Mathieu Louvrier joined our October team on June 20th as General Manager of the October Connect team. It was the opportunity for us to ask him some questions and learn a bit more about him.
Hello Mathieu, what did you do before joining October?
Mathieu: “I started by studying business, followed by a marketing degree. After my studies, I was convinced that I had to work in sales. So I started my career in sales, in the disaster recovery sector for the IT industry. At the end of the 90s, this market consolidated greatly, which led me to move to SemaGroup Recovery Services, which was acquired by Schlumberger and sold to IBM in 2004. From sales, I evolved into sales management and finally management of the entity for 4 years. Then, I went to Dublin for two years as an expat to do Sales coaching on Large Deals for Managed Services and Integration Services. When I came back to Paris, I joined the hardware division where I managed the storage activity in France. Having essentially managed the optimization of productivity, I wanted to work in a more agile, dynamic and ambitious structure. So I joined Shift Technology, a SaaS company specialized in the fight against insurance fraud. During 3 years, I built a sales team in Europe from 9 to 23 people.
Then the opportunity came to join October to run the October Connect business.”
What did you find appealing about the October Connect solution?
Mathieu: “At this point, what I can truly say is that this is a unique opportunity to launch a SaaS business based on proven technology.
The real singularity of October Connect lies in its birth within October, a company operating in the same market as October Connect’s customers. The team knows the business of October Connect’s customers. They have been doing it for 8 years now. So not only the AI models have benefited from learning throughout the years, but also the business expertise of the October teams ensures the relevance of the available features to the business challenges of the customers”
What will be your roadmap as a General Manager of October Connect?
Mathieu: “It will be starting with building our team, setting the right market strategy for October Connect, working on the marketing part of it by having the right message, to better deliver it and to communicate in the market. With an offer like October Connect, that’s pretty much what’s involved.”
How is the October Connect team structured currently? Will it evolve in the coming months? And what are the required skills to join the team?
Mathieu: “At the moment, the organization of October Connect is quite simple and transparent, we are two with Claire (read the interview of our Lead October Connect, Claire Juliard). But it will be structured quite quickly, because we have just made an offer that was accepted for a Junior Sales who will arrive in early July. In addition, Camille David, until now Head of Customer Success (read her interview) will join the October Connect team on July 1st as an Account Manager and will be in charge of the relationship and upsell with the customers.
At the same time, we are looking for different profiles, both Sales and Marketing… To join October Connect, you will need an experience in the SaaS environment, which defines the particularities of this business. It will also be a matter of interest, since we are working on a new offer. Finally, a knowledge of the financing business and ecosystem will be appreciated.”
We would like to thank you Mathieu for your time, and finally, would you have any recommendations for a podcast, a book or a movie?
Mathieu: “A podcast recommendation, no, I just started! For the series, yes, some, in particular Peaky Blinders. We came back from Dublin with the kids and it was a perfect opportunity to keep practicing English thanks to the VO. Otherwise in the movies, I will give two completely different ones! The first one is Lucas’ Star Wars, even if when you are a big fan you have to watch Disney’s ones. Which reminds me of a little anecdote at Shift, the names of the offers were named after the characters or specific terms in Star Wars, for example the automation solution was named “Luke”. The second movie, a little more family related: Delusion of Grandeur (La folie des grandeurs).”