Meet Giulia Benardeau: from Finance to being an Account Executive in Tech
This week, let’s meet Giulia Benardeau, Account Executive at Joko since September 2021!
Can you tell us a bit about your background?
I was born in Paris from a French father and an Italian mother. My family moved to New York where I lived until I was eight years old before going back to France.
What did you study?
After two years of preparatory class, I joined the Grande Ecole Program at ESSEC Business School. My time there was great because the school enables students to discover a plurality of disciplines. I was able to participate in Louvre history classes, while taking financial markets and participating in the Entrepreneurship in Africa program.
Fun fact is I actually handed a blank paper at the Louvre exam because I hated Middle Ages art and chose to study only on Antiquity and Renaissance, of course the subject was “The representation of Jesus in the Middle Age”.
The associative life also enabled me to discover other fields like entrepreneurship, working in microcredit in Argentina and performing a Musical at the Folies Bergères in Paris.
What were your experiences before joining Joko?
The main challenge for me was postponing the moment I would specialise in a particular field as I was very afraid of routine and closing doors, so I did all my internships in Finance as I felt this would enable me to work in many different industries.
My first internship was in Corporate Finance at Chanel Watches & Fine Jewellery where I discovered a strong interest in analytics and working for products I was proud of, but also learned that I wanted to be core to the company instead of working as a support function.
This led to my decision to join Lazard in the Financial Advisory team to be able to discover a great variety of industries while having daily interactions with corporate teams that were leading some game-changing mergers or acquisitions in their sector. That’s when my drive for deal-making was born!
I continued the same path in a more international environment by moving to London to work at Centerview Partners, where I had the opportunity to work in advising companies of various sectors but also stages. I really enjoyed working on businesses in a growth phase and more complex transactions like SPACs.
After these two experiences, I felt I wanted to switch to the buy-side instead of being on the advisory bench and had the chance to do my last internship in the Private Equity fund Clayton Dubilier & Rice. Participating in investment committees and being in touch with Operating Advisors that had shaped companies really developed my business acuity. Yet, I was still feeling that I was a fly on the wall and had trouble seeing the direct impact in my daily tasks.
Why did you join Joko as an Account Executive?
During my last year of studies, I had the chance to work from abroad in a small village in Morocco called Taghazout where I stayed 3 months to learn how to surf. During this time, I met a lot of people working in start-ups and doing various jobs. This also enabled me to realise that working from abroad was something I wanted to be part of my life.
The tech industry had always seemed like a far away bubble, that was exclusively for people with an engineering background or willing to take big carrer risks. I discovered that this impression was very different from the reality. All these changes were actually happening pretty closely and I could become part of it with a “normal” job, only by stepping outside my confort zone.
That’s when I met Joko. Throughout the process, the more people I met from the company the more I was convinced about the product, about the team that was leading the project and about their vision. Also, I was positive that as an Account Executive I could become the deal-maker instead of staying a drop in the ocean (no bad surf jokes here).
I hesitated for quite some time on whether to join a start-up or stay in Finance. Many people around me were convinced that you could always join a start-up later, that it’s better to take the corporate and stable job first. But the truth is that companies like Joko grow fast, and it’s not the same to join now than in two years, while the mature companies won’t change. These corporate jobs will always be out there while you can’t miss an opportunity in a scale-up.
So yes, basically you can say I got a big FOMO, which made me sign at Joko as an Account Executive to avoid passing by the next French unicorn!
What does your job consist of?
My job consists of bringing targeted merchants to signing. So it starts very early in the process with making all the relevant people working at the company know about Joko, seeing posts on LinkedIn, receiving emails and phone calls. Most of this part is automated so it’s mostly Sales Operations and thinking how we can better our processes to get more meetings.
Once we get the first meeting, my job is then to understand the needs of my audience to see how Joko can help them reach their goals. Between the first meeting and signing, we deploy a lot of methods to convince merchants to work with us. One of our main strengths at Joko as a partner is data. As we access transactional data, we can understand our partners’ customers better and think together about how we can develop the best campaigns according to this data.
When we agree on the project, we then enter on more contractual discussions implying legal and GDPR subjects.
The reason I really enjoy my job is for the plurality of discipline it requires. In only a few months, I have learned how to sell, how to code in Python and SQL, how to implement efficient processes and about data protection. And I still have so much to learn!
One of the best part of my job is the ownership I have both on the different accounts but also on long-term processes. If we decide to prioritise a project, I really have the ownership of managing it and working with different teams to make it happen. Once the output is ready, you can really see the impact you have on the business and the sense of accomplishment is irreplaceable.
What have been your main challenges since you joined?
I would identify two big challenges since I joined the firm.
The first one is the great variety of merchants we deal with everyday. Some are big brick-and-mortars with huge budgets but a very complex decision process. Others are online pure players with a very developed digital maturity. You have to make sure you understand the different stakes of each one of them so this requires great empathy and adaptability.
The second challenge is our product changing so fast which means that our B2B offer is getting broader everyday. Members of the B2B team hence need to stay updated on the very latest features and events in the company to include the novelties in the Sales pitch and make sure our prospects and partners follow what’s happening at Joko. From a cashback to a one-stop shopping app, we need to engage partners in both the transition and vision.
What is it like to work at Joko?
The above is one of the main reasons why working at Joko is very insightful, you get to work with every single team on a weekly basis and you feel part of a tech project. Being a product-oriented firm, even the business teams are part and parcel of what our offer will be tomorrow and every member is core to the evolution.
Also, working at Joko feels like being in a company that deeply understands today’s challenges of a workplace. Today, I am fully remote as the only employee in London which could scare more than one. Yet, I go everyday to a super co-working space where I meet a lot of people from different companies but also get to spend weeks in the headquarters in Paris or join my team in Fuerteventura for remote events.
The ambition is huge so we want to make sure to attract the best talents and have them on board for the long term. This means to keep investing in people and make sure they are happy with their worklife.
What’s next in your team?
Many challenges are upcoming in the B2B team and at Joko in general. We are releasing game-changing features every month and will be expanding to the international as well.
I am very excited to be contributing to the launch of the UK happening this quarter. Exporting our product, adapting to a new culture and building partnerships abroad is going to be a great challenge for the company!
If you want to take part in the adventure, we are recruiting in Paris and London on various business positions, so feel free to join!
