The Proxyclick story: How a Belgian SaaS company became a pioneer of European PropTech, scaled globally and exited during the pandemic
Proxyclick CEO Gregory Blondeau talks to Join Capital about the team’s story, from the early days up until their recent acquisition by Thoma Bravo. What’s clear is that sometimes, being the pioneer that’s “too early” pays off in a big way.
First of all, congratulations on the acquisition! Let’s talk a bit about what’s happening now for you and the company after the announcement has been made.
Thank you. It’s a major milestone in the life of the company, but also in my professional life. For the business, the focus is now on succeeding in the integration. Every team will report to their new respective function within Condeco, and that transition is happening as we speak. I’m supporting this from behind and trying to make it happen. We’re opening the office just two days a week right now, and I am showing up, because I want people to know I’m still there, ensuring the transition is as smooth as possible.
On a personal level, I don’t think I’ll stay very long — maximum until the summer. I’ll give myself some time to decide what to do next. I have a lot of ideas, but most importantly, after 12 years working days and nights and weekends and never disconnecting — I need to slow down, I need to spend time with my family and I want to allow my wife to focus on her own professional development.
Let’s discuss some of the amazing things that you’ve built that made Proxyclick what it is today. Like the team and the culture.
The most difficult hurdle to overcome for success is finding the right profiles to help you do so. It’s easier in bigger cities, where you have more people able to perform all the roles of a SaaS company. But a city like Brussels is small for SaaS companies. So that means when you need to recruit more and more specialists, you may not find them in the local market. That has been a struggle across the history of the company. But one of the ways to attract and retain talent is through values and culture. That’s built day in and day out by leading by example; by showing leadership. People see the founding team arrive first and leave last, and then fighting for every customer, solving customers’ problems and building products that meet their needs. It’s not only about the product and the revenue. It’s about making your company human.
How do you go about doing this, especially during Covid?
We’ve recruited with a global mindset from the very beginning. Having a strong employer brand is key. If people have never heard about you in Phoenix, Arizona when your company is based in Belgium, why would they want to come work for you? A strong employer brand, value-driven culture and diversity are key drivers.
I’m very proud that, in my executive team, there are only two Belgians. We have three women. We have people from Europe and North America. This is a huge criteria for success.
When Covid hit, what was that process of pivoting like?
So we were both lucky and unlucky. Lucky in the sense that, as a company, we raised money just before Covid. That gave us enough visibility to navigate during the crisis. We were unlucky because there were fewer check-ins on our platform. When we were looking at scaling a business and growing a team, and offices are empty and people are at home, it was very difficult.
But from the business point of view, there were two opposing forces: Less check-in traffic, fewer inbound leads and people filling in forms on the website. But on the other side, the topic of allowing people in or not became strategic in a way that it wasn’t before. Things were no longer about putting an iPad at the front desk because it looks good. We needed to validate that people coming in were healthy and had a desk with respect to distance rules, etc. That was a much deeper wave that slowly appeared.
And that’s also why being part of a larger organization, with Condeco, makes sense. Fortune 500 companies are looking to approach this topic from a strategic angle now. They know they need software to operate offices. So they want to go to their existing suppliers. They don’t go to small vendors they don’t know. So, now we are part of a platform, which has been built with the backing of Thoma Bravo — the largest software investor in the world. That makes us very strong.
If there hadn’t been any Covid, consolidation would happen eventually, but not as early. Speaking of that, I’ve seen four transactions in five weeks — all in a niche market. It’s madness how it’s all happening so quickly.
Can you speak a bit about your philosophy on being a product-led company and how this helped you scale, especially in the beginning?
I think the simple basic recipe for us has always been to listen to the customers. We spent a lot of time talking to them, understanding their problems. It’s important to understand that before you propose a solution.
In the early days, we were big fans of the customer development methodology. It’s in a book called The Four Steps to the Epiphany by Steven Blank.
We were always listening to the customers as well as them listening to us. Plus, we had super strong product designers. We were able to simplify the experience.
In the early days of scaling the company, what were some of the most important lessons learned that really shaped the direction you took?
You need a lot of resilience, you need to be humble, in the sense that you need to be able to pivot or be ready to change your mind when things don’t work. You might be convinced about something, but sometimes the market tells you otherwise, so you need to be ready to accept it. Because if not, it can be very costly. Then you need luck, as well. At some points, we could feel we were onto something, we had requests from all around the world, people were Googling visitor management and finding us. We started seeing companies like Apple or Palantir that landed on our websites and filled in the contact form because they needed our type of solution. We were amazed that was happening.
During that time, what was happening with PropTech in Europe? Did you feel like you were riding a new wave?
We were way too early. And when you’re too early, you start wondering if you’re wrong. We thought, are we blind? Why is nobody doing this? I mean, this huge market, digitizing the front desk. It wasn’t happening for years and years. We were bootstrapped. We had subsidies, we had loans, and we managed to sort of survive by growing slowly. I would say between 2016 and 2018, that’s when things started accelerating.
And then what about international expansion?
Well, checking in a visitor is the same or very similar anywhere on Earth. So international expansion doesn’t mean anything for a SaaS offering. We never decided to open a market. We were just available for business for anyone in need of a visitor management solution. So even in 2017, 2018, we had 30–40 percent of our revenue coming from the US.
Was there any difference in local strategy?
Not really. I mean, it’s a straightforward product. What was different was the maturity of the market. The US market is two years faster than the rest of the world.
The first Google searches came from the West Coast of the US. I always found that fascinating: receptionists or facility managers were one day waking up in the West Coast, thinking I need to go on Google because I need to digitize my check-in process. And someone in the same role would do the same thing two years later in Europe.
So the first request came from the West Coast. Then from the East Coast, then came the UK, Northern Europe. Then Australia. Then down to The Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. That’s across three, four years.
I would imagine that many SaaS products that are non-geographically tied are kind of following that similar pattern.
Yes. When I speak to founders of other companies, I hear the same story over and over. So, especially in a small country like Belgium, the term international expansion doesn’t mean much. You need to be international from day one. And it took us a while to understand that in the bootstrapping phase.
Any final words?
I would just recommend anyone to quit their job and start a business, because it’s a fantastic experience. Create something and see it through.
