Why Is Europe’s Youngest Billionaire Living In India? | The 1% Club Show | Ep. 16
Summary
TLDRThe video features an interview with Fabien, the CEO of a Belgium-based tech company valued at $4 billion. He discusses his journey building the company over 20 years, starting with just $6,000 in savings. Key topics include the challenges of scaling from 1 to 10 employees versus 100 to 1,000, transitioning from a services model to product licensing, lessons learned from over-hiring and burning through $3 million in funding, the importance of managing expectations for happiness, and why he chooses to forego vacations and fancy cars to focus everything on growing the business and buying back company shares.
Takeaways
- 😊 Fabian is the founder and CEO of a Belgian unicorn company valued at $4 billion
- 💰 The company had $400 million in revenue last year
- 🏫 Fabian started his first business at age 13 and became a billionaire by age 35-37
- 🚀 It took 5 years to grow to 4 employees, doubling every year after that to 4000 employees now
- 💡 The idea for the business came from seeing small companies lacking proper tools and software
- 👨💻 The product is an integrated suite of business applications - CRM, accounting etc.
- 🌎 The business expanded internationally before addressing the Indian market
- 😣 It was very difficult growing from 1 to 10 employees compared to 100 to 1000 employees
- 💸 Fabian lives a simple life, focused on growing the business rather than material possessions
- 🔮 With only 0.1% market share, Fabian feels he's just getting started and has more to accomplish
Q & A
How much revenue did Fabian's company generate last year?
-The company generated $400 million in revenue last year.
What is the current valuation of Fabian's company?
-The current valuation of the company is around $4 billion.
At what age did Fabian become a billionaire?
-Fabian became a billionaire around the age of 35-37 years old.
Why did Fabian move his company's operations to India?
-Fabian moved part of his company's operations to India because of the fast growth, open market, and abundant tech talent there. He wanted to build products for the local Indian market.
How does Fabian explain what his company Odoo does?
-Fabian explains that Odoo provides a suite of integrated business applications, like CRM, accounting, inventory etc, to help small and medium companies run efficiently, like providing tools for a mechanic.
How much did it cost Fabian to start his first company?
-It cost Fabian 6000 Euros to start his first company in Belgium, which was the minimum amount required at that time.
How long did it take for Fabian's company to reach 100 employees?
-It took 8 years for Fabian's company to reach 100 employees.
What mistakes did Fabian make after raising 3 million Euros in funding?
-Fabian made the mistake of hiring too fast without corresponding revenue growth, burning through the 3 million Euros in funding in just 2 years.
What is Fabian's current salary?
-Fabian has a gross salary of 1000 Euros per day, out of which he takes home 400 Euros after taxes.
What percent of the market does Fabian's company Odoo currently have?
-Odoo has only 0.1% of the market share currently, so there is still a lot of room for growth according to Fabian.
Outlines
😊 Introducing Fabian, Founder of a Multi-Billion Dollar Company
The first paragraph introduces Fabian, the founder and CEO of a Belgium-based unicorn company valued at over $4 billion. It provides some key details about the company's revenue, valuation, Fabian's recognition as the next Bill Gates, and his recent move to India.
😃 Explaining the Company's Offerings Using a Mechanic Analogy
Fabian explains his company's suite of integrated business applications using an analogy of a mechanic without proper tools, unable to work efficiently. He contrasts his company's all-in-one platform for small businesses against complex and expensive ERPs from big tech and fragmented singular apps from small companies.
😊 Recounting the Early Bootstrapping Phase
The third paragraph focuses on the early and solo bootstrapping phase of Fabian's journey, including starting with no salary for 10 years. He reflects on the hiring challenges and evolution from 1 to 10 employees being more difficult than 100 to 1000, requiring communication and training.
😉 Prioritizing Company Growth Over Personal Assets
In the final paragraph, Fabian shares that he prioritizes buying back company shares over personal assets, revealed his high salary and taxes, and asserts that making impact matters more than money to him personally.
Mindmap
Keywords
💡Entrepreneurship
💡Bootstrapping
💡Unicorn company
💡Evolution of business
💡India opportunity
💡Hiring challenges
💡Fundraising
💡Lifestyle choice
💡Management style
💡Vision
Highlights
Revenue last year was $400 million with a valuation around $4 billion
Called the new Bill Gates in 2009
Took 10 years to have a salary, went through 3 million Euro in 2 years by hiring too fast
Hardest part is going from 1 to 10 employees, then growth gets easier
First 8 years were a services business before transitioning to a product business
Went down to zero revenue when pivoting from services to product
Life in India is simple with low expectations for happiness
Owns 55% of company shares, ~$1300 gross salary per day
Doesn't own house or car, lives in wife's house
Company has 0.1% market share despite $4 billion valuation
Hardest days may come, have to take more risks to grow
From 0 to 10 employees, founder does everything which is good
10 to 100 employees is about communication and training people
100 to 1000 employees, CEO becomes chief explanatory officer
First year revenue selling services and time
Transcripts
Revenue last year was $400 million $400
million yes uh with a valuation around
$4 billion like 55% of the shares of Fu
um It also says here that in 2009 um you
were called the new Bill Gates yeah are
you comfortable sharing how much salary
you have uh what is India to it's not
Brazil it's not Russia it's not China
it's India and India and India the focus
should be there okay why have you
shifted Bas all the way from Belgium and
you're living in India but you know what
most people who wants to go work in the
US I think they do a
[Music]
mistake hey guys welcome back to another
episode of the one person Club show on
today's episode we have Mr Fabian the
founder and CEO of a unicorn company
here with us today it's a belgian-based
company valued at over
3.75 billion e so 20 years of being in
business can you talk about how the
numbers grew Revenue last year was uh
$400 million $400 million yes uh with a
valuation around $4 billion so when were
you at what age did you become a
billionaire uh I don't know maybe 35 35
No 37 maybe 35 37 because it also says
here that in
209 um you were called the new Bill
Gates yeah how did that feel I think
it's not for Bill
Gates I think I mean the guy did so much
that it's not even comparable have you
met him no never never never okay Odo is
present in a lot of countries you guys
are present in around 160 countries if
I'm not wrong so with Partners uh in
terms of companies we have companies in
San Francisco Mexico New York Dubai um
maybe something like 15 countries 15
countries and we have Partners in 160
countries you have recently moved to
India and you're living in Gujarat so
can you talk us a little bit about that
why have you shifted Bas all the way
from Belgium and you're living in India
when did you India was the first company
I opened really no you opened your first
thing in Belgium Belgium and then first
subsidiary was in India so OD is global
we have activities worldwide and or
Indian company used to deliver service
for the other countries development
service for America Europe and so on but
we were not addressing the local market
but the local market with is booming
India is incredible the GDP is growing
8% per year so for us it was a challenge
we wanted to start with our application
deliver something for the Indian
companies oh and the problem we have in
Europe is that if you need to recruit
four or five developers it takes six
months to recruit four or five
developers yes you need two three four
months to find them then there is a
three months time for them to leave
their old job so it could be sometimes
even N9 months so it's very slow um and
I needed to move faster than that in
India I could recruit like 10 developers
in just less than a month and how is
your life in Gujarat that's where you're
living right I love it because you know
a lot of Indians keep migrating outside
of India I mean I think last year the
number was almost 1 million people who
left India to settle in other Western
countries because the quality of life is
better yeah but you know what most
Indian people who wants to go work in
the US I think they do a mistake U not
all of them but in India usually like it
it developers they have a very good they
can afford a lot of things in India they
have people clean their hores Cooks
whatever you want and then they move to
the US they have a bigger salary but
rent is super high education is super
high housing is super high and they are
they have to do two or three work just
to pay the bills right and most of them
have a shitty life compared to what they
get in India before uh so sometimes the
trade-off is not that good so what like
everybody the whole world is talking
about India and its growth like what do
you think after India what country in
the world will be better so you know we
used to talk about brick I don't know if
we brick Brazil Russia India and China
big where people wanted to invest a few
years ago everyone wanted brick yeah
look at it today Brazil killed by big
inflation just just cre Russia is in war
the r the rubbles decre like
crazy China is closed even if you
succeed the government will will sees
your company it's going to be so there
is basically no way to to succeed in
China is not in China we have we have
tried I spend 1 million to do a joint
venture and it failed completely so the
only remaining one is India and India is
great it speaks English it grows fast
it's open market it's a democracy for
everything is green in one of the
hardest working people in the world yes
there is India number one there is no
second one to pick a second one it's
India 2 what is India 2 it's it's not
Brazil it's not Russia it's not China
it's India and India and India the focus
should be there okay so Fabian your
company is worth 3.75 billion so what
exactly does your company do so I I'll
explain you the same way I explain to my
kids okay imagine you are a mechanic
someone who fix cars and you're super
good you love your job you can give you
a shitty car you will fix it in two
hours or three hours because you love
your job and you are efficient now
Imaging the same mechanic and he doesn't
have tools no screwdriver nothing to
leave the cars the guy could be
passionated about his job if he doesn't
have the tool he will be totally
inefficient things he used to do in two
hours will take two days and this is
exactly what happens in small and
midsize companies a lot of them are
suffering because they don't have the
right tools you still have a lot of
people who do things record data
manually who don't have access to
statistics and this is what we do what
to do we do a suite of applications that
you can Lear to to run all your business
from CRM to accounting to inventory
build a website launch your social
marketing campaign and all those
application fully integrate to each
other and now I also have my own startup
you know there are 65 people now I have
a separate software for HR I have a
separate software for marketing separate
software for communications separate
software for produ product management
but udoo has somehow figured out how to
put everything in one right so why is it
so difficult to do that like why aren't
these other companies not doing
everything in one place yeah you're
right that's exactly what we want to
serve is to make things simple but cover
everything you need why we did it I
think it's not easy first took us 20
years to do it yeah um and some tried on
the market you have the big players who
would do a lot of things like SCP and
Microsoft which are what we call Erp but
they are complex and expensive in the
other side you have all the small player
but they only do one thing what you
don't have very simple do the job but do
everything you need in one platform and
this is what we do okay can you talk a
little bit about costing because you
said those big software companies like
you know your Microsoft Dynamics or sap
how much do they cost and how much does
uh uh these individual small players the
costing how would that look like and how
does Odo compare in terms of the
competition so large Erp they cost
Millions usually it's diff or millions
or it's very very expensive so only the
large companies use them so like setting
it up will cost millions millions uh
small and midsize they don't use CP and
orac it's too expensive this is what you
g meant by those example of the mechanic
like they don't have the tools because
it's so expensive it's to it's not
affordable enough for them the small
ones it range from
$10 to $50 per user in per months you're
talking about the likes of you know your
slack your Asana these kind of Stu
exactly okay the pricing of AO is uh
interesting for one application like you
want your website or e-commerce or you
want to replace slack or whatever or
your accounting software it's free but
if you need all the applications like
you need the big Erp that does
everything that integrate everything for
your company so that like the r through
is of the management that's 580 rupees
per month and per user okay we have 12
millions of users so even though the
price is small when you times 12 million
it's still big Revenue right now I'm in
a stage in my company where I have asked
all my department heads to you know
document data on Excel so that I get to
see what's happening uh week on week
with each department how are the numbers
moving how are the uh you know the kpis
is improving at some point you will
notice yourself that you will out grow
Excel and that's how businesses start
right in India everybody starts with
Exel but tell me about the early days of
your entrepreneurship as soon as you
graduated from college yeah I was alone
bootstrapped no money I started with
nothing 6,000 at the time okay uh which
is barely one month of salary uh in
Europe 6,000 EUR in Indian terms that's
like six lakh rupees in today it's in
Belgium at the time it was one or two
months of salary so where do you get
that money from um um I think it's money
I saved during years of doing small
businesses okay so basically since since
you started from 13 you were saving up
money here and there and that sort of
accumulated to €6,000 and the age of 23
you started but you were alone right so
what did you have to pay for um 6,000 is
the minimum to create a company in
Belgium it's the the initial fund you
have to put oh you have to pay the
government yeah you have to go to the
notary and incate the company and you
have to put some starting starting fund
and it was 6,000
okay um so I could do that with that I
had no salary for the first maybe 10
years 10 years no salary no salary but
what the people growth how many people
were there in year one year two year
three year one I was alone after 5 years
I think I had four employees or
something after five years four
employees yeah five fulltime after the
university so first year I was alone
second year I was alone third year we
were two and then two four seven and
then 15 and then times two every year
and then it started to grow now we are
4,000 4,000 employees today how many
years has it been since you began 20
years so I want to understand the
journey and and the challenges that a
company goes through how it has to
evolve from 0 to 10 10 to 100 100 to 500
like walk me through that Journey okay
from one to three is as difficult as 100
to 1,000 100 to 1,000 is actually easy
it's for me it was more difficult from 1
to 10 than 100 to 1,000 0er to 10 you do
everything yourself uh which is good
because the founder is probably the best
in selling his own product because he
has passion he knows everything so it's
good yeah that's 0o to 10 that's a good
point here because a lot of people
before starting business they assume
that I need to hire people for this this
this I don't know how to do this this
this but I think even when I started my
business when I had like four five
people I was doing everything right and
you cannot be hands off at that point of
time uh a good founder is somebody who
can take up any department at any given
point of time because he's so Hands-On
with everything because he needs to
improve and give guidance to the others
especially in the 0 to 10 employees 0 to
10 yeah and then when you start to grow
up you will need some more people you
have middle managers the culture is not
you anymore it's the middle manager the
way they bef so you have to invest more
about teaching
educating training your middle manager
your people uh this from the 10 to 100
employee Journey yes to 10 to 100 it's a
lot of communication and training so
when you grow from 100 to 1,000 things
change you are not the as a CEO for
instance you are not the chief executing
officer you become the chief explanatory
officer
okay a lot of the job is aligning
everyone to be sure that we all move
forward in the same direction that
people can decide and can you tell me
about the numbers like how did the when
when which year you made the first
Revenue first year because I was selling
service I was selling my time so the
beginning was easy from year one to year
eight I was a Service Company selling
services to everyone developing features
on demand so and first eight years you
were saying you were a Services Company
where you were a group of people
building features for other companies on
demand yes and at that point of time 8
years what kind of revenues were you
guys generating at the time we were 100
employees after 8 years and revenue uh
1.5 million euro um what's great in your
revenue is that 82% is recurring now
you've transitioned to a model where you
built this all in one comprehensive
product yeah which other people can use
it as on a licensing model yes so how do
you transition to that so it's very
difficult because from one day to
another I said I don't want to do
service anymore so I lost I lost all my
news and I said I will start to sell
maintenance because it was risky I did a
fundraising and I raised three millions
of Euro in capital so when you get three
millions of Euro you feel like I'm rich
I can do whatever I want recruit a lot
of people and you start going crazy to
to speed up the the development right
and uh but the revenue doesn't grow as
fast as you expect yeah so I was
recruiting like crazy and two years
after I burned the three millions of
Euro and we were still not really Rec in
two years you blew off the3 million EUR
yes that's a classic mistake where uh
people say that higher slow and Fire
fast but you hired fast because of the
sudden funding and that's a big problem
in India as well lot of startups would
get a lot of money there is a good
balance so you have to burn fast because
you want to go fast yeah but not too
much so you get below zero yeah and I
think I did it right at the end it has
not been easy but I just went three get
to zero and I stabilized that zero which
is the perfect things stabiliz the zero
means you sto burning money you stop
burning money you were making enough
money to pay for I to make difficult
decision the time which is fire a few
people okay I think that is the um most
difficult thing for any founder is will
I be able to make next month's payroll
right and that is sort of because that
is a non-negotiable right if a person is
not getting their salary it's sort of
like what do you do right right but if
you are not getting the revenue this
month you'll be like okay I'll figure it
out two months later I'll build
something right but payroll is something
which is like a non-negotiable so so can
you tell a little bit about your
personal finances right you own nothing
else everything is in Udo
uh yes my yes I have 55% of the shares
of foro um I have a salary but over the
past year I used this salary to buy back
shares of would you like are you
comfortable sharing how much salary you
have uh yes it's around 1,000 EUR per
day 1,000 per day yeah it's a groc
salary because I pay tax so in net I get
400 EUR per day so 600 goes into tax yes
that's the Belgium tax that's the
Belgium like you have two3 in tax okay
I'm so glad I'm in India but then we
have free education free free there
there are some advantages yeah of course
and I don't own things like I live in
the house of my wife I don't have a
house okay my car is the company car I
don't have a car personally so
everything I do is just trying to buy
the maximum of shares of so you're like
all in like in the casino I'm just all
whoo but how do you feel in India
everything is would be significantly
cheaper for you compared to your
previous uh residences so uh are you
able to like like how how is the
lifestyle changed um my life decreased a
lot um so I'm living in a very small
house and think but I think it's good
because the best way to be happy in life
is to lower your expectations when you
have low expectation you don't expect
anything it's easy to be happy and uh so
for me in Belgium I didn't have big cars
and big was nothing I don't even own a
house it's I I live in the one I mean as
a founder of a unicorn company uh you
could afford to do all of those things
if I'm not wrong so I could but money is
not important what matters is what you
do
what drives me is the impact we have in
all the companies where we deploy or do
to deliver good software to develop good
software like most people when they get
money they would like you know go at
least travel the world you know do a
little bit of vacations I'm not I'm not
able to understand why you don't want to
Vacation like how does how does that
because I get bought you know if I go to
a beach I get bought what I love and
what I do is to build things and um in
vacation for me really some most of the
time my wife goes in vacation without me
okay she goes and I still walking
because I love it so do you have like a
500 a.m. wake up routine like what most
billionaires have like what's your wake
up routin no no I just uh I have no
routine okay I no I my agenda one one
thing I like is to have my agenda clear
I have no meeting during the day so I
choose what I do you don't have no
meetings during the day uh maximum one
per day how is that possible teach me um
a lot of CEOs they are victim of their
agenda a lot of people book meeting for
them got I need this this this I don't
and because I don't work with clients I
don't want with say I don't want I I
want to own my agenda but I manage what
I want to do I don't have a secretary so
nobody's booking Mee for me I just
decide what I do and finally where you
plan to settle down for the rest of your
life oh I don't know you know what you
will do who me where I want to I'm
pretty sure you don't know it's
impossible but I've just started so I
don't know yeah I'm starting too you've
been doing it for 20 years no no no I
have zero 0.1% of the market the market
is so big that my company is just 0.1%
of the maret really so it's I'm only
starting I still have a lot of things to
do like you my God so and it's already
worth4 billion dollar yeah all right Mr
faban I think um that brings us to the
end of the show um I personally learned
a lot of things about U um what are the
difficult things that an entrepreneur
goes through uh in your 20-year Journey
it's been two years for me you've been
doing it for 20 years um looks like a
lot of hard days may or may not come but
if they come I hope I will watch this
video again and feel better about those
hard disc if they don't come it's
because you don't grow fast enough okay
you have take more risks got it I I get
it thank you so much and thank you guys
for watching till the end and I'll see
you in the next
one
関連動画をさらに表示
If I Were Starting a Company In 2024, This is What I'd Do [FULL 0-$100M GUIDE]
How Nothing Founder Carl Pei Built A Multi-Million Dollar Smartphone Brand In Just 2 Years
Nigeria Billionaire Dangote on Fuel Subsidy, Oil Prices, Football
I Built a $225M Business in 3 Years (From Home)
Step by step how i made $16.4M so you can just copy me
10 Years Of Business Advice In 13 Minutes | From A Muslim CEO
5.0 / 5 (0 votes)