Bolt-On AI Doesn't Work. Eléonore Crespo, Co-CEO of Pigment, on Why You Have to Rebuild from Scratch

Alex Theuma (0:03)

Every decade or so, the rules of software change completely. This is one of those moments. The AI Revolution Show is the intelligence podcast for B2B software founders navigating the platform shift. The founders building through it, and the founders already on the other side.

Well, Eleanor, welcome to the podcast. Good to see you. You just flying visit into London?

Eléonore Crespo (0:28)

Yeah, well, I'm here very often, but I am super happy to be with you today.

Alex Theuma (0:32)

Are you based in France?

Eléonore Crespo (0:33)

I'm based in Paris, but I go to the US every two weeks. So now I'm like, yeah.

Alex Theuma (0:37)

What about, like, I don't know how it is today, but certainly like five, ten years ago, when you get to Series A, your investors would be saying like, move to Silicon Valley, move to SF.

Did you have that? Do you still have that? Given that you're there every two weeks, why still in Paris?

Eléonore Crespo (0:57)

It's a great question. And I think by thinking on that evolves every year. And I think it's probably a question that a lot of European founders have themselves. So at the end of the day, look, I think the talent, if you want like the best engineers, find them in Europe, because there is a lot less competition. So, you know, for us, that has been our success since day one, is having the best engineering team here in Europe. Now, clearly, when you want the best customers, go to the US.

And so now, you know, that 60% of our customer base is in the US. I, of course, need to spend time there. And I have built my entire executive team in the US. So now, obviously, that makes me travel a lot more. Now, you know, I need to stay close to products. So I need to be also here. But I think, for me, actually, the setup works really, really well. It's quite tiring, of course. But I do think that if you want a real competitive advantage in this AI world, you need the best engineers. And it's very hard today to create that team in the Silicon Valley.

In the Bay Area, there's just too much competition.

Alex Theuma (1:55)

Did you build the executive team West Coast or East Coast?

Eléonore Crespo (1:58)

Both. Both. So I have my CMO, my CFO West, I have my CRO, my head of operations on the East Coast. So yeah, it's a mix.

Alex Theuma (2:06)

So when you're in Europe, am I assuming you're working very long hours?

Eléonore Crespo (2:11)

Yeah. It's a very intense rhythm. But I mean, as every founder, I work until midnight minimum every day, but it's part of it.

Alex Theuma (2:18)

What time do you get up then?

Eléonore Crespo (2:20)

I get up at 6.30. I have young kids, so it's like a busy schedule and sports every day, so it's...

Alex Theuma (2:26)

Very good.

Sports are essential, I find, obviously. And for me, doing it in the morning before work starts, it just means that you can almost handle anything, any fires, anything that, any crap that you need to eat that day, it's like you're ready for it.

Eléonore Crespo (2:41)

I agree. Yeah, it puts you in a good state. And also, I'm happy because I need to beat my watch. And then if I ever... I prefer to do it in the morning so then I'm like, it's done.

Alex Theuma (2:50)

Good. And also, we'll get into it a bit more.

But I understand you guys have just crossed 100 million ARR, and you've been doubling revenue growth, I think, for the last three years. So I just want to say congrats, but hold it there. We'll get into it in a bit as to how you've done that. Just in terms of obviously what Pigment does, you probably explain it better than me, perhaps in a sentence, just to let the audience know what you do.

Eléonore Crespo (3:16)

Yeah, so we are what I would call the AI Performance Management Platform. So basically, we help finance team, we help supply chain teams, HR team, sales team make better decisions in real time thanks to agentic workflows. So think about it as we have created an AI infrastructure where you put all of your data, where we unify all of your data. We allow users to build custom apps with agents now fully automatically on top of Pigment. So think OPEX planning. I don't know, you want to prepare for your board pack, you want to do a complex demand planning app, etc. You do that on Pigment. Then on top of that, we automate business workflows for users.