Learn more about the startups coworking in our London office in our Startup Spotlight. Today we are thrilled to introduce you to Opteo!
“We HAD to make this work, but we knew that there was no guarantee that things would get better.” Guillaume Devinat, Opteo’s Co-founder.
This month we sat down with Guillaume to talk about how he started his entrepreneur journey with his Co-founder Axel and how they created Opteo.com (previous Altus. io), a SaaS for AdWords agencies. In his own words: “We work hard to streamline the day-to-day of account managers via AdWords optimization algorithms and client management tools.”
How did the idea of Opteo come about?
Opteo is our 4th attempt at a viable company. 7 years ago, Axel and I wanted to see if we could make money on the internet. At first, we tried to sell guitar lessons online. This had a tepid response. Then we tried to sell World of Warcraft gold for USD at scale. We quickly got banned. New idea: sell other people’s products. We became affiliates to various online products of questionable value. But the competition was fierce, so we made some simple software to help us out. We posted this software on some PPC forums, and a few members wanted it too. It dawned on us that the software was actually more valuable than the affiliate work. At this point, we were still wrong about everything. Yet, we managed to get a few paying users after a few months, and that was enough to convince us to give this one a proper shot.
4 pivots (and 3 company names) later, we finally got some traction.
What attracted you to begin your entrepreneur journey together, and how did the partnership start?
It all began in Mrs Covington’s history class, when Axel and I were 14 years old. We’d talk about video game strategies, Linux desktop environments, and how bad we flunked the latest Russian vocab test. Axel changed schools, and we lost touch for a few years.
By then, I had started guitarlessonlounge.com, but I was struggling with some wordpress theme stuff. Axel knew some CSS, so he instantly became CTO.
What are the biggest struggles in your startup adventure you came across so far?
In the beginning, we were at school, so nothing really mattered. Hey, we made $50, that’s, like, 5 meals!
The middle was hard, largely because we are bootstrapped. Axel left his high-paying job at Tripadvisor and moved to London to work on Opteo full time. I worked consulting jobs to pay for 2+ salaries. The software was bringing in very little cash. We HAD to make this work, but we knew that there was no guarantee that things would get better.
Then things did get better. We’ve just recently been able to drop all consulting jobs, and started to bolster our team with some new faces! Running the show is still a heavy weight, but growth is forecasted with reasonable certainty.
According to Sage’s reports “Walk with me, meet the new generation of entrepreneurs”; 34% of Millennials say they started their business to be master of their own destiny; 24% to turn their ideas into reality, and just 21% to make money. Which percentage do you feel part of?
It started with the explicit goal of making the most amount of money for the least amount of work. That didn’t really pan out. Turns out we like working! Now it’s more about hanging out with our team (<3), and taking this tiny section of the world and making it better by serving our customers with a great product.
Do you have any golden rules for any budding entrepreneurs out there?
Start now. Action > Thought.
A little bit of work reveals a lot of your plan to be irrelevant. Start before (you think) you have all the answers.
Asset mentality
Create things that stay and pay dividends over time. Whether you like it or not, your project is going to take a long time, so investments pay off.
Think small
MVP it. Ship it before it is ready. This is classic lean startup cycle stuff.
Prioritize carefully
Thinking extra hard about what will actually make an impact is better than working weekends and 16 hour days.
Don’t hire nobs
When hiring, we like to optimize for the person rather than the job. We value honesty, integrity, kindness over day-1 efficiency.
Never give up
You have chosen the Rainmaking Loft as Opteo’s home in the early days of the company. What’s the best thing that has happened to your team whilst in the Loft?
The loft was a turning point for us — we finally started working in the same room together. This was pretty much revolutionary. I’ve also met some of my biggest consulting clients here, either in the loft (DogBuddy) or at workshops held here (Xpenditure) back in the consulting days.
On a more general note, RML has given us a sense of belonging. After years of vagabonding in cafes and being remote, planting our roots down and plugging into a community had a bigger impact than expected. It’s much better for morale.