Built out of the countryside in Belgium:
- $650m ARR
- Over 5,000 employees
- 50,000 companies as customers
They never want to IPO. They never want to sell. They DON’T believe in titles.
Everything you thought you knew about management, is wrong.
My 6 key takeaways Fabien Pinckaers👇
1. Why Odoo Will Never Sell
- We never want to sell the company.
- We are always buying shares, every funding round.
- That is why we don’t mind if the share price is low.
2. Why There Will Never Be an Odoo IPO
- I don’t want the constraints & complexity of being public.
- Public companies tend to refocus on the short term.
- We always want to build for the long term.
3. Why It Is Easier to Scale With Young People
- It is easier to scale when you don’t need to get the top people.
- We recruit a lot of young people, train them & make them evolve.
- It is much easier than spending too much time looking for the best VP of a category.
4. Hire Talent from Tier 2 Cities
- The key to scaling a business is talent retention.
- There will be high turnover rates when you are next to Google or Apple.
- We do not have that issue in Buffalo.
5. The Danger When You Have Managers of Managers
- They all have ideas & want to do something.
- This will push everyone to complexify the company.
- You have to fight back against that if you want to keep your company simple.
6. This Company Allows Everyone to Have Their Own Titles
- Some people choose to be directors, other people pick funny titles.
- We do not care.
- I want to push the idea that it’s about what you do & not the title you have.
Links:
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Credit: Harry Stebbings