Hubert Reynier, Partner and founder of VISCONTI, today welcomes Thomas Pasquet, co-founder and Chairman of Ogury.

Who is Thomas Pasquet?

An entrepreneur at heart, Ogury is Thomas's second tech company. The activity of Ogury, founded by Jean Conzoneri and Thomas, consists in advertising on mobile, with respect for users.

Thomas faced big challenges, a few words about them.

For his first business, he sought to raise funds in 2008. The period was not conducive to this, especially for a young start-up. The founders met with the majority of French funds but everything had closed down, no one was investing anymore. It was during their last appointment that they met a Business Angel agreeing to invest in their company.

Another challenge: Thomas has completely changed his business model, how did that happen?

Indeed, at the time of the sale of their first company, they were only present in France. However, they joined a group that, in turn, shone in Europe. They then realized the power of being present in several countries. This naturally led them to the decision to open their next business internationally. And that's what they did: when it was created, they opened Ogury, simultaneously, in three countries (France, Italy, England). After two years, they decided to open in the US. And Thomas moved in there.

What is the headcount and percentage of Ogury's turnover in the US today

Today, Ogury makes nearly half of its turnover in the United States. They are expected to make just under 200 million dollars internationally this year and they are present in seventeen countries.

How would Thomas describe being in the United States?

Thomas believes that it was necessary for one of the two co-founders to be there. In order to keep the relational side, to show Americans that there is a real commitment and a desire on the part of the company to be international.

On the cultural side, how did that happen?

There was a time of adjustment. The French multitasking side had to be shown to American collaborators.

Did that lead to another way of organizing?

There was a happy medium between French culture and American culture.

In a “Cookie friendly” market, Ogury made the decision to be “Cookie less”, what can we say about this questioning of the model?

When they started the company in 2014, the co-founders immediately realized that the problem in the industry was that the user was being overlooked. At that time, the trend was towards geolocation, but for them it was intrusive. From the start, they installed a “Content Management Platform” in their technology, a system that asks for user consent.

Today, this is widespread but in 2014 it was not the case. The co-founders of Ogury therefore had to convince the market to respect their users by asking for their opinion on data collection. After four years, the GDPR and the equivalent in the United States established this demand everywhere.

At the end of 2019, Thomas said to himself that in his DNA of respecting the user, it was good to have started with consent but that the ultimate respect lay in the fact that he did not collect any personal information about the user. By removing cookies and advertising identifiers, privacy is then preserved.

That's why they switched to “Cookie less” in early 2020. And the timing was perfect: a few months later, Apple announced the deprecation of IDFA, i.e. asking users if they wanted to be tracked, and six months later, Google announced the deprecation of cookies on Chrome.

Thomas made the radical decision to pass the hand over to a Managing Director and to no longer be operational but only Chairman of the Board. Back to this seesaw.

From the moment the company reached a certain size, there was a desire to find someone who could come and help Thomas operationally. And then, if it went well, the aim was to make this person the CEO to manage the entire company.

He made an initial attempt which proved unsuccessful before finding Geoffroy. When they founded Ogury, Jean and Thomas were very focused on operations, so they did not have time to take care of the external side (promoting the company among peers, the market, investors, brands).

So the easiest way to remedy this was to recruit someone to manage the operational part and free up Thomas's time. Since January 2023, Thomas has therefore switched over to Chairman of the Board.

What has Thomas achieved since this switch?

Thomas found an American to join the Board and bring all his expertise and contacts to Ogury. He talked to a lot of investors who now know Ogury, which was not the case before. And he is now starting to meet competitors, peers and be more involved in the tech market.

From a personal point of view, what changes have been made?

Thomas has more time. This gives him time to organize himself as he wants.

Isn't the CEO/President relationship sometimes complicated? Doesn't Thomas want to intervene in operational matters from time to time?

Thomas admits that he is itchy. But for everything to go well, you should not intervene. The distribution of roles is clear so Thomas no longer takes care of operational matters at all. Definitely.

It is interesting that the other founder, Jean, remained operational but in a strategic sense. A few words about it?

Jean is responsible for all company strategies and strategic initiatives. Reporting to the new CEO. Thomas believes that they have found a good balance in this new configuration.

This configuration is an obvious sign of maturity of the organization.

This is in fact the case, because Ogury has reached a certain size: 500 people in seventeen countries. Today, the challenges are no longer the same as at the beginning. But what Thomas enjoyed the most about this adventure were the beginnings: the launch in Europe and the creation in the United States.