Mathilde Collin is the co-founder and CEO of Front. Since starting Front in 2013, Mathilde has raised over $138 million with an impressive roster of investors including Sequoia, Initialized, and the founders of Slack, Zoom, Atlassian, and more.

Mathilde is known for her values-driven leadership style and for championing top-down radical transparency. From lessons in leadership to tips on fundraising, this episode is filled with invaluable tips for CEOs!

Listen to the full episode on Apple Podcast, Spotify, Deezer & Google Podcast.

Topics

00:22 — Introduction with Cindy Yang 

01:18 — Introduction of Mathilde Collin 

02:23 — Mathilde’s background and mission to make “work happier” 

04:48 — The importance of measuring what you want to improve in your company and how Front measures employee happiness 

06:36 — Use cases of Front: Shopify, Lydia, Sender 

08:45 — Surprising use cases: political campaigns and #CovidListe, COVID vaccine lists! 

10:22 — Fundraising tips for CEOs: the importance of mindset, storytelling, and focus ⚠️ 

16:06 — Building between Paris and San Francisco at Y Combinator 

16:32 — The tech ecosystems in France vs. the US 

18:14 — On sharing her learnings on her blog and on writing to clarify thoughts 

20:28 — Mathilde’s most important lessons in leadership 

23:56 — Good transparency vs. bad transparency 

25:47 — On vulnerability

28:15 — Startup spaces that Mathilde is excited about: mental health and asynchronous communication

31:33 — Gender diversity in entrepreneurship

This episode is supported by TikTok; hosted and produced by Cindy Yang. Art is by Gaëtan Lefebvre.