Co-Founder of French Tech 120 Scale-up (Adikteev)

Hello, Emilien!

Hey there, come on in!

How are you?

Good, and you?

What's the first thing you did this morning?

Uh, actually, I woke up my kids.

Oh, really? By the way, what would you say is the USP of this office?

The USP of this office, I may say, first the location, because we are in the very center of Paris with very nice restaurants around. And second, I may say the terrace, but I assume we would visit the terrace later.

But what's your favorite floor on this spot?

The favorite floor.

The favorite spot on the floor.

Oh, my favorite spot on this floor. I think it's the kitchen. It's the best way to socialize with people.

Oh, is that the kitchen?

Yeah, yeah, this is the kitchen.

Why is it so blingy?

Come on, come on. This is the addictive wall with the retention club. The Adictive logo, our tagline.

Are you in gaming at all?

We're working with apps and all types of apps, but 80% of our clients are actually gaming companies. So I assume we can say that Adictive is definitely in gaming.

What's the most overused app on your phone?

Asana. Asana should be the one that I use the most. Oh really?

You have Asana on your phone? Crazy, crazy.

The task management one.

Oh my goodness. Well, can you define what Adictive does in one line?

Adictive is re-engaging app users to make them come back to their favorite apps. So most likely, as we work for gaming, we try to re-engage the audience of games to make them play more and multiply the touchpoints with their favorite games.

Interesting. Knowing what Adictive does today, what would you say? What is harder to manage, people or campaigns?

Come on, everybody will tell you the same. Campaigns, it's easy, it's transparent. People, you know, it's way more complex.

I see some Legos and chessboards there.

Yeah, yeah, we have a lot of games. And also, you know, we're proud that we won a few awards, like especially those ones, the Happy Index at Work and the Choose My Company one. It's always good because it shows how people how people feel about the company, and I'm very proud about the fact that people feel good working at Adictive.

What's the best thing about adtech?

The best thing about adtech is the ever-changing— this is an ever-changing industry. So this is great because you always have new stuff to tackle, you always have new challenges. So that's really an amazing industry.

And what would you say is the worst thing about adtech?

Ever-changing industry, so you have to adapt all the time, and this could be a bit stressful. But yeah, I really love that.

I think 2 sides of the same coin.

Do you want to go upstairs?

Oh, but wait a minute, you said something about the kitchen. Can we have a look?

Oh, come on, come on.

How do you take your coffee, by the way?

My coffee, I take it raw or with almond milk. I really love almond milk.

Do you have almond milk in your cup right now?

Yes, for sure. But you know, I don't take my coffee in the office. I grab it from a nice place around. As I said, we're in Paris.

Oh yeah, for sure, for sure. What's your go-to breakfast?

Actually, it's more tea and a few bread and butter.

What's something I need to know about this kitchen?

The coolest thing is that here you can get your own sparkling water filtered.

No way!

This is a good thing. And this is actually a French brand, so I love this.

Well, this office is in Saint-Georges, so which is your favorite restaurant? Any recommendations?

Yeah, you can go to Soma, which is in the Milton Street. So Rue Milton. This is a Japanese restaurant and I really love the food there. They are really welcoming people, warm people, and the food is amazing and the price is really good.

Reasonable.

So yeah, very reasonable.

How would you describe your leadership style?

I'm more an inspiring partner for people I'm managing. I try to make them do things versus doing it for them. I try to empower people as much as I can. That's my leadership style.

What's one thing that is a little bit strange about you?

Yeah, strange. If you ask my wife, the strangest thing is my shoes collection. I have like 50 pairs of shoes.

Which one are these?

Ah, come on. Those ones are some Celine shoes that I really love. Actually, this is a gift from the company CRO. For my 40th birthday.

Interesting. I love this boat, by the way. It just caught my attention.

This is the company's COO, and those are all the animals of the company. So this is, yeah, this is really funny.

Any favorites that you have over here?

On the wall? Actually, mine is not here, but I would say mine is my favorite. But they're all so nice.

What's the most French thing about you?

I assume this is my English accent, right? You can hear that, like everyone is telling me that I sound like a French person.

The French accent.

Yeah, the French accent.

And what's your favorite place in this world?

My favorite place in this world, this is the city of Roma. This is where I proposed my wife, and I went there like 10 times, and all the time I'm there, I really feel home. Everything is amazing. The food is amazing, the coffee is great, and you know, every single street you have something to visit or to discover. So I love the mood and the history around it.

I love it, I love Rome. Where is Addictive heading next?

So the next place we're gonna head in is Morocco. We are organizing for the first time ever what we call the Retention Summit, which is our own, very own event. And we are hosting the 15 major clients of Addictive for 2 and a half days with a full set of learnings, but also full DJ sets. That would be crazy. It will be a mix of parties and learnings and networking, so I hope they're gonna love it.

What's the last initiative you started at Addictive?

It's the Friday afternoon off. Oh yeah, we put it in place. That was, that was really crazy.

Why did you start the Friday afternoon initiative?

We were thinking that no one was really working really hard on Friday afternoon first, and then we're also trying to find a way to retain people and think about how they could rebalance their work-life quality.

Where is Addictive's next retreat going to be?

You know, Abhi, I can't share it. What I can tell though is that we have a beautiful country here, France. So it may be in France.

Okay, France. This is great.

Yeah, this is a cool one. I really love the terrace.

What are the 3 best words you would use to describe this terrace?

Barbecue, drinks, and sun.

Lovely.

When we are lucky enough. Oh wow. Come on, come on. We have an outdoor kitchen here.

Oh!

And we have a bar.

Can I have a margarita, please?

Okay, let's go for it.

What's the best thing about living in Paris?

I think it's food for me. The diversity of food, all the restaurants you have around. That's really crazy.

What's the worst thing about living in Paris?

The weather.

Maybe. Yeah, I would say that.

It was really rainy and gray, so yeah, I hope it's gonna get better.

Thank God it's not raining at the moment.

No, no, no, fingers crossed it's gonna last.

Well, how many people work at Addictive?

Right now we have 110 people.

And how many countries your team members come from?

23. I think this is the last figure I get. And I may say I'm quite proud of it because it's also a symbol of inclusivity. And for a French company, it's very rare to have so many different nationalities.

Absolutely. 23 is a crazy number.

Yeah.

What's more important for you at Addictive, skill or attitude?

To me, it's really both, because if you have skills and not the attitude, or vice versa, You won't stay in the team.

Well, what has been the longest time someone has stayed at Addictive?

It's 11 years and it's Taoufiq, our CRO. But the story, the funniest story I have is that our very first intern, very, very first, like he was here day one when we started the company in 2012. And then he left. He had a few experiences abroad, and he joined us back a few years ago. And now he's still with us, and he's leading the operations at Addictive for retargeting. And this is quite a funny story because it's really funny to have your very first intern and see how he could grow within the company.

What was your first job, Emilien? I'm so curious.

My first job, actually, I was in entrepreneurship since day one.

No way!

When I graduated, then I started, I handed over a company, I took the lead of it, and I tried to make it work. Sadly, after 5 years, I didn't make it. And a few years later, finally, we launched Addictive with Xavier.

What's the best thing about being a founder?

I think it's the freedom to choose who you want to work with. That's, that's really the best thing.

Yeah, and the ones that you want to work with should have skill and attitude.

Yeah, for sure.

What's the worst thing about being a founder?

I think it's the pressure. Pressure could be quite intense sometimes, so I think this is the worst thing.

So how many rounds has Addictive gone through?

So we went through 3 different rounds of funding.

Yeah, 3. Wow. And how would you say you managed to score all 3?

So actually, I was— I think I have an amazing co-founder that is very experienced into everything related to finance and fundraising. So I had the chance to meet him. So he did a lot to manage those 3 rounds. But for the ones I was involved in, which means the 2 first ones, it was really hard work, explanation, vision. And for the very first one, let's say a lot of humor, because at the very beginning we had nothing but the PowerPoints.

Oh.

So it was hard to convince. And I think all the time we convince them on our capability to execute a plan and maybe not on the idea per se.

I see, that's an interesting point. Would you say going the VC route is always a good idea?

If you can avoid it, avoid it. And I don't say that for VC particularly, I say it for everything, like when you raise money. People are expecting a return and it's making you under pressure. Sometimes you have no choice than going for VC money. If you go for VC money, don't expect more than money. That's what I would say to founders who want to raise money.

How many brands got acquired by Addictive?

Actually, we acquired 3 and invested in 2.

Would you say you faced any common challenge when you acquired them?

No common challenges. The thing that you have to check is the capability of the founders you are acquiring, if they are in the picture to actually execute the plan well. And then you have different challenges depending on the size of the company, depending on the business model of the company. So yeah, a lot of challenges, but all different.

What would you say to any business looking to acquire another brand?

If you do that, make sure it would actually make a difference. And when I say a difference, it's a difference on your tech, on your business model, or on your revenue line. It needs to have an impact because the effort you're going to deploy will be really, really huge.

Are you an investor too?

Yeah, yeah, I invested in a few companies already.

And what kind of companies do you invest in?

Oh, it evolved across the time and the mistakes. Right now I'm focusing— I invest in 2 types of companies. Either the ones I used to work with, like the founders I used to work with, or I know really well. And the second type is ad tech companies I know I can bring something to them.

Absolutely, makes a ton of sense. Can you name one company that you invested in?

Okay, I would name 2 if it's okay for you. So the 2 are Actionable and Odyssen. 2 really good companies with great people, people that are really like very knowledgeable about their industry. And yeah, I was like 100% sure they could execute the plan well, and they have the ability to pivot if needed, which is really important for me.

Absolutely interesting. I love the terrace. I wish I can spend all my time here.

Yeah, but it's cold now. Come on in.

Okay, let's go. Well, Emilia, What's your favorite door around here?

Yeah, you've seen all the doors. Yeah, my favorite one is I may say Grand Palais.

Grand Palais.

It's actually the office I'm sharing with Xavier, my co-founder.

Well, that's quite smart of you to name it Grand Palais.

Grand Palais. Yeah, yeah. It was for fun. Okay. Come on in. Oh. Welcome.

Look at it. Which of these 2 tables belong to you?

Don't guess, this one is mine. Like, I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, so I've got all my Star Wars heads and my R2-D2.

Oh my God, I need to zoom in. Oh, this is sweet. Which of these Star Wars collections is your favorite?

Um, ah, The Mandalorian is a great one because Grogu, let's say, is very cute. But, um, I'm a huge fan of R2-D2 because it's, it's Like, it's here since the beginning.

So on this note, if you had a superpower, what would that be?

My superpower won't be a classical one. I wish I could heal people from one touch. That could be my superpower.

In 3 words, how would you describe your co-founder? I see the table, but I don't see him.

Very smart. Amazingly sharp and very handsome. And for the last one, he paid me to say that, so I had to.

Oh my God, he shouldn't be listening to this. Well, this one he should be. What are the green flags one should look for when seeking a co-founder?

Oh my gosh, I can't answer this one because I only had like green lights with my co-founder. We are friends since so long, and so it's very difficult because everyone predicted that we will go into fights and stuff. And let's be honest, after 12 years, we had a few fights. But yeah, I really appreciate the fact that we are really close friends, like family, because you can get through the fights. You survive the fights.

Mm-hmm.

Which is very important to me. Maybe someone you think you can survive the fights with.

Well, Xav, if you're listening to it, oh my God, he'll be teary-eyed.

Not the type.

Oh, I see a TV here. Why do you have so many screens?

Yeah, but you know, this one is really great. This is the big one. But you know, we're heading into CTV now, so we assumed it was good to have a big screen. So that we can also display the CTV ads that we have and check everything so that the creative team, they could have access to all the details.

Creative team, have a look! What made Adictive step into the CTV game?

Business opportunities. We were thinking since a long time that we were doing great in retargeting and we needed to go outside of our comfort zone. Investing in CTV was a great move. Something that we decided with the Comex, and the results are amazing so far. So we're very happy we did this.

Absolutely. And what would you say is the biggest benefit of running CTV ads for app marketers?

Big screen. I mean, it's still very difficult to properly measure performances because you don't have the click as on your mobile phone, but you access big screens. And big screens make big impact. So I think it's really the main benefit right now. And I think if you think about your acquisition strategy, you need to refine it multi-channel, multi-channels, and make sure you have as many touchpoints as possible with your users. And I think this one is a great touchpoint.

What would you say is the deal breaker or maker for Adictive's clients?

ROAS is always— if ROAS is good, then clients will put more budget. If ROAS is bad, then they will pause the campaign. So ROAS is the return on ad spend.

Ah, thanks.

Yes, sorry. When you put $1, how many dollars do you want to get out of that $1 you invested? That's the main metric our clients are using to measure our performance.

What kind of players survive in this industry?

In this industry, we can survive nuclear changes. And, and you know what's the organism that is surviving nuclear war?

The cockroach?

Yes. So I'm used to say that this is a cockroach industry because we survive everything.

Absolutely resilient.

Yeah, for sure.

Well, to sum it up, I have 3 interesting questions for you. The first one being, what would you like to be if entrepreneurship Oh my gosh, maybe I would have been a lawyer. A lawyer?

Yeah, maybe, maybe. Now my memory is too bad for it, but I would have liked it, let's say.

If you have to give one piece of advice to young entrepreneurs in tech, what would that be?

Challenge your ideas with people that have knowledge in the industry you're targeting. And try to onboard some of the industry experts into your advisor or board members, because there are some stuff that you cannot buy, which is the experience, for instance.

Absolutely. Out of all the words said in history, what words would you say are the wisest?

When the going gets tough, the tough gets going, because it really means resilience to me. And it sounds like you need to fight when the fight is needed and when it's difficult. It's when it's difficult that you realize how strong you are. And this is something I also tell my kids. Thank you, Abhi.

I love that. I love that. Well, before I head out of your Grand Palais, I would say From this conversation, what I catch is resilience, resilience, and resilience.

Yeah, maybe this is the lesson to learn. Thanks a lot, Abby, for—

Thanks a lot. Cheers.

Cheers, Abby. Bye-bye. Take care.

Bye-bye.

See you, Abby. Let's go back to work.