fresh news
- 🚀 Stay up to date on the progress of the Blotter tool
Otherwise, see you next week! 👋
The Blotter team
