PayFit, my source of Happiness

It’s 12.10am, I was reading the end of the book “Delivering Happiness” and I suddenly got a brain connection. I had to write down my minds about my own definition of happiness..

I’m not the best writer of all time so I’ll speak with my words simply, sorry for the mistakes you could spot.

🎉 A first 1-year anniversary
We celebrated my 1-year anniversary at PayFit last Wednesday, September 16th. We spent an awesome night with a Beer Pong tournament, trading beers and listening music.

Sooner this evening, as all the team was listening, I pronounced some words I did not prepare. I eventually forgot to tell them what I had in my heart, how it was 1 year ago and what makes me happy today..

How it all began

Back to mid 2015, I was looking for a startup to join (yet created or not) ideally as a co-founder. After some experiences with previous companies, I exactly knew what were my focus points to have a crush:

💪 working hard with talented and smart people
👪 sharing the same culture & vision about the company 😍 trusting in the product we'd build

Mainly via Slack, I met a couple of people looking for technical co-founder and ready to build something. It appeared to be much more difficult than I thought:
😴 Wrong human fit
👎 No love for product
💩 Extreme legacy in existing code

I ended up taking some time to think about what was wrong in my process.

Was I too picky?

September 28th, 2015 | Ghislain sent me a direct message on startup-dedicated Slack, telling some info about a company called PayFit. I wasn't that interested first but he wanted a call. As a matter of fact, meeting new people is always positive in some way — personally or professionally. I answered the thing I used to say at the time: "Sure to discuss. but I can't promise anything :)".

📞 The call with Ghislain

I rapidly liked the things that G was telling me. Simple words, straight, honest and skilled. But I rapidly hated the red flag we pointed out a couple of minutes later:

I was living in Nantes*, they were looking for a guy in Paris*

It was an interesting call, with a good guy, a good product but I was so frustrated to have this physical issue, I started to think about eventual solutions.

(*)French cities, I bet you knew for Paris right :p ?

🏋️ "The cold war" — in a good way

For a month, I continued speaking with G on Slack in a funny way.

I was asking for advices about
> finding the potential good guys to start building something

G was asking for advices about
< recruitment process and ideas for hiring tech guys

A month passed — By speaking with each other almost every day, we definitely knew we needed to work together. It was my crush.
[You can learn more about this periods by reading this post]
October 14th | Some next morning, G told me:

"Hey, my partner definitely wants to speak with you now. He'll call you very soon"

📞 The call with Firmin

3 words: convincing, smart and reactive. I rapidly heard they had a solution for us (yeah, there was an "us" 😎). I could work in Paris 3 days a week, remote for the rest. I needed to arrange a call with the 3 of them to validate the coming things, as soon as possible. F told me that call was scheduled for 7pm, the same day.

📞 The decisive call

I finally had a time to meet and discuss with Ghislain, Firmin and Florian, the 3 co-founders. Within these 45 minutes, I was able to see the complicity, the relationship and the trust they had in each other.
All the flags were green. I won't be a co-founder but I had a crush on them and I knew that was the adventure I was ready to join.
After some discussion, I ended up saying to them:

🚀 "Well, I quit my job tomorrow. we'll start together in a month"

🍷My first day

November 16th | That was it, I was in the train for Paris. I didn't even ask myself if it was going to be hard to live back to Paris. I didn't care. When I arrived at the place, they warmly welcomed me with a tasty breakfast, fresh orange juice and big smiles. They were as truly happy as I was to join them. After some discussion and presentation of the product, the 4 of us were ready to move forward with the product.

As noon was coming, Firmin and Florian went to the kitchen. They were up to something! They got back 20 minutes later with a big plate of "Tartiflette" (potato, bacon & cheese).
We eventually also discovered our common taste for good food and wine ❤️ We ate, drunk, laughed and shared a nice first moment together, as friends working together. That's a sentiment I wish I'd known sooner.

At the end of the week, it was intense. I coud deeply feel we had the same philosophy and personal values. All that matters was working hard together, enjoying our time and making the product grow.

Today — My 375th day

I live the adventure the same way I lived it the first day, except we are 18. The team grows, we have real customers and the culture is even stronger than before.

I love knowing the people I work with,
the relationship we have,
the work we do,
the passion we share
and the moments we spend all together.

We create our own world and enjoy together the same story we are part of. We are a family 😘

Now it's 4am and I'm off to bed, hope it was an inspiring story to read.
Be my guest if you have any question or anything, I'll be glad to share more :)