Tilke

Tim founded Tilke in 2012 after identifying a critical pain point in enterprise sales: 60% of business proposals sent by salespeople simply vanish. As personal relationships were increasingly replaced by anonymous emails and phone calls, companies were spending millions on sales tools trying to optimize their processes—yet the randomness persisted. Tim's insight was that the real problem wasn't finding prospects; it was knowing exactly *which* prospect to follow up with, *when*, and with *what* message.

Tilke developed a unique algorithm-driven approach to sales intelligence, designed to tell salespeople precisely which prospects deserved follow-up attention and what message would maximize conversion. Rather than building a generic tool, Tim and his co-founder Sylvain decided early on to "eat their own dog food"—they used Tilke to close Tilke deals. This wasn't just a marketing tactic; it was the validation engine for their product-market fit.

The company bootstrapped for years, building a strong base in France before expanding into Germany and the UK. By December 2016, they had reached 800 customers paying an average of $125 per month (ARPU). The sales model relied heavily on enterprise deals with long sales cycles (6+ months), which meant cash was always tight. When they appeared on Nathan Latka's podcast in December 2016, they'd raised just $1.5M and were generating about $100k in monthly revenue.

The primary growth lever was landing larger enterprise accounts. Over the next 13 months, they doubled their customer base to 1,600 and more than doubled ARPU to $250—driven entirely by enterprise logos. Rather than aggressive customer acquisition, they maintained a lean CAC of $160, which paid back in under two months. Unit economics were exceptionally healthy: 6% monthly logo churn (meaning customers stayed ~17 months on average), with enterprise contracts locking in 3-year terms. Professional services revenue ($25k/month) became an unexpected retention lever—customers who invested in setup and onboarding stayed longer.

Their main constraint wasn't product-market fit or sales ability; it was cash. Enterprise sales required long payback periods and upfront investment. Nearly 80% of new capital raised went directly to hiring salespeople to accelerate growth in France, Germany, and the UK.

By the time of the second interview, Tilke had raised approximately $5M in total funding (including debt) and was doing ~$150-190k per month in pure SaaS revenue, with professional services adding another $20-30k on top. Tim had not yet announced the new round but indicated it was imminent. When asked if he'd sell for $8M (4X his annual recurring revenue), he declined confidently, projecting the company would be worth 5X that in 2-3 years. His candid goal: not a unicorn, but "a civil"—50 million euros—motivated by profit and the freedom to fund future projects in education with his partner.