"Go to Market" & German InsurTech 🥳

#160 - Thibaut Ceyrolle (Atomico) and #161 - Christian Wiens (Getsafe)

May 21, 2023

Two topics to deepen and question your development. Both deal with building your products and services, and how to develop them commercially. To perfect your knowledge, I highly recommend listening to this week’s two guests.

On the 🇫🇷 episode, I host Thibaut Ceyrolle. He talks to us about “Go to Market” (GTM) 🏆 strategies through the success story of Snowflake ❄️, where he was very productive, and we discover Atomico, which he joined as a partner.
On the 🇬🇧 episode, I host the CEO and founder of Getsafe 🧘🏼, a German InsurTech that needs no introduction.

“ Go to Market: Atomico's secret ingredient.” (Episode in French)

You can imagine that with such a title, we will not enter into purely financial subjects but rather into acquisition, development and retention subjects. Thibaut talks in detail about his experience deploying the American scale-up Snowflake in Europe and allows us to understand how the GTM strategy is a critical element for the success of its growth.

You will see what Thibaut is deploying within Atomico and what he brings concretely to the portfolio companies of this iconic venture capitalist. We are talking about lead qualification, structuring and recruitment of sales teams. A little-known and yet oh-so-important universe.

We study the importance of brand, good timing, price/product mix and operational efficiency to maximize revenue potential and enable rapid and healthy development – a compendium of good advice and feedback to listen to several times.

“Go To Market”

A GTM strategy is a systematic approach used by a company to launch and market its products or services in the market. It aims to define the steps and actions necessary to reach potential customers and maximize sales.

Let's take the example of Apple in its early days. When Apple launched the first Macintosh in 1984, its GTM strategy was focused on innovation, differentiation, and creating a unique user experience. Apple has taken a customer-centric approach and has sought to reach its “early adopters”.

To reach these customers, Apple used a combination of targeted distribution channels. They opted for a direct sales strategy, marketing the Macintosh through their own stores, which allowed them to have full control of the shopping experience. In addition, Apple has also partnered with carefully selected resellers to expand their reach.

Apple's GTM strategy also includes critical marketing elements. They used creative advertising campaigns, such as the famous “1984” commercial, which aired during the Super Bowl (here), to generate attention around the launch of the Macintosh. Not to mention public relations, the art of “story telling”, FOMO...

Principles

In the basic principles to consider, I risk breaking open doors...Sorry about that:

Understand your market (trends, customer needs, competition).
Identify targets: Precisely identify the customer segment to reach.
Differentiate yourself and define a specific value proposition (how the product or services differ from those of the competition: competitive advantages, USP).
Choose appropriate distribution channels (direct sales, partnerships, online distribution).
Establish a marketing plan (integrating communication, public relations, promotion strategies).
Define a price/product strategy.
Build a “Sales Playbook”.
Train sales teams (continuous training to adapt to changing market needs and the evolution of products and services).
Measure results. Often overlooked, ADAPTED metrics are crucial for evaluating the effectiveness of a GTM strategy.

These are the recommended measures as part of the buyer's journey. The buyer's journey, as Thibaut explains, must absolutely not neglect the customer journey. The customer journey is a strategy used to retain users, once they become customers.

Once buyers become customers, the customer journey strategy will come into play. This is where it will be necessary to roll out a strategy around customer loyalty and retention.

Snowflake

Snowflake is a scale-up that specializes in cloud data warehousing, offering a scalable and secure data storage and analysis platform, enabling companies to manage their data efficiently.

The company was founded in 2012 by Benoît Dageville, Thierry Cruanes and Marcin Żukowski. Snowflake is currently listed on the NYSE.

Atomico

Founded in 2006 by Niklas Zennström, co-founder of Skype, Atomico is a London-based VC that invests in start-ups around the world.

Atomico stands out for its global network and deep expertise in the field of Tech. They work closely with the founders of the start-ups they support. This is perfectly described by Thibaut.

The team is pretty solid, so 👉 judge here.
The teams are present in different hubs in Europe: Berlin, Paris, London, Stockholm and Luxembourg (for the Fund Admin component).
Among the portfolio companies: Klarna, Stripe, Qatalog, Message Bird…

“German InsurTech on the rise.”

In this episode, Christian begins by giving us an overview of the Tech 🇩🇪 ecosystem, how it works and the type of relationships that start-ups have with incumbents, as well as an overview of its evolution during the last decade. He also tells us about Getsafe's evolution and shares their journey so far, including what inspired him to build the company, their target market and their value proposition.

We explore Getsafe's product range, how they have diversified their offerings and their embedded insurance solution. Christian also shares insights into the role of data in their business strategy and how they ensure its ethical use.

As a growing company, Christian describes some of the biggest challenges Getsafe has faced in its growth and their plan to continue expanding their presence in European markets. We also look at the regulatory aspects of the business, including their approval with BaFin and the benefits of being an integrated insurer.

Finally, Christian tells us about their path to profitability and their latest fundraising.

German Tech’ ecosystem

The German tech ecosystem is dynamic and thriving. Berlin is now considered the start-up capital of Germany, attracting national and international entrepreneurs and investors. But let's not forget Munich, Darmstadt, Karlsruhe, Stuttgart or Hamburg. Verticals such as FinTech, mobility and health are especially developed.

Among the notable German start-ups, there is of course N26, Delivery Hero, Personio, Wefox, Trade Republic, Flix, Mambu, Scalable Capital, Volocopter, Celonis. But there’s also Getsafe, Reverse Supply, Qdrant, and Unstoppable Finance.

Among the entrepreneurs to watch are Niklas Östberg (Delivery Hero), Valentin Stalf (N26) and Christian Flaccus (Celonis), all of whom have helped shape the German tech ecosystem and achieved international success.

With a mix of government support, tech talent and access to European markets, Germany continues to be an attractive destination for start-ups.

For the main German VC funds:

Global Founders Capital (GFC): Rocket Internet's financing vehicle for those who do not relocate,
Project A Ventures,
Target Global,
Earlybird Venture Capital,
Point Nine,
HV Capital,
Cherry Ventures,
Atlantic Labs.

Getsafe

Getsafe is a German start-up in the field of online insurance.

Founded in 2015 by Christian Wiens (CEO) and Marius Simon (CTO), the scale-up offers a platform that allows users to take out and manage their insurance policies directly from their phone.

Getsafe offers a wide range of insurance products such as home insurance, liability insurance, health insurance, pet insurance, etc…

In Getsafe's capital (EUR 116 million raised) Earlybird VC, CommerzVentures, Partech, SwissRe,…
500'000+ users,
Present in France, UK, Germany and Austria.

💡Shares

📗 Ce que nous recommandent Thibaut et Christian cette semaine :

The Qualified Sales Leader by John McMahon
Powerful: Building a Culture of Freedom and Responsibility by Patty McCord
Amp It Up by Frank Slootman

🧐 If you want to dive deeper:

7 Key Strategies That You Must Learn From Apple’s Marketing 👉 Read
How to Build a Go-to-Market Strategy in 8 Steps 👉 Read
These German start-ups have unicorn status 👉 Read

😁 As for me, I recommend:

Yuval Noah Harari argues that AI has hacked the operating system of human civilisation (The Economist) 👉 Read
Ledger co-founder clarifies ‘there is no backdoor’ in ‘Recover’ firmware update 👉 Read
“Bankless guides” 👉 Learn