Thibaud Elzière

I have always felt compelled to start companies. My entrepreneurial journey began in an unexpected way—I was fired from my only job after just a few days for printing my business plan for Fotolia on the company printer. It all worked out in the end as it pushed me to focus fully on building Fotolia, which became a highly successful company and one of Adobe’s key acquisitions at the time.

After Fotolia, my desire to create didn’t stop. I thrive in the 0-to-1 phase, and with so many ideas at once, I began exploring the concept of parallel entrepreneurship: launching several companies at the same time.

In 2011, I co-founded eFounders (now Hexa) with Quentin Nickmans to bring to life many of the ideas I had during my time at Fotolia. At Fotolia, I faced challenges like managing international numbers and making online calls worldwide (inspiring the idea for Aircall), handling customer support queries (leading to the creation of Front), and making expense management easy (which gave rise to Spendesk). Today, all of these companies have achieved unicorn status.

With Hexa, we accomplished something no one had done before: proving that the startup studio model can truly succeed.

For 10 years at Hexa, I pitched ideas to entrepreneurs and partnered with them to join category-defining companies. This resulted in over 40 companies launched with Hexa. Today, my mission has shifted: I’m looking for the very people who will come up with ideas and pitch them to future founders.

Partners are seasoned entrepreneurs eager to launch several companies in parallel. Individuals who are bursting with ideas and driven to bring them to life.

I’m drawn to people who thrive on intellectual stimulation, who are hands-on builders, eager to lay the foundation for new ventures, overflowing with ideas, and determined to see them through. Equally, they value teamwork—collaborating closely with ambitious entrepreneurs and like-minded teams to create companies that make an impact.

Importantly, being a Partner means that you’re not the CEO of the company and so you need to be ok with letting go: being at ease with others taking the reins, reshaping their ideas, and stepping into the spotlight, while they focus on driving success from behind the scenes.

One priority close to my heart is bringing more women into the Partner role at Hexa. We’ve struggled to make progress, but I’m confident we can change that. Having more women at the Partner level will inspire more women founders, and ultimately, more women in startup leadership. It starts at the top. So, if you’re a woman even slightly curious about this role, I’d love to hear from you.