Interview with Guillaume Le Roy, TrackAd CEO & Founder
Guillaume has 20 years experience in digital marketing. He began his career working for the main online advertising networks in France (Ziff Davis/CNet, AOL, Orange). He spent 6 years in the press group Emap/Mondadori working on the monetization of web content. He also had a deep techno immersion by collaborating on innovative projects in Fabernovel. After 2 years in Brazil, Guillaume came to Moscow in 2012 to create eStore Agency — Performance Marketing agency — before launching TrackAd in 2015 with his two partners.
French Tech Moscow met TrackAd, and now invites you to discover how inspiring Russian market can be, so it gave a push to open the doors to Europe.
1. Guillaume, could you tell us more of the history of TrackAd, how you got the idea to create business in Moscow?
E-commerce in Russia is very promising for different reasons but in my eyes the size of the country and the fast adoption of new technologies are the main ones.
In 2012, I arrived in Moscow where I met my two future partners. We have created a digital marketing agency that supports e-commerce companies to perform with their online advertising.
Very fast we understood that to reach a high level of performances we had to collect, process and analyze tons of data. We started building some data connectors and working on algorithms which ease our decision making for the advertising investments of our clients. That’s how TrackAd was born and how we became a SaaS company.
Among our first clients were of course French companies such as La Redoute, Auchan, Decathlon, but step by step we increased our clients portfolio with leading Russian companies such as Sberbank, Megafon, Svyaznoi. Now we have 70 clients in Russia, most of them from top 100 e-commerce, and we’re expecting much more to come.
2. Did you get any investments from investors or accelerators in Moscow?
From the very beginning we made the choice to self-finance our development.
This involves 2 points: being profitable and re-investing your benefit.
The excellent results that we had with our agency in Russia allowed us to finance the development of our technology. In 5 years, we have re-invested more than 1 million euro in TrackAd. Today we have 25 persons in Moscow and 4 in Paris.
3. What are your plans for discovering some new business horizons beyond Moscow?
In Russia our activity is concentrated in Moscow. We don’t plan to open office in other location but we frequently visit our prospects and clients in Saint-Petersburg, Ekaterinburg or other cities.
In Europe we have some clients in 8 countries. For now, our main focus and priority is France. We have more than 30 clients there and we have planned major investments in 2020. We target a leadership position in the next 2 years.
4. What difficulties do you face in Russia in business and personal sense? What is good to know about working with Russian clients when you are a foreigner?
The language barrier can be a serious obstacle to develop a company in Russia. You cannot manage everything in English. And I will say that even if one my partner speaks Russian, the real kick-off has been when we hired Russian Sales team.
Due to our International development, we use English in our office as a working language
Speaking of the culture of business in Russia, I would advise foreign entrepreneurs to react fast with their prospects and clients. Reach and meet out your contact is fast, as is the answer to a go or no go. With our clients in Russia the decision making process is two times faster than in France.
I will add that the smile and the empathy that we can use in France in Sales relationship are less effective here. Russians are direct and concrete, a frank relationship without artifice will be appreciated.
5. What about your personal experience of 8 years of living in Moscow, do you like it? Do you miss France?
Moscow is a great city that has changed a lot in the recent years. It is a safe, clean and beautiful city. I could speak for hours about Moscow! I really appreciate how the city center is looking now with more green and pedestrian areas. The metro is quite modern and beautiful. And of course the fact that nearly all services are open 24/7 helps a lot. I don’t really miss France, I go back there quite often. And actually it is very close to Moscow — only 3,5 hours of flight.
6. What about your opinion of the French Tech initiative? Do you participate at French Tech events in Moscow? Do you find it helpful?
The label French Tech Moscow is very useful for French entrepreneurs who want to develop their business in Russia. With French Tech they feel more support and also make fast and efficient contacts.
French Tech can help them to work with the French community but also to get some entrance with Russian players.
7. And at last, could you share some latest news about TrackAd?
Yes, I’d like to say that we are very proud that in last January, TrackAd became ‘Google Partner’.
The partnership focuses on product excellence and aims to improve Google Ads advertising performance. This partnership is in line with TrackAd’s mission: to make online advertising more effective. It will benefit our development in Russia and Europe.
