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Ludovic GRANGER’s journey from IÉSEG to Silicon Valley shows just how far a strong idea and perseverance can take you. A 2020 IÉSEG graduate, Ludovic GRANGER is now the CEO of Leadbay—a startup that uses artificial intelligence to help sales teams identify future clients. Selected by the renowned startup accelerator Y Combinator, the company is now expanding in the United States with one clear ambition: to reinvent B2B customer acquisition.

Can you introduce yourself and tell us about your background?

I graduated from IÉSEG (Grande École Program), and a few years after finishing my studies, I co-founded Leadbay, an AI startup designed to significantly boost the prospecting capabilities of B2B sales teams.

During my studies, I had the opportunity to gain a wide range of professional and international experiences, including an internship at The Walt Disney Company in the United States, an academic exchange in Indonesia, and a management control internship at LVMH in Singapore. At the same time, I was very involved in student life, serving as Head of Sales for the Junior Enterprise.

What made you want to become an entrepreneur and why did you create Leadbay?

I didn’t even know I wanted to become an entrepreneur. You can’t dream about something you’re not aware of. My experience with the Junior Enterprise initially made me want to become a consultant, but the Business Creation Project I worked on during my studies made me realize how much I enjoyed working across different areas—finance, marketing, sales. That versatility is what drew me to entrepreneurship. In my opinion, entrepreneurship is a vehicle for social mobility: sky is the limit!

In France, new technologies—especially AI—is sometimes seen as a threat. In the United States, however, the mindset is very different: people see a world full of opportunities emerging, much like during the rise of the internet, which gave birth to companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, and Netflix. I realized that AI would democratize access to complex technologies, opening up the market and creating major opportunities to seize. That’s why we launched Leadbay.

How does Leadbay work and how does it stand out from other tools?

Today, many salespeople still work manually, going through lists to identify relevant prospects. At Leadbay, we automate this process so they can focus on what really matters: selling.

We identify and qualify relevant companies on their behalf. By analyzing what our clients sell and who they sell to, we’re able to recommend the best business opportunities within their target markets.

What truly sets us apart is our ability to create dynamic databases that automatically identify and qualify relevant companies—commonly referred to as “leads.” In addition, traditional platforms tend to focus on highly digitalized companies, whereas we also serve those that generate few online signals.

What was the main factor of success for Leadbay and what have been you biggest challenges?

Resilience. In a startup, there’s a “survival” phase made up of many failures and only a few successes. We had to apply seven times before being accepted by Y Combinator. Many people would have given up, but we never did.

There are many small difficult steps along the way, but you learn to put things into perspective. Each stage comes with its own challenges: hiring talent, maintaining balance, overcoming financial hurdles, closing deals…

Today, the biggest challenge is navigating the constant wave of new technologies—there’s something new every day. Things move incredibly fast, and it’s easy to lose focus. You have to stay fully committed to your users and customers, and serve them better than anyone else.

Y Combinator chose to support Leadbay—what does that mean, and how were you selected?

Y Combinator is the most famous startup accelerator in the world, based in San Francisco. It has funded companies like Airbnb and Twitch. They invest in around 200 startups each quarter out of roughly 30,000 applications—that’s less than 1%. They invested $500,000 in Leadbay, which allowed us to enter the U.S. market.

The program lasts three months: you launch your company in the U.S., they introduce you to customers, give you significant visibility, and it all culminates in “Demo Day,” where you deliver a 60-second pitch in front of a room filled with 3,000 investors.

We applied seven times before being accepted. At first, we tried to impress. But when our business really started gaining traction in France—with real revenue and engaged users—we simply stated who we were and what we were doing. We were authentic. We stopped comparing ourselves to others and trying too hard.

What are your long-term goals for Leadbay, and what excites you most about what’s next?

Replacing Salesforce. Salesforce is a CRM company valued at $200 billion, with massive towers in San Francisco and New York—it’s a giant. To me, a CRM is essentially a large spreadsheet listing clients shared between sales and marketing teams. That was innovative 20 years ago, but today technology can do so much more to support sales teams. As a small startup, we can move much faster than these giants and better address the evolving needs of our customers.

What excites me most is that every day brings new opportunities, and each step expands what’s possible. Seeing how far we can go is what constantly motivates me.

What did you gain from your time at IÉSEG?

I often say that IÉSEG is an excellent school for entrepreneurs because it turns you into a Jack of all trades with strong hands-on experience through entrepreneurial projects. The school also instills a strong sense of adaptability. I believe that to be a good manager, you first need to be a changemaker and not be afraid to take action. That’s exactly what today’s world needs, and IÉSEG prepares us very well for that.

I also built lasting friendships there—my entire circle comes from IÉSEG. The school gives you a real sense of community, and it’s important to nurture it, as this network is incredibly valuable. Finally, there’s the solid grounding in finance, which teaches you discipline. At the end of the day, the foundation of building a company is sound financial management.