In this week’s episode I spoke with Quinten Vandermullen, cofounder and CPO of Mbrella, which is an HR platform that allows Belgian companies to manage everything related to mobility for their employees, for example their mobility budgets and commuting allowances.

It’s a more mature startup compared to the ones we’ve discovered in previous episodes, arguably at this stage a scale up. Based in Brussels and founded in 2020, they’re currently a team of nearly 40 people. they’ve had two fundraising rounds, the most recent one in 2023 when they raised 6 million and acquired Mobbox.

What stood out to me from this conversation is the intentional and unconventional company culture Mbrella is building, based on a fundamental belief in the power of an async and written first communication style. We talked about the inspiration for that, how it works on a practical level and the impact it’s having.

As the conversation evolved, I realised that their success has also come from defying conventional advice. Instead of building global from day 1, they built hyper-local from day one, and it’s paid off. In 5 years, Mbrella has had 100% customer retention, no customers have churned. This is almost unheard of in SaaS.

We see on Linkedin these 10M ARR in just a few months stories. Mbrella is an example of success achieved on a different path. A belief in the market opportunity, even when growth was slow, and a commitment that paid off down the line because after 5 years, the results are visible.

Keep listening to see how they got there.

Resources
Mbrella's company handbook
Rework by Jason Fried and David Heinemeier Hansson

Chapters

00:00 Introduction to Quentin and his first Startup Moovle
05:47 The Birth of Mbrella: Addressing Mobility Needs
09:57 Market Positioning: Competing in a Niche
13:11 Winning The ING Tender and Building for Enterprises
16:42 Building an Async Writing First Company Culture
26:15 Launching from a Studio
32:43 Creating a Parent-Friendly Culture
39:50 Deep Work and Slow Responses
46:00 PLG Doesn't Work for Everyone