European Growth Stories

If at any point since 2014 you were looking to buy a phone or laptop, more likely than not you know of them - Back Market 📱🔋

By offering a platform that ensures rigorous refurbishing processes and quality checks, Back Market enables consumers to make eco-friendly choices without compromising on performance or affordability.

Active in 13 European countries today, as well as Australia, Japan, South Korea, the UK and the US, the Back Market teams have mastered one thing: 💫 The art of market expansion. 💫

A key player of this success since he joined the company in 2020 as GM Germany and then GM Europe, Martin Huegli now leads regional growth and expansion strategies as well as the global seller ecosystem as Back Market’s Chief Commercial Officer.

Our host Andrea Vaugan had the pleasure to sit down with Martin for a thought-provoking conversation on Back Market’s journey so far:

✅ What they’re doing to push the category’s boundaries on an EU level,

✅ how the expansion process of an e-comm company might differ from that of other business models

✅ and where Martin wishes they had taken more risk

Martin on Linkedin

Back Market on Linkedin

Andrea on Linkedin

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Season 3 continues with a second deep-dive into Swan, the leading provider of embedded finance solutions in Europe. This time, Andrea Vaugan interviews Pico Petershagen, VP Growth at the Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) startup. Splitting his time between Paris and Berlin, Pico leads Swan’s growth marketing, product marketing and brand teams.

What Pico outlines as the reason for Swan’s rapid success in now 10 European countries is a growth strategy he coins “hyper-localization”.

How this strategy compares to more traditional growth marketing and international business development strategies, what the difference between mere translation and true localization is and how important it is to recognize differences, but also similarities between local ICPs - all included in this step-by-step guide to hyper-localization.

Pico on Linkedin

Swan on Linkedin

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Last year we discussed the important role of partnerships for a successful market expansion - now we’re welcoming back another team member of Qonto!

Benjamin Romberg, Head of Global Communications, is leading central PR, Social Media, and Community teams at the European unicorn start-up.

Qonto is the leading European business finance solution, making day-to-day banking easier for SMEs and freelancers. Founded in 2016 by Alexandre Prot and Steve Anavi, Qonto now operates in 4 European markets (France, Germany, Italy, and Spain), and employs more than 1,400 people.

In conversation with Andrea Vaugan, Benjamin explains how important it is to find the right balance between a coordinated global strategy and market localization.

More questions that you’ll find the answer to in this interview:

TIMING: At what point in your expansion journey should you take things to the next level and hire senior comms professionals?

GROWTH: What are concrete communication goals that support the company’s growth?

SETTING UP: How can you build up on the existing brand image and simultaneously localize comms and branding?

Benjamin on Linkedin

Qonto on Linkedin

Andrea on Linkedin

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Welcome back to Go-to-Germany Stories!

Season 3 is kicking off with an exciting new player in the European start-up space: Franziska Geier, Managing Director DACH at Stoïk, sits down with host Andrea Vaugan to outline the start-up’s impressive European expansion processes.

Founded in 2021 by Jules Veyrat, Alexandre Andreini, Nicolas Sayer and Philippe Mangematin, Stoïk is the first insurance agent in Europe to empower brokers by providing their clients with insurance policy and protection against cyber risks.

Franziska and Andrea discuss how the start-up’s vision of being European is influenced by investors and how this ties into their expansion strategy.

If you too are a disruptive innovator in a more conservative industry, just like Stoïk is at the intersection of cybersecurity and insurance, tune in to learn how important smart relationship building can be in a new market!

If you enjoyed this episode, don't forget to follow us and leave a rating!

Franziska Geier on Linkedin

Stoïk on Linkedin

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Season 2 is coming to an end with this fifth episode and our guest Sophie Wehrle. Sophie Wehrle is currently General Manager DACH at PlayPlay, a B2B SaaS startup and video creation platform trusted by more than 3000 organizations in 15 countries.

Before kickstarting the DACH market launch at PlayPlay, Sophie helped Doctolib, now one of France’s most successful unicorn companies expand to Germany.

Sophie and Andrea discuss how crucial well-structured playbooks are not only for sales, but for the efficiency of the entire company and its growth trajectory. Strategic hiring as well as finding the right balance between using synergies and adapting to local markets are amongst the other topics the two dive into.

Sophie on Linkedin

PlayPlay on Linkedin

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In this episode of "Go-to-Germany Stories," Andrea Vaugan invites Thorsten Seeger, Group COO of October and the CEO of October Germany.

October is a European FinTech specialized in business lending. Leader in continental Europe, it has already financed thousands of SMEs for a total amount of over €1 billion in France, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands and Germany.

Based on his extensive experience in the traditional banking sector and FinTech industry, Thorsten shares insights into October’s initial business-model-specific challenges and their solutions, such as opting for a partnership strategy over direct marketing.

Thorsten also walks us through the learnings listeners inside and outside of the FinTech cosmos can takeaway from October’s early market entry days. He outlines their strategy for the all-important brand- and trust-building, showcasing once again how essential a deep-founded knowledge of the German market and its customers is.

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Dans l’épisode nr. 3 de la saison 2 de "Go-to-Germany Stories", Andrea Vaugan discute avec Felix Nübold, Country Manager Germany chez Rapidmooc.

Rapidmooc, une entreprise bootstrapped fondée à Lyon en 2016, est un fournisseur d'e-learning qui permet aux organisations de créer de manière rapide et facile des contenus de formation pour leurs équipes.

Felix partage comment, avec le partenariat de longue date avec Andrea Vaugan et l'équipe de Wyngs, Rapidmooc a stratégiquement élargi sa présence en Allemagne, en mettant l'accent sur des actions concrètes, des workshops stratégiques, et en intégrant le feedback des clients. Ils explorent également les nuances de la création de confiance sur le marché allemand, les adaptations nécessaires du produit, et la gestion des responsabilités entre les équipes en France et en Allemagne. Un épisode rempli d'insights sur une internationalisation réussie en Allemagne.

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Join Andrea in episode 2 of season 2 for an insightful conversation with David Frei, Head of DACH & Eastern Europe at Swan. David joined the European fintech early 2022 as their first employee outside of France and is running the Berlin office.

Swan’s Banking-as-a-Service (BaaS) platform is the easiest way for companies to embed banking features. Via its simple APIs, European companies can integrate banking services (accounts, cards and payments) quickly and easily into their own product. Founded in 2019, Swan processes around 300 million euros of transactions per month, for 100+ companies across ten European countries.

Swan has over 150 employees and is led by fintech experts and experienced entrepreneurs Nicolas Benady, Nicolas Saison and Mathieu Breton. The company was founded with the startup studio, eFounders, and has received growth capital from leading VC investors such as Lakestar, Accel, Creandum, and Bpifrance, with a recent Series B of € 37m.

David on Linkedin

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In this first episode of season 2 of Go-to-Germany Stories, Dominik Drechsler, Country Manager Germany at YouSign, shares his insights on successfully launching the French e-signature startup in the German market during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Yousign is a major European player in electronic signature, document management and identification services. Founded in 2013 by Luc Pallavidino and Antoine Louiset, Yousign has more than 15,000 customers and over 4M monthly signatories, as well as a team of over 200 employees. Based in Caen and Paris, Yousign has offices in Germany and Italy. 

Dominik and Andrea discuss the importance of product adaptation, trust-building through logos, and SEO optimization. Join us, as we delve deep into the world of cross-border entrepreneurship and B2B SaaS solutions.

Dominik on Linkedin

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As the first season of Go-to-Germany Stories is coming to an end, Andrea Vaugan invites Torben Rabe, Global Partnerships Director and formerly Country Director Germany at Qonto. Qonto is one of the most successful French fintechs, providing an all-in-one business finance solution for European SMEs and freelancers. Torben, who is a German native, explains how Qonto's European DNA made the early market launches an almost natural step and how it helped drive collaboration across international teams, especially after Qonto joined forces with German fintech champion Penta. As this season's recurring theme, Torben further shares how Qonto forged strong local partnerships to grow customer trust in Germany from the very beginning.

Torben Rabe on Linkedin

Qonto on Linkedin

Penta on Linkedin

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