Alexandre Berriche: Founder at Fleet, Scout at Sequoia and Super Angel

0:00Hello and welcome back to the Scaling Europe show. I'm Seb. Today we have a great guest in front of us. We have Alex. Alex is the co-founder of Fleet, an amazing bootstrapped organization, but also one of Europe's only first and leading super angels. Alex, can you give us a quick introduction? Yeah, thank you for having me. I'm glad to be here. So yeah, in a few words, I'm a co-founder and now executive chairman of Fleet. Fleet is a device as a service solution, meaning we are equipping, managing and renewing all sorts of IT assets for SMBs and startup and scale up. We have grown a lot. We should grow above 80 % this year.

0:42We reached for the first time 30 million annualized revenue in September. And we are fully bootstrapped since day one and managed to grow a very large company alone by yourself. So it's a very exciting journey. No, it's amazing. And that's kind of how we were connected, I guess. Somebody in your team sent me the news about you hitting the 30 million revenue run rate. and the fact that you're bootstrapped it's just i think it means that as a result companies like fleet don't get the visibility in the airtime that lots of vc-backed companies do but when i posted about it people absolutely loved it you know like people in tech and the wider ecosystem love a bootstrapped story um how did you find it in the early days building without the cash that so many other people especially competitors might have had in their bank yeah it was a challenging journey obviously it's obviously I mean it's obviously at first more difficult to build without money than to build with money but what has been a challenge at the beginning I think became a force for us and a strength we developed a very special culture where you know like a lot of can do attitudes for reality and if you step back I think entrepreneurship is about being resourceful and when you are trained on resources you become more resourceful so I think we have a very young entrepreneurship team and now it has become a strength for us.

2:10Amazing and the business seems to be doing really well. What's your role in it now? Now you're chairman does that mean that you kind of step back from the day-to-day and you know what does that role of chairman look like yeah so i'm uh i'm still uh yeah like 50 percent shareholder of the company as of now with my co-founder seven being a shareholder at 50 percent um he is now the ceo meaning he's running uh all the team and managing everyone in the team and managing the company basically and myself as chairman i'm more acting as um yeah as an advisor for him i help him also with qualitative intros, reflection on strategy, and I can do some sprint with him.

2:57Recently, we have been looking at some M &A acquisitions. So since I have also some experience doing deals and analyzing business, I help him on this. So yeah, more step back on the operation, but still quite involved in the long-term strategy and obviously owning a big part of it. Yeah, of course. And so let's talk about how you're spending your time outside of Fleet now. You know, you're probably one of Europe's leading angel investors. You know, this term super angel, which is quite big in the US, not so big over here in Europe. What is a super angel? Yeah, thank you. So I think super angel is like a term that, yes, start in the US and qualify people like that are not just, yes, that do more than pure angel investing.

3:46so that start, you know, like do more quantity, become a bit of brand of their own, start to raise some small funds or SPV. So I'm not sure I qualify for everything, but yeah, obviously I've been quite disciplined and consistent on engine investing for the past eight years or something. I've started eight years ago. it started as a passion and it's still a passion for me and but yeah I spend a lot of time doing it so obviously how can I say like it's like the Olympics no like it's supposed to be the highest level of the amateurs so I believe I'm not a professional investor as I'm not a full-time BC or something but I'm quite high level in terms of amateur.

4:42And can we talk about your overall approach strategy so how many investments you said you've been doing it for eight years how many investments would you roughly make in a year and what what kind of check size are you looking to write yes so i do i do a mix of a different check um i have an early stage strategy which is mainly precedency where i do 30 35 tickets of average 45k so roughly 1 million 1.1 million or something a year and this it's a mix of working with Sequoia and my own money and then I do sometimes some SPV for very big seed or say I have been inside so this could be a few millions and then I have built also like a late stage community where people can co-invest with me in some of the leading logos.

5:40It's called Blue Chip. I think you can find it on my LinkedIn profile and find access to the community. But basically, the idea is that, yeah, like everyone knows who has the strongest logo of today, which is OpenAI, Anthropix, Stripe, SpaceX, XAI, Unreal. And we find some allocation in them and do some SPV to invest. Yeah, very cool. So you've got your sort of 30, 35K checks that you either write yourself and also as like a Sequoia scout. You then do some larger bits, again, at an early stage, but maybe knocking up an SPV for a million or two million. And then you've got Blue Chips, which is your late stage SPVs, which is, yeah, those big brands getting access to those big cap tables at a later stage.

6:30And I'm also an LP myself of multiple funds. Interesting. And there I have two different strategies. I think I do a lot of emerging managers, solo GP, small size, which might collaborate a lot at Precide. So I invested in Anthony Dannon of Artirail and he used to be at Coguar. Gloria of Puzzle. And then I do also the brands. so I'm a small ape in Sequoia, Kleiner Perkins, Crown Dome so let's diversify on this too. Yeah amazing you've got your fingers in lots of different pies from you know investing yourself you know SPVs at small stage SPVs at a later stage and now investing in funds. I want to talk on some of the early investments because I know that you were specifically an early investor in Lovable.

7:25Let's start with that one you know how early did you invest and how did you get access? I invest very early. I think I was part of the first checks. So it was in 2023. Yeah, I received it. And yeah, and I would never imagine this growth this fast, this big. I think it's actually like the fastest company to reach 100 million AR in the history. So it's also, yeah i think he i'm proud in multiple aspects you know as a european to see like the fastest company from europe and not from the us and um and as an angel investor also it's some sort of uh not consecration but like you you do this for those deals now and uh and and it's beautiful when you manage to be inside no so it's pretty exciting no it's amazing yes well yeah europe's most exciting company at the moment you're right fastest growing company to 100 million can you share anything about what investment what valuation you invested at or like a roughly return even paper i think i invested at um 20 something um and i think uh with dilution it's around 50-55x for the round of Accel but there is also like I think Accel did the round at 1.6 billion or something but I receive every week like some offer from family office that say oh I'm buying it for 4 billion valuation so I think it's actually already more like 100x something no and you know it's amazing like 50x or 100x it's like it's called power law no like it's a venture capital concept where you need one investment that return everything else you've done that's amazing are you getting offers to sell yours are people reaching out to you trying to purchase your shares would that be Yeah, I'm receiving a flat 4 billion valuation now.

9:45Crazy. It's crazy, yeah. And you're tempted or are you holding? Yeah, like, first of all, I think there's still a lot of growth behind. And I also, so I think for now I'm not into selling. And I think if one day I'm into selling, I would chat first with Anton, the CEO, before making any decision on my own. I think you need to respect founders and not bring anyone in their cap tables. They are not into it. So, yeah. And I guess like when a company like this, they organize secondaries themselves. So, I mean, I can imagine you will organize it at one point. So, I think I will wait for this. I think it's still growing a lot.

10:38So, yeah. amazing i mean that must be especially in terms of you know the 100x and what it must be like 18 months two years must be you know the best of your portfolio by some way the best in anyone's portfolio that's a phenomenal result um have you got any other companies like that where you've seen okay that is you know that that fits the power law narrative that is that one in 100 that is going to return all of the other money invested? Yeah, I think, first of all, I think Venture is a beautiful asset class because it represents life in many aspects. So, I mean, I would have never imagined when I invested in Lovables, it would be at Androdex a couple of years after, I mean, less than two years after.

11:32also I remember they made two loans that failed or three loans that failed before launching it and having amazing product market feed so so and at some time I had some very successful ones that happened to be flattening a bit lately and the so I believe like chatting with people who have been doing this for a very long time your winner of today might not be your winner of tomorrow and your loser of today might not be your loser of tomorrow so it's obviously difficult to say um i think until you have like a founder fighting uh with a strong vision uh and and a strong commit to make something happen there is a hope and belief no um and obviously like yeah i have multiple exciting ones outside of love level um i'm lucky to be in one in france called dust it's a very successful AI one I mean Robco in Germany it's a robotic very exciting one yeah I mean multiple tandem health in the Nordics yeah just to name a few yeah yeah no amazing I want to touch on super angels more broadly right because I guess your role as a super angel is investing in a lot of companies every year meaningful checks and it's it's something that yeah when we don't see so much of in europe compared to the us i guess my first question would be do you think we need more super angels yeah i mean i think angel are always creating value for founders like most of the time no so if you step back like i'm participating to some round of uh three million five million something you know you do 35k checks you don't take so much space in the round and at the same time myself I happen to be quite connected now so I have yeah like 200 portfolio companies co-invested with all the funds LP intent fund I know journalists podcaster politics in France so I can open some doors to also I scale my own startup and I have some learnings there and I opened my startup in multiple ecosystems.

14:00So Fleet, we scale it in Germany, Spain. So yeah, I have a lot of connections in multiple geographies and to multiple people and so I think this creates value for founders. I also have some learning both as a founder and as an angel. So yeah, I think it's some good muscles that I can share with with thunder and give them some tips make them some intro connect them to other people so i think the value i'm obviously not the only one doing this in europe and there is others but but i think it's very useful for an ecosystem to have like ex or serial entrepreneur entrepreneur doing checks yeah absolutely it's something i hear frequently is the the lack of ex entrepreneur investors that we need more in europe who are ex-founders ex-builders not just as angels but also as vcs you mentioned you know i guess like super angels often go on to sort of start their own fund or raise their own maybe like a micro fund is that something that you'd like to do eventually or are you happy playing as a super angel yeah i think uh i'm gonna insult the future no so it's difficult to to say I think as of now I really enjoy I see more myself as a founder so I enjoy building fleet I'm very commit to the long-term success of fleet so I'm gonna keep some time focusing on fleet and maybe someday I will either launch some new companies or yeah like i could also uh i think if i would uh be a founder uh if i would be become a vc i would enjoy more building my fund um and i think by building my fund is not just being a solo gp or micro vc it's more like uh building a team building a brand uh um but yeah let's see if i find it more exciting than uh doing uh building companies uh i really enjoy today you doing both at some time, building a company and doing deals.

16:20I'm feeling very privileged. Also, I'm lucky to have my company, which is Bootstrap. So I have a lot of freedom from there. So yeah, I enjoy doing both with freedom. Yeah, so right now you get to manage your own time. You're completely free. And I guess you're not beholden to any LPs or anything like that. I guess you started angel investing eight years ago and now you've built this portfolio up to hundreds of companies, including some phenomenal companies. What advice would you give to somebody who is interested in starting to become an angel? Yeah, when I start to be an angel, it was randomly, you know, like it was a friend who told me, hey, I have this opportunity to invest.

17:10Would you be excited to do it with me? so I said yeah for sure I'm a very curious guy and I found it fun and same for Blue Chip it's one of my best friends I think I did my first private checks with him so he has been always working in secondary and late stage so I co-invested with him in Spotify before IPO, in Pinterest before IPO and And it was like 10 years ago or something. And yeah, like anytime someone comes with an opportunity, I'm always bullish, positive, curious. So I started like this. Yeah, but I guess if there's somebody else who wants to get into it, do you have any advice around getting access to the best deals or what's a good check size?

18:06Is there anything like that to somebody who's just getting started? Yes, somebody just getting started. Yeah, I think, first of all, I think it's an expensive hobby and it's a difficult hobby. So you have to be ready to lose money or invest money. You're not going to see back for quite some time. People shouldn't think it's magic money. I mean it's been 8 years myself and I didn't see so much liquidity yet no a little bit but also since I'm reinvesting not so much so I think you have to have this in mind and knowing this you have to be ready to be able to invest maybe 100k for one year for eight years so you need to have a bit of budget ready and 100k like maybe 10 tickets of 10k like first advice is not to concentrate no like you should there is so much risk in this asset class like you shouldn't concentrate everything in one ticket per year but spread it in 10 or 20 ideally this is first second like you should be very discipline on how much to invest per month or per year and stick to it you shouldn't invest in everything you see which is a temptation like when you are bullish, like any founder you meet, oh it's exciting, oh this guy is my friend let's support them and so you have to say no much more than you say yes obviously, but it's difficult and yeah I think a good way also to learn and develop is to surround yourself by the best no and so and I still doing it myself but myself as a signal I when I start investing I was really careful okay who are the investor leading the deal where's the firm leading the deal is it some good brand is it some serious investor so when you start like you should be careful and try to coinvest with good angel good good vcs and build your value proposition for founders no like say okay i'm not an experienced angel myself i'm just starting but hey i'm a big expert in product i'm a big expert in marketing i can help you on this and that and this so that you create value for founder your founder gonna talk well about you to their other investor we are more you know like seasoned than you but this guy might invite you in some other deals and like this you would start building a portfolio of good logos and network of good co-investors and with both of you can you can double down yeah no that's great advice it's um yeah it's also interesting that you mentioned you know after eight years there's still very limited the kind of liquidity that you've got already you know this is such a long-term game and you can't you wouldn't really want to see liquidity that soon right you know you've got to wait you know the big winners take 10 to 15 years to to mature and realize uh but look alex that's all we've got time for today but thank you so much for joining me i'm i've really enjoyed getting to like know you and your conversation and and yeah it's um super angels are definitely a rare breed in europe uh so it's interesting to yeah to speak to you thank you have a good day bye thank you bye