You may have read my previous article on the Theodo group. It was an account of the day I spent with Caroline, COO of Theodo France, and it focused on sales and project management at the company. I then decided to go deeper in my analysis of the company, taking you readers on a complete tour of this successful lean organization operating in the digital world.
I think it is a great opportunity to explore how lean techniques and concepts originally developed in the automotive industry have progressively been transposed and merged into the DNA of the tech world. Each of the steps above will be the object of an article, from customer to people, from tech and learning to strategy.
FOCUSING ON CUSTOMER VALUE PAYS OFF
This article focuses on customer value, which is more than a buzzword for the company I am visiting today, Sipios. If the proof is in the pudding, it should suffice to say that, in 2020 alone, its turnover grew fivefold!
The Theodo Group is a galaxy of spin-offs and Sipios, a fintech created in 2017, is one of them. (If you aren’t any more familiar with the term than I was prior to my visit, know that a fintech is an innovating start-up that uses technology to offer new or redesigned banking and financial services.)
Sipios’ offices are located on the top floor of the Theodo building, near the Parisian district of Montmartre. Young start-ups need to attract both customers and talent to thrive, and I bet the view from the rooftop is a big selling point for them!
Rodolphe, co-founder and CEO of Sipios, joined Theodo in 2015 with a Legal and Finance educational background. He started Sipios two years later. “I had done a traineeship in a bank during my studies, and I knew from the very first day that it was not me. I created my own company soon after, but swiftly understood that I needed more experience and understanding of the trade. I wanted to remain in the tech world, learn from more experimented people and join a growing company. This is why I sold my start-up and joined Theodo,” he tells me.
Founding a spin-off barely two years after joining the group can easily be seen as a great success, but it wasn’t exactly a walk in the park. In fact, 2019 turned out to be a difficult year for Sipios. “Offering to deliver an app based on specifications issued by a customer is all well and good, but the problem is that many other companies can code and do the same. We needed something to help us stand out from the crowd,” Rodolphe explains.