Pivoting, funding and expansion - Matthew Hodgson, Co-founder & CEO of Element, Amandine Le Pape, Co-founder & COO of Element

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Technology, Entrepreneur, Tech, Business, Hr, Sales, Uktech, Investing, Funding, Entrepreneurship, Marketing

5 • 6 Ratings

🗓️ 28 March 2022

⏱️ 53 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

We’re joined by Matthew Hodgson and Amandine Le Pape this week, the co-founders of Element, a flagship matrix based secure collaboration and messaging platform. Hodgson and Le Pape get into the thought process behind Element and creating something that would completely disrupt the messaging platform market - before ever launching they ended up pivoting the company when the French Government came knocking at their door. Hodgson and Le Pape speak candidly about managing the cogs of Element when they were very close to bankruptcy and the growth and scaling that followed which allowed them to hire in 23 different countries, double their team from 60 to 120, and acquire Gitter. Element has gone on to raise over $48m in funding.

Transcript

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0:00.0	I mean, it was pretty bad. It was probably within a few weeks of having to just pull the escape cord.
0:14.6	The first people knocking at our door were actually government and the French government to be specific.
0:21.1	A lot of investors, I think, are just pattern matching and they want to find the next Slack or they
0:26.7	want to find the next WhatsApp.
0:29.8	We have a full studio today with both Amandine Lapop and Matthew Hudson, who are the founders of
0:34.9	Element on the show. Element is a flagship matrix-based secure
0:38.7	collaboration and messaging platform that has gone on to raise over $48 million. On the show today,
0:44.8	the guys tell me how close the company came to near bankruptcy. They tell me how they managed to
0:49.5	slightly pivot the company before even launching. We talk about scaling and growth which allowed
0:54.8	element to go on to acquire Gitter. And we talk about hiring in 23 different countries doubling
1:00.3	the team from 60 to 120. I'm your host Mark McDonough and this is the UKTN podcast.
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1:41.5	forward slash UKTN to find out more. And to avail of a 10% discount off your fees,
1:47.0	use the code UKTN10. That's UKTN10. Now let's get into the show. I thought it might be a nice
1:55.5	idea to start with, you know, product market fit and pivoting. And I've heard that, you know, product market fit and pivoting.
2:01.6	And I've heard that, you know, you identified a market,
2:07.7	went after a specific market, and then things slightly changed as you grew.
2:12.2	I'd love to know who the market originally was for Alamond.
2:18.3	Sure. Should I takeamond. Sure.
2:19.2	Should I take that one?
	...

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