56. Thibaut Sahaghian, Co-Founder & CEO @ Multis (YCS19) - Learnings from being too early in B2B Crypto in 2019 to raising a $7M round with Sequoia in 2022 [a web3 episode]

Ep56, a web3 episode with Thibaut Sahaghian,
Co-Founder & CEO @ Multis (YC S19).


[PROMO CODE to listen to the full episode
https://upcomingvc.substack.com/ep56]


The myth about pivots is that they are an exception: something
undesirable that happens because a startup went seriously awry,
and which you should strive to avoid.


In reality, pivots are an integral part of the entrepreneurial
process. Whether you’re pivoting in the early days because you
haven’t yet found product-market fit, or you’re pivoting by
reinventing yourself later on, all companies, if they’re going to
become and stay successful, are going to have to pivot. You have
a brilliant idea, hopefully you’re in the right place at the
right time, you execute like crazy, and it either works or it
doesn’t. So how do you know when it’s time to pivot?


This is the case with Multis, a startup building the financial
backbone of crypto-native organizations which has pivoted and
experienced being kind of too early in its markets. Mid-March
2022, French startup Multis announced it had raised a $7 million
round led by Sequoia Capital, about the firm’s third investment
in France after Pennylane and Upway. Originally designed as a
neobank for companies working with cryptocurrencies, the company
has completely altered its product vision as it offers now the
software layer helping web3 organizations manage their crypto
finances.


Co-founded in 2018 by Thibaut Sahaghian, Y-Combinator and
efounders alumni Multis’ is an all-in-one crypto finances
management tool that works in concert with Gnosis, a highly
trusted platform for managing digital assets on Ethereum.
Sequoia’s Stephanie Zhan explains that “Multis is uniquely
positioned to provide a new generation of entrepreneurs with an
all-in-one solution for cashflow and spend management”. “DeFi
companies, NFT studios, or DAOs are cutting-edge in terms of
tech. But their business tools are prehistoric: most crypto
founders still struggle to perform basic financial operations
that are essential to running a business, like getting visibility
on cashflow.” declared recently Thibaut to Tech.eu. “They end up
creating their own solution, often a shared spreadsheet, in fear
that their operational set-up will fall apart and they'll end up
losing money because they don't have a clear understanding of
their finances, or that team members will misuse funds.”


In this 56th episode,
Thibaut reflects on the early days & assumptions of Multis
and shares with us his learning from building too early in the dark
a crypto-company in 2019, the toxic validations they got early on,
why they stopped building the product in order to pivot while
experiencing a critical change in the co-founding team. Thibaut
also shares his findings during the conversations held the VC in
their captable as the company was facing tough challenges to find
PMF, why vulnerability is key when building a transition plan,
switching a challenge to an opportunity & building a narrative.
we also talk about how DAOs are reshaping the future of capitalism
and the principal-agent discrepancy, about how transparency is a
means, a lever for higher trust and the challenges to connect
code-based decisions with IRL existance / objects. we discover the
road ahead for Multis, Thibaut’s take about hiring in web3, and
learn about the next milestones for the Multis product

I am sure you will enjoy the episode.
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These podcasts are produced by UPCOMINGVC upcoming.vc, created
and hosted by Raphael Grieco.