For this episode of PMF Collector, Matthieu Vaxelaire sits down with Fabrice, co-founder of Yoobic — a platform used by retail networks to manage store operations, from communication and training to daily execution across hundreds of locations.
Built with his two brothers, Yoobic didn’t start with a product idea.
It started with a conviction: most people don’t work behind a desk — yet the tools built for them are still designed for headquarters.
What follows is not a story about luck or timing. It’s a story about method.
You can watch the full conversation above, or read the key themes below.
1) Starting from a conviction — then forcing it through reality
Yoobic didn’t begin with a feature.
It began with a simple observation: the vast majority of workers are “deskless”, yet almost no software is designed for them. That gap was the starting point.
But instead of jumping into building, Fabrice and his co-founders approached it methodically. First, identify a technological shift — in this case, mobile. Then apply it to a vertical where the gap is obvious.
Retail quickly emerged.
Still, a top-down conviction wasn’t enough. It had to survive contact with reality.
2) The only way to understand a problem: live it
So Fabrice went on the ground.
He spent weeks shadowing store managers, observing how they worked day to day. What he found wasn’t inefficiency — it was chaos. Hundreds of emails from HQ, constant onboarding due to high turnover, fragmented tools, and processes that simply didn’t scale.
In one case, sales reports were still being sent by fax.
“When you’re inside the system, you don’t see how broken it is. From the outside, it’s obvious.”
This wasn’t a feature gap. It was a structural problem.
3) Narrowing down to one painful, recurring process
Instead of trying to fix everything, they made a key decision: go extremely narrow.
They focused on a single process — executing promotions in stores.
Not because it was glamorous, but because it met three critical conditions. It happened frequently, it had a direct impact on revenue, and someone inside the organization was accountable for it.
That was enough.
“If you try to solve everything, you don’t have an MVP anymore.”
So they built only that.
4) The only validation that matters: a paying customer
From the beginning, Fabrice had a clear rule: no free validation.
The MVP had to be paid.
Even if the amount was small, the act of paying forced a different level of commitment. It meant budget approval, internal alignment, and a real problem being solved.
After a short pilot, the signal was immediate.
The client came back and said: “I want this in all my stores.”
That was the first real proof.
“The amount doesn’t matter. The fact that they pay does.”
5) Growth came from focus, not expansion
Retail is a huge market. Too huge.
So instead of expanding, they kept narrowing.
Through repeated sales conversations, they refined their positioning, their messaging, and their target. Eventually, they landed on fashion retail — a segment where operational complexity is high and execution directly impacts revenue.
This focus made everything easier: clearer messaging, faster sales, stronger traction.
“The more precise your target, the easier it is to sell.”
6) Customers as the only real growth engine
In the early days, Yoobic didn’t rely on paid acquisition.
They relied on their customers.
Case studies, testimonials, conferences — in a small ecosystem like retail, word spreads quickly. Once a few brands adopt a solution, others follow.
This created a compounding effect.
“Your best marketing is your customers.”
7) Enterprise sales: slow, but predictable
Selling to large retail networks meant dealing with long cycles — often six to nine months.
To make this work, Yoobic built a structured approach around proof. Start with a limited deployment, measure the impact, and turn that into a quantified business case.
Once the ROI is clear, the conversation changes.
“If you can prove ROI, you don’t need to wait for next year’s budget.”
8) The US expansion: rebuilding everything except the product
After finding traction in Europe, Yoobic expanded to the US.
But almost nothing transferred.
No brand, no references, no network. So Fabrice made a deliberate decision: start from zero again. Small team, narrow ICP, outbound-driven approach.
The product didn’t change.
Everything else did — from messaging to pricing to the sales process.
“Just because it works in Europe doesn’t mean it works in the US.”
It took months to land the first clients. Then momentum came back.
9) A company is built through iterations, not plans
At every stage, the approach stayed the same.
Form a hypothesis, test it quickly, define success in advance, and iterate. Short cycles. No endless discussions.
First, open debate. Then, once a decision is made, full execution.
“You need both: open debate first, then ruthless execution.”
This discipline compounds over time.
10) Keeping the founder mindset at scale
Today, Yoobic is a large organization.
Which creates a tension: you can’t operate like an early-stage startup anymore — but you can’t lose that energy either.
Fabrice’s solution is to carve out small spaces to keep experimenting. Not on the core business, but on the side. Fast loops, quick iterations, then reintegrate what works.
“If I do this on the core business, I break the company.”
It’s how he keeps the “day one” mindset alive.
11) Persistence vs. stubbornness
Behind everything, there’s one constant tension.
You need persistence to push through uncertainty. But too much of it becomes stubbornness — and keeps you going in the wrong direction.
The real skill is knowing when to adjust.
“You need to keep going — but not in the wrong direction.”
This episode is a masterclass in building vertical SaaS from the ground up: starting with a real-world problem, validating through payment, focusing relentlessly, and rebuilding your playbook at every stage.
