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Dans cette vidéo, je vous raconte l’histoire de Cheaf, une application que j’ai monté avec Kim Durand, mon meilleur pote au Mexique en 2020. Sans langue de bois, je vais tout vous dire sur sa création, son financement, les erreurs qu’on a fait et comment on a failli tout perdre en mars 2023 suite à la faillite de la Silicon Valley Bank.
Dans cette vidéo, je vous raconte l’histoire de Cheaf, une application que j’ai monté avec Kim Durand, mon meilleur pote au Mexique en 2020. Sans langue de bois, je vais tout vous dire sur sa création, son financement, les erreurs qu’on a fait et comment on a failli tout perdre en mars 2023 suite à la faillite de la Silicon Valley Bank.
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TechnologieTranscription
00:00 Ok, 3 years ago, I made with my best friend an app for more than 500 000 users
00:04 by raising 3 million dollars in the US.
00:06 Except that 3 months ago,
00:07 in a few days, 3 US banks went bankrupt,
00:09 we lost everything.
00:10 In this video, I'm going to tell you the behind the scenes of this crazy story.
00:14 We don't have a box anymore.
00:14 How we created the app,
00:16 how we struggled to make it known,
00:17 Yes!
00:18 Here!
00:18 how we financed it,
00:19 and most importantly, how we lost everything in one day.
00:22 This episode is sponsored by Youmoney, I'll tell you more at the end of the video.
00:27 Before launching the Baguelle studio with my friends,
00:29 I started posting videos before YouTube even existed.
00:32 Yeah, I'm an old man.
00:33 And at the time, to make these videos known,
00:35 they had to be broadcasted by their own means.
00:37 So I learned how to code and design a site
00:39 before even being a director.
00:41 So the day my best friend told me about an idea for an app,
00:43 I jumped on the occasion to help him
00:44 with my few memories of the time.
00:46 Ok.
00:47 This is Kim Durant, nicknamed Kimu.
00:49 We've known each other since high school and we did the 400 shots together.
00:52 He played in my videos when I started,
00:54 and that's sweet.
00:55 Oh, I'm going to call him.
00:56 And since then, we've been great friends
00:58 and we've traveled a lot together.
00:59 And that's important because our story
01:02 starts in 2019,
01:03 in the Colombian jungle.
01:05 For the new year 2019,
01:08 we're going to explore Ciudad Perdida,
01:10 a lost city in Colombia,
01:11 accessible in 4 days in the jungle.
01:13 And one evening, in a cabin lost in the middle of the jungle,
01:15 Kim tells me about an idea he's had for a long time.
01:17 This is the perfect time, there's nothing else to do.
01:18 We don't have Wi-Fi, we don't have anything.
01:19 To put it in context,
01:20 Kim has been living in Mexico for a year,
01:22 where he is the general manager of Burrits.
01:23 And with this job, he unfortunately discovers
01:25 the huge food waste in the kitchens.
01:27 Basically, at the end of each day,
01:29 most restaurants, bakeries and supermarkets
01:31 throw away their waste,
01:32 even though they are in perfect condition.
01:33 Often for internal political reasons.
01:35 For example, in a bakery,
01:36 typically the bread stays in the display case for 2 or 3 days,
01:38 and then they take the chicken.
01:39 And all of that represents more than 20 million tons,
01:40 just like in Mexico.
01:41 Unlike in China,
01:42 where there are many apps
01:43 to reduce this waste, like Toogoo Toogo,
01:45 in Latin America, there is no solution of this kind.
01:47 Either we wait for this project
01:49 to spread in these countries,
01:51 or we launch it ourselves.
01:52 So they decide to set up an app
01:53 that allows restaurants to sell their waste
01:55 at a third of the price.
01:55 Users get their waste back at the restaurant
01:57 before closing,
01:58 and in addition to saving money,
01:59 they help to reduce food waste.
02:01 So it's pretty smart.
02:02 The creation is a bit late,
02:05 because it's early 2020,
02:07 and there is a small virus
02:08 that complicates the situation.
02:09 In China, a mysterious virus
02:11 from the same family as SRAS
02:12 has already contaminated 45 people.
02:15 The virus could spread abroad.
02:18 After the first lockdown,
02:19 Kim decides to launch the machine.
02:21 But before creating the box and launching the app,
02:22 you must already know if the concept works.
02:24 This is what we call the proof of concept,
02:26 the proof of concept in French.
02:27 Kim creates a WhatsApp group
02:28 with friends and friends of friends,
02:30 and he offers some bakeries
02:31 around his house to participate.
02:33 And the food was put online
02:35 on a website, a bit rotten,
02:37 that we developed in Bangladesh.
02:38 And after three weeks of testing,
02:40 the results are quite convincing.
02:41 Friends are happy to be able to buy
02:43 cheaper dishes,
02:44 and the bakeries that finally manage
02:45 to sell their excess without throwing them away
02:47 want to continue.
02:47 From there, I thought,
02:48 "OK, well, a priori, it works.
02:50 I'm recruiting a dev,
02:51 and we're going to do something a little more professional."
02:53 We are early June,
02:54 and this is where I go on stage.
02:55 The concept works,
02:56 so now we have to think about
02:57 the creation of the app
02:58 and how to promote it
02:58 then on the networks.
03:00 And that's the kind of thing
03:01 I can do.
03:02 But first of all, you have to find the name.
03:03 To find the name of your box,
03:04 there are several rules.
03:05 It has to make sense
03:06 with the concept, of course.
03:08 That the name is simple to remember,
03:09 so rather short.
03:10 Ideally, the domain name
03:11 is available, or at least not too expensive.
03:13 And a little bonus,
03:13 that the name is also available
03:14 on Instagram, TikTok, etc.
03:16 And I can tell you that we went
03:17 through all the possible names.
03:18 We started with Wild Wild West,
03:21 "West" meaning "waste" in English.
03:22 To finish with words in French
03:27 that made no sense anymore.
03:29 Yeah, this conversation
03:30 really did exist.
03:31 We got to the point where we were like "Fuck,
03:33 this is hard."
03:34 After three days of research,
03:36 I bring my first stone to the building.
03:38 I propose a mix between "Chef",
03:40 "It"
03:40 and "Cheap".
03:41 Which gives "Chief".
03:42 The domain name is already taken,
03:43 but it is negotiable around $600.
03:45 And no box with this name exists,
03:47 according to Google.
03:47 Well, there's just the Facebook URL
03:49 which is directed to an armed group in Pakistan,
03:50 but it's okay, we'll keep this name.
03:52 On June 11, 2020,
03:53 we buy the domain name "chief.com".
03:55 And remember this date,
03:56 because it will be very important
03:57 in the future.
03:58 For the logo,
03:58 I start with the typography
03:59 by hand around the word "Chef".
04:01 Then I try to add a symbol
04:02 mixing the kitchen
04:03 and the concept of recycling.
04:04 An idea that I eventually give up
04:05 to start with the recyclable logo,
04:06 which I turn into "E"
04:07 before turning it into "V"
04:08 for ecological inspiration.
04:09 I put the chef's head back on the "C"
04:11 and tilt the whole thing slightly
04:12 to give it dynamism.
04:13 And while I finish the logo,
04:14 next to Kim,
04:15 something a little crazy is going to happen.
04:17 And at that moment, we have a friend
04:18 and colleague who worked with me
04:20 who tells me,
04:21 "Wait, I think it's a great idea,
04:23 something I can do to help you.
04:24 It's to get in touch
04:25 with the owner of my apartment,
04:27 who is the president
04:28 of Maison Kaiser in Mexico.
04:29 Maison Kaiser is a French bakery chain
04:31 first created in Paris,
04:32 which then exported worldwide,
04:34 to Africa, to Asia,
04:35 to South America
04:36 and therefore to Mexico.
04:37 So a huge potential partner,
04:38 even though we didn't even launch the app.
04:40 I get in touch with him
04:41 and he tells me, "You introduce me on Monday."
04:42 And we were, I think, Saturday,
04:43 something like that.
04:44 It's Saturday, June 13, 2020.
04:45 So we have less than two days
04:46 to prepare an appointment
04:47 that can be decisive for us.
04:49 It's a real race against the clock
04:50 that's just getting started.
04:51 So we have 48 hours.
04:53 While Kim is preparing
04:54 the appointment of his life,
04:55 I'm in a hurry to do some visuals
04:56 for the presentation.
04:57 This is what we call
04:57 mock-ups of the application.
04:59 And we're not going to lie,
05:00 it's very ugly.
05:01 But that's what's going to be
05:02 interesting in this video,
05:03 to see the evolution of the app
05:04 as we go along.
05:05 Sunday evening,
05:05 we do one last check of everything.
05:07 Kim is ready.
05:08 I'm going to bed.
05:09 And the next day...
05:10 Maison Kaiser is hot!
05:13 I think I did the best
05:14 presentation of my life.
05:16 We have our first restaurant chain,
05:17 partner.
05:18 So we can launch the machine
05:19 officially.
05:20 First step,
05:20 we recruit a community manager
05:22 to develop our Instagram account.
05:24 We're going to post tips every day,
05:25 cooking recipes,
05:26 or stats on food waste.
05:28 In order to grow the community
05:30 and have potential customers
05:31 on the day of launch.
05:32 And that helped us too.
05:33 First, to convince Maison Kaiser
05:35 that we were going to do a good job.
05:35 And then to go get
05:36 our restaurant, of course,
05:37 by saying, "Look,
05:38 this is the base we have.
05:39 This is a bit of a guarantee
05:40 that if you use our app,
05:41 you're going to sell."
05:42 Second step,
05:43 we recruit a developer.
05:44 As much as I know how to design
05:45 and code websites,
05:45 as much as creating an app
05:46 is beyond me.
05:47 And now we don't have the right
05:48 to make mistakes.
05:49 Third step,
05:50 we recruit a salesperson
05:51 to launch new restaurants.
05:52 Because it's nice to have
05:53 users,
05:54 but if we don't have a restaurant
05:55 in front of it,
05:55 it doesn't work.
05:56 I'm working on the logo
05:58 to make it more sober.
05:59 And we're getting ready
06:00 for September 1st
06:01 to launch the first version
06:02 of the app.
06:02 I'm taking the visuals
06:03 from scratch
06:04 and I'm learning what we call
06:05 UX design during the summer.
06:06 I'm enlarging the photo
06:07 to capture the user's attention
06:08 faster.
06:09 To not overload the design,
06:10 I'm reducing the number of stars
06:11 and I'm adding an icon
06:12 for the remaining dishes.
06:13 And by digging a little more
06:15 into UX design,
06:16 I'm learning a lot of new stuff.
06:17 For example,
06:17 it's better to say how much we're saving
06:19 rather than how much the original dish costs.
06:20 And rather than putting
06:21 the full address,
06:22 it's more convenient
06:22 to see the distance on foot
06:23 to get there.
06:24 The user can see the address
06:25 once he clicks
06:26 on the restaurant's menu.
06:27 In short,
06:29 with the developer Ekim,
06:30 we design and develop
06:31 the app together.
06:32 We're in time,
06:33 the Asta account starts to load,
06:34 more than twenty restaurants
06:35 join the project,
06:36 nothing stops us,
06:38 until...
06:38 On August 16th,
06:40 Apple refuses the app
06:41 on the App Store
06:42 and questions
06:43 the whole structure of the app.
06:44 Basically,
06:45 the current structure
06:45 is as follows.
06:46 When the user opens the app,
06:48 he must first connect
06:49 or create an account
06:49 before seeing the restaurant's list
06:51 and the different dishes to be collected.
06:52 The goal is for us
06:53 to have a maximum
06:54 account creation
06:55 from the start.
06:55 Except it's forbidden by Apple.
06:57 And from there,
06:58 in fact, this little detail
06:59 changes absolutely everything
07:01 to the structure
07:01 and the architecture of the app.
07:03 We will therefore have to redo the structure
07:04 and propose the registration
07:05 at the time of the order.
07:06 So, from there,
07:07 we have to start almost from scratch
07:09 and we have to redevelop
07:10 an app in two weeks.
07:11 Which is clearly impossible.
07:12 We decide to change
07:13 the release date
07:14 to September 29th,
07:15 which is also a special day
07:16 since it is the International Day
07:18 of awareness of food waste
07:19 and food waste.
07:20 That's absolutely perfect.
07:21 Basically, to launch at that time.
07:23 We can make a big buzz
07:24 around that.
07:25 And there, we work like crazy
07:26 to release on September 29th.
07:28 And on September 29th,
07:29 boom, we launch.
07:30 For the launch,
07:31 we don't do things in half.
07:32 I set up an ad
07:33 to present the concept.
07:34 We contact several influencers
07:36 to share the app.
07:37 Gif, an application that helps
07:38 reduce food waste.
07:40 And Kim does his first interviews
07:41 in Spanish.
07:42 If you are interested in rescuing a package,
07:44 we had a real pressure
07:46 to sell all the products
07:47 that were available on the app.
07:48 Because we thought,
07:49 if we are not able to sell
07:50 the products available on the app,
07:51 the few restaurants
07:53 that we have available
07:54 will stop being interested
07:55 in the products,
07:55 will stop putting
07:56 food on the app.
07:57 In fact, it's a vicious circle.
07:58 And so, we were constantly
07:59 brainstorming
08:00 on operations that we could do
08:02 to have more demand.
08:02 And at the end of October,
08:03 a small event
08:04 will give us an incredible boost.
08:06 In Mexico, between November 1st
08:08 and 2nd,
08:09 we celebrate El Dia de los Muertos,
08:11 the Day of the Dead.
08:12 Traditional holiday
08:13 where we honor the loved ones who have died
08:14 with offerings,
08:15 meals
08:16 and colorful decorations.
08:17 It is also this holiday
08:18 that you can see at the beginning of the spectrum
08:19 with Daniel Greig.
08:20 Probably the most important holiday
08:22 in Mexico,
08:22 probably even before Christmas.
08:24 And many meals are created
08:25 especially for this day,
08:26 including a Viennese dish
08:27 called El Pan de Muertos.
08:29 It's a kind of sweet brioche.
08:30 And the day before,
08:31 so important for Mexicans,
08:33 around 10 p.m.,
08:34 we receive a call.
08:35 A bakery calls us
08:36 saying we have a real problem.
08:37 We had an order
08:38 of 800 Panes de Muertos
08:40 that has just been canceled.
08:41 And they are already cooked,
08:42 we just took them out of the oven.
08:43 So now we have no one
08:45 to buy them.
08:46 Can you help us?
08:47 Kim reacts very quickly,
08:48 sends the contract
08:49 and organizes a Viennese
08:50 repatriation
08:50 to be able to sell them.
08:51 And on my side,
08:52 I create a lot of visuals
08:53 to announce it on the networks
08:54 to push our community
08:55 to save the dishes
08:55 and avoid seeing them
08:56 end up in the trash.
08:57 In the space of 4 to 6 hours,
08:59 the 800 Panes de Muertos
09:00 had been sold.
09:01 So at that moment,
09:01 we had the volume,
09:03 we had the noise
09:04 generated by influencers,
09:05 a little press, etc.
09:06 And in addition, the legitimacy
09:08 of being an app that works
09:09 because from the moment
09:10 we promise that we can sell these products,
09:11 we sell them.
09:12 And that, it generates
09:13 a big, big boost,
09:14 I think, of confidence
09:15 for me, of course,
09:16 and for the rest of the team too.
09:17 To say, OK,
09:17 we're working on something
09:18 that really has a future.
09:20 To continue on our launch,
09:21 we are looking for fun ideas
09:22 to promote the app.
09:23 We then organize a game
09:24 in a nod to Charlie
09:25 and the Chocolate Factory
09:26 with golden tickets
09:27 hidden in certain dishes
09:27 bought on the app.
09:28 And the story is beautiful
09:29 since the winner is Olga,
09:30 one of our most loyal users.
09:32 When she called us
09:33 to announce
09:33 that she had found the golden ticket,
09:34 she invited the whole team
09:35 to Mexico for a breakfast.
09:37 In short, the app continues
09:38 to spread
09:39 and everything seems to be going well
09:40 in the best of the world.
09:41 But you're starting to get used to it.
09:42 It never lasts very long.
09:45 On November 13,
09:45 to fight against the spread of COVID,
09:47 the mayor of Mexico
09:48 speaks up and announces
09:50 the total suspension
09:52 of the operation
09:53 of bars, clubs, and canteens.
09:56 So, closures for 15 days
09:57 of bars and restaurants
09:58 in Mexico City.
09:59 A month after launch,
10:00 we think it's going to slow down
10:01 our progress,
10:02 but it's actually going to be
10:03 the opposite effect.
10:03 Restaurants, as usual,
10:04 they have their normal production
10:06 and all of a sudden,
10:07 they have a lot less customers
10:08 in stores,
10:08 but they continue with a little
10:09 of this production inertia,
10:11 which means they have a lot of surplus.
10:13 And this surplus,
10:13 well, they sell it,
10:15 more or less, through us.
10:15 So there are a lot more offers
10:17 on the app
10:17 and a lot more users
10:19 interested.
10:19 But strangely,
10:20 our figures are stagnating,
10:21 or even,
10:22 they're starting to fall.
10:22 We realize
10:23 after a while
10:24 that there are certain versions
10:25 of iPhone or Android,
10:26 restaurants or available options
10:27 don't even load.
10:29 Because yeah,
10:29 when you develop an app,
10:30 you have to know that all phones
10:31 don't react the same way.
10:33 The app can work very well
10:34 on an iPhone 13,
10:34 but it's completely wrong
10:36 on an iPhone 8.
10:37 Mexico City is in full lockdown.
10:38 Only pick-ups and deliveries
10:39 at home are allowed.
10:41 So the best time for the app
10:42 is the worst time
10:43 to have bugs.
10:44 Plus the fact that there are a lot of people
10:45 who go on the app
10:46 out of curiosity,
10:47 they see that it's not working,
10:48 they drop it,
10:48 they don't take the time
10:50 to send a feedback.
10:51 We're in a crisis situation
10:52 with the team
10:52 and we try to react
10:53 very quickly.
10:54 It was a big stress.
10:55 And in the end,
10:55 in December,
10:56 we ended up
10:57 getting back on our feet.
10:58 But I admit that the month of November
10:59 is quite depressing
11:00 for everyone.
11:01 We're doing pretty well.
11:02 The app continues on its launch.
11:03 Several articles talk about it.
11:04 And after three months,
11:05 we record more than 10,000
11:06 new users
11:07 and save more than 12 tons
11:09 of food.
11:10 So we're super happy.
11:11 Except that all of this
11:12 costs money,
11:13 just in case.
11:13 When we launched the project,
11:16 we both financed the costs,
11:17 like the salaries of employees,
11:18 the server hosting the app,
11:19 the lawyer's fees to create the company,
11:21 the influencers to make the app known,
11:22 etc.
11:23 To be able to compensate for this,
11:24 we take a small commission
11:25 on each order.
11:25 But clearly,
11:26 at first,
11:26 it's very, very little.
11:27 Especially since to sign
11:28 and trust new restaurants,
11:30 we accept very, very low commissions.
11:31 So it's rather difficult to reach
11:33 what we call
11:33 the profitability threshold.
11:34 But don't worry,
11:35 it's a very common thing
11:36 in the world of startups.
11:37 It takes many years
11:38 before you're profitable.
11:39 Uber, for example,
11:39 took more than 14 years
11:40 to become profitable.
11:41 The same goes for Airbnb,
11:42 created in 2008,
11:43 and profitable only
11:44 from 2022.
11:45 So at first,
11:45 we paid for everything,
11:46 but inevitably,
11:47 in the long term,
11:48 it wouldn't be manageable anymore.
11:49 Especially since to manage the company
11:50 100%,
11:51 Kim had to
11:51 quit her job.
11:52 From the moment
11:53 it started to work,
11:54 you want to speed up.
11:55 And a way to speed up
11:56 is to recruit more people,
11:57 obviously.
11:57 In this case,
11:58 more vendors,
11:59 that's what I wanted.
11:59 And so,
12:00 you double or triple
12:02 your costs.
12:03 You have no job,
12:03 you have to go get funds.
12:05 And that's when we say
12:06 we're going to need
12:07 And that's where I have to explain
12:09 what a fund raising is.
12:10 If you've already watched the show
12:12 "Qui veut être mon associé",
12:13 you can roughly see what it is.
12:14 We need 300,000 euros.
12:15 And to make it simple,
12:16 let's say we need
12:17 10,000 euros
12:18 to develop our company.
12:19 We're going to offer an investor
12:20 to take, for example,
12:21 20% of the company
12:22 against a contribution of 10,000 euros.
12:23 We're going to raise
12:24 10,000 euros
12:25 for 20% of the capital.
12:26 Sometimes, companies go bankrupt
12:27 and investors lose their money,
12:29 but when it works,
12:29 they can make
12:30 very nice added value.
12:31 In Shark Tank, for example,
12:32 the American version
12:33 of "Qui veut être mon associé",
12:34 Barbara Corcoran
12:35 invested 50,000 dollars
12:36 for 30% of the company
12:37 of The Original Comfy in 2017.
12:39 50% plus 30%.
12:40 And today,
12:41 the company is valued at 50 million.
12:42 Which means that Barbara Corcoran
12:44 has earned nearly 15 million
12:45 on an investment of 50,000 dollars.
12:47 Not bad.
12:48 We've talked about cases
12:49 where there was only one investor,
12:50 but there can obviously
12:51 be several.
12:52 That's what's going to happen for CHIF.
12:53 Kim is going to try to raise 500,000 dollars
12:55 with close and former collaborators.
12:57 A small committee
12:57 that we also call the 3Fs
12:59 for Friends, Family and Fools.
13:01 The family, friends and the crazy ones
13:02 who want to give a helping hand
13:03 to a company to get started.
13:04 In the space of about a month,
13:06 we raised about 550,000 dollars,
13:08 which allowed us,
13:10 according to my calculations,
13:11 roughly to have
13:12 between 12 and 15 months
13:14 of the company's existence.
13:15 And so I knew that
13:17 in the next 8 to 10 months,
13:19 I would have to raise a little more money.
13:21 But hey,
13:21 that will be another important step.
13:22 We'll talk about it later.
13:24 So we have our first fund raising.
13:25 We will be able to expand the team,
13:27 move into offices
13:29 and above all,
13:29 promote the app even more
13:31 across Mexico.
13:31 An app that is in charge
13:33 of rescuing business food.
13:35 It's much easier to sell CHIF
13:37 when the restaurant we're talking to
13:38 has heard about us
13:40 and when he has a positive image of us.
13:41 So we print t-shirts
13:42 that we win on Insta.
13:43 We offer bags with our logo.
13:45 We broadcast our first advertisements
13:46 in the street and in magazines.
13:49 And some restaurants even display
13:50 the CHIF logo in their windows.
13:52 And I have to admit
13:52 that it's a little thing
13:53 to see the logo I drew
13:54 proudly displayed
13:55 on restaurants in Mexico.
13:57 In April 2021,
13:58 we have more than 23,000 users on the app
14:00 and more than 24 tons of food
14:02 recovered in Mexico City.
14:03 And we decide to take the second step.
14:04 Kim recruits Elena as COO,
14:07 that is, Chief Operating Officer,
14:08 the operations director,
14:10 as well as a new UX designer
14:11 to work on a new version of the app.
14:13 The idea is to make the app
14:14 even more efficient and intuitive
14:15 by taking as a reference
14:16 apps like Uber Eats
14:17 or Rappi, which is very popular
14:19 in South America.
14:20 And so we started to compare ourselves to that
14:22 and we tried to be
14:23 sufficiently legitimate
14:25 on our UX
14:26 to be able to be compared
14:27 with this kind of app.
14:27 We place the welcome search bar,
14:29 a bit like Uber Eats.
14:30 We place the categories just below,
14:31 like Rappi.
14:32 And above all,
14:33 we reduce the height of restaurants
14:34 to be able to display more per page.
14:36 It's starting to get a little bit boring
14:37 and in parallel,
14:38 Chief continues to progress.
14:39 In June, we reach 50,000 users
14:41 and above all, we sign with one of the biggest
14:43 brands in Mexico, Sunborns.
14:45 Present in more than 60 cities in Mexico,
14:46 Sunborns brings together many restaurants,
14:48 high-tech stores,
14:49 bookstores, supermarkets,
14:50 perfume and makeup stores.
14:52 In short, it's huge
14:53 and it brings us incredible visibility.
14:55 Many new users discover Chief.
14:57 The app is starting to get popular.
14:58 Until June 11, 2021,
15:00 or overnight,
15:01 nothing works anymore.
15:02 Maybe 80% of users
15:07 no longer have access to the app.
15:09 Do you remember the date
15:09 when we bought the domain name
15:11 chief.com?
15:12 Yeah, it was also on June 11th.
15:13 We just forgot to renew it.
15:15 And from the moment
15:16 the domain name does not renew itself,
15:18 the website disappears,
15:21 the app disappears
15:23 and all the platforms
15:24 on which we have developed
15:25 our technologies disappear.
15:26 And so, obviously,
15:30 the app is no longer available to anyone.
15:31 We rush to buy a domain name
15:32 before a little smartass steals it from us.
15:34 We get there, except that...
15:35 The problem is that it's not like
15:36 you were renewing your domain name
15:38 and all of a sudden everything worked again.
15:40 It can take hours,
15:41 even days.
15:42 And in our case,
15:42 it took about a week.
15:44 So, when we have the best visibility,
15:46 we still find a way
15:47 to make our app look good.
15:48 The good morons.
15:49 It was frankly one of the worst weeks
15:51 I've spent, I think,
15:52 of Chief's existence.
15:53 After this fear,
15:54 we continue our expansion
15:55 because the integration of Sunborns
15:56 will also allow us
15:57 to arrive in a new city.
15:58 And I'll tell you with my worst accent,
16:00 Guadalajara.
16:01 And one of the big advantages we have,
16:02 I talked about it at the beginning of this video,
16:03 is that thanks to our communities
16:04 on Instagram and TikTok,
16:05 we already have users
16:06 who have been following us since the beginning
16:07 and who live in the city.
16:08 And so, for us, launching a city,
16:10 it is enough to announce it
16:11 on the networks
16:12 and we are a little bit sure
16:13 to have a little bit of success
16:14 at least in the first few days.
16:15 The arrival in a new city
16:16 also allows us to restart
16:17 communication around the app.
16:18 Kim and this time also Elena
16:20 are sharing the new TV reports.
16:21 How does this app work?
16:23 You download it
16:24 and what are you going to find there?
16:25 Kim even finds herself
16:26 in an article for Forbes Mexico.
16:27 And Chief reached late September,
16:29 the 75,000 users.
16:31 The figures are good,
16:32 the future rather reassuring.
16:33 So this is the right time
16:34 to make a new fundraising
16:35 and this time, Kim will go
16:36 to get several million.
16:37 And we were quite arrogant
16:38 at that time,
16:39 saying to ourselves,
16:39 "It's sure it's going to work,
16:40 it's not going to be complicated.
16:41 Come on, we're going to get 3 million dollars. "
16:43 Except this time,
16:43 we don't address friends and family,
16:45 but we are aiming for investment funds
16:46 who are used to investing several millions,
16:48 or even several billions
16:49 in start-ups.
16:50 So the negotiation,
16:50 it's going to be a lot more complicated.
16:52 I may have talked to,
16:53 let's say between 30 and 50
16:55 investment funds at this time.
16:57 And roughly speaking, all the funds
16:58 tell us, "No, thank you, it's okay."
17:00 There, with my non-experience
17:02 on fundraising,
17:03 I said to myself, "Shit,
17:04 I may have screwed up my strategy a little bit.
17:06 I thought it was going to work
17:07 super well,
17:07 but in fact, not at all. "
17:08 But you start to know Kim,
17:09 he never lets go of anything
17:11 and ends up meeting a fund
17:12 called Global Founders Capital.
17:14 And there, a bit like with Maison Kaiser,
17:16 I prepare my pitch like a madman.
17:18 I repeat it all night
17:20 and in the morning at 7 am,
17:21 I pitch to GFC
17:24 and in the process,
17:25 one to two hours later,
17:26 they call us saying,
17:27 "Not only do we want to lead this round,
17:30 but we want to fill the round.
17:31 That is to say, of the 3 million you are looking for,
17:33 we are ready to give you 3 million. "
17:34 He succeeded.
17:35 By giving 20% of Chiffre's shares,
17:37 the company makes a fundraising of 3 million,
17:38 which capitalizes on 15 million dollars.
17:41 Important clarification,
17:42 raising funds of several million
17:43 does not mean that we become
17:44 multi-millionaires ourselves.
17:45 The money goes to society,
17:46 not on our personal accounts.
17:47 The purpose of this video
17:48 is not to make fun of it
17:49 with astronomical sums,
17:50 but simply to show
17:51 how a company can be created today
17:52 without a word of mouth,
17:53 using the concrete case of Chiffre
17:54 with its successes
17:55 and obviously its failures.
17:56 And other important information,
17:58 to be able to raise this type of amount,
17:59 you must necessarily have a bank account
18:01 in the United States.
18:02 So we place 80% of the funds
18:03 in Silicon Valley Bank,
18:04 a bank renowned for startups.
18:05 This is what investors recommend,
18:07 this is what other startups recommend,
18:08 most of the funds go there.
18:10 And it will be one of our biggest mistakes
18:11 for the rest of this story.
18:13 You should never put all your eggs
18:14 in the same basket.
18:15 And speaking of that,
18:16 I take this opportunity to tell you about YouMoney,
18:17 the partner of this video.
18:19 Rather than having all his money
18:20 sleeping in the same place
18:21 on your current account,
18:21 you can put some of it
18:22 on different solutions
18:23 to make it work
18:24 and earn interest.
18:25 This is what traditional banks
18:27 generally offer,
18:27 but if you dig a little deeper,
18:29 there are many more solutions
18:30 to place your money.
18:31 And here, I feel like I'm losing you
18:32 with all these unlikely names,
18:33 but don't worry,
18:33 because this is where YouMoney
18:34 can help you.
18:35 Making money grow is a job,
18:37 and it's precisely YouMoney's.
18:38 I'm super happy to have them
18:39 as a partner
18:40 because it makes a lot of sense
18:41 with the subject of this video.
18:43 In addition, it is a French company
18:44 supervised by the Financial Markets Authority,
18:46 so we are on a quality partner,
18:47 not a dropshipping
18:48 from nowhere.
18:49 Basically, from 1000 euros,
18:50 YouMoney offers you to invest
18:51 in ecologically
18:53 and socially responsible projects
18:54 and make it super simple.
18:55 The app is free in French
18:57 and the customer service is ultra responsive.
18:59 So we don't have much to do,
19:01 YouMoney takes care of placing the money
19:02 and making it fruitful.
19:03 Be careful, however,
19:04 placing money
19:05 always involves a risk
19:06 of capital loss.
19:07 Past performance
19:08 is not necessarily guaranteed
19:09 since it depends on the evolution of the markets.
19:11 And of course, we say everything,
19:12 to get rich,
19:13 YouMoney takes what is called
19:14 management fees,
19:14 but it's still twice as cheap
19:16 as the average in the market.
19:16 So, if placing your money
19:18 interests you,
19:18 I put the link in the description.
19:20 Now, let's go back to Chiffre.
19:21 The following year
19:22 will be pretty crazy
19:23 and will go very quickly for Chiffre.
19:24 The team is growing again.
19:26 Kim is named
19:28 among the 50 personalities
19:29 who will transform Mexico.
19:30 In February, Chiffre is launched in Monterrey.
19:32 The number of users
19:33 then exposes
19:34 with more than 200,000 users
19:35 and more than 270 tons
19:36 of food recovered and closed,
19:38 which ranks the app
19:39 in the top 15
19:39 of the food apps on the App Store.
19:41 In July, El Globo,
19:42 the largest bakery in Mexico,
19:43 becomes a partner.
19:44 But to join us,
19:45 they have a rather special request.
19:47 They tell us,
19:47 "We're good to work with you,
19:49 but we really want to work with you
19:51 wherever we are."
19:52 El Globo is present in 24 cities
19:54 with more than 150 branches.
19:56 The whole Chiffre team heats up
19:57 and the app becomes available
19:58 in 21 new cities.
19:59 The number of users
20:00 continues to increase,
20:01 with more than 300,000 users
20:02 in October 2022.
20:04 And in March 2023,
20:05 we reached 400,000 users.
20:07 Nothing seems to stop us
20:08 until March 9, 2023,
20:10 a Thursday morning,
20:11 when Kim receives a phone call
20:12 from one of our investors.
20:14 He's in a panic
20:16 and announces directly,
20:17 "Kim, Silicon Valley Bank
20:19 is crashing.
20:20 You have to get your money out now."
20:22 Do you remember the bank
20:23 where we put 90% of our fund
20:24 raise of 3 million in October 2021?
20:26 "That's what investors recommend.
20:28 Most funds go there."
20:29 Well, it's just
20:30 crashing.
20:31 "A rough week for the banking industry."
20:33 "The collapse of Silicon Valley Bank.
20:35 The second biggest bank collapse
20:36 in US history."
20:37 When you deposit your money in a bank,
20:39 the bank doesn't keep the money,
20:40 it will rather invest it
20:41 or place it
20:42 to earn interest every year.
20:43 So far, everything is normal.
20:45 Except that with the health and economic crisis
20:46 between 2020 and 2022,
20:47 the virus could spread abroad.
20:50 Many deposits have lost their value.
20:52 It can happen on this type of market.
20:54 So again, so far,
20:55 everything is normal.
20:56 Silicon Valley Bank,
20:57 like other banks,
20:58 sees its returns as negative,
20:59 but no worries,
21:00 they know that in the long term,
21:01 it will eventually go up.
21:02 But that's when nothing will be normal anymore.
21:04 To get back on track after the crisis,
21:05 companies need cash,
21:06 so they want to withdraw their funds.
21:08 Except that these funds,
21:09 they are no longer in the bank
21:10 and their value has dropped a lot.
21:11 "When that word got out,
21:13 people got nervous."
21:14 And that's the domino effect.
21:15 Because of the massive withdrawal of its customers,
21:16 the SVB is forced to sell its deposits
21:18 and therefore loses money.
21:19 "And the wind says that the bank has no more money,
21:22 that all the funds have been withdrawn
21:23 and that this money will never arrive."
21:25 Everyone panics
21:26 and wants to withdraw their money
21:27 before the bank has nothing left
21:28 and goes bankrupt.
21:29 "Go into your account,
21:30 take your money out as soon as possible."
21:32 "And so I go to my account,
21:34 impossible to access."
21:35 In 24 hours,
21:36 there are more than 42 billion dollars
21:37 in withdrawal orders.
21:38 So inevitably,
21:39 the bank's website is overloaded
21:40 and nothing works anymore.
21:41 "And I connect, I connect, I connect,
21:43 it doesn't work until I get
21:44 to connect to the account."
21:45 After several attempts,
21:46 Kim manages to launch the transfer
21:48 and the transaction goes into waiting for the transfer.
21:50 We have nearly 3 million dollars in waiting,
21:52 we go to bed,
21:53 and the next morning...
21:54 "The money was never received
21:58 on my other account in the United States."
22:00 The bank is officially bankrupt.
22:02 "California banking regulators have moved
22:04 to now shut down Silicon Valley Bank."
22:07 The American government decides to close
22:09 Silicon Valley Bank.
22:10 "And then I say to myself,
22:11 wait, so I could potentially
22:13 have built for two and a half years
22:14 a company worth 15 million dollars,
22:16 not having slept for I don't know how many nights,
22:18 having a whole team
22:19 working on it like crazy,
22:20 really a mission that we try to do well,
22:23 to have an impact that we try to have,
22:25 and overnight,
22:26 we can lose all of that."
22:28 In the United States,
22:29 when a bank goes bankrupt,
22:30 there is still a $250,000 guarantee fund.
22:32 So out of the 3 million
22:33 that remained on our account,
22:34 we can only recover $250,000.
22:36 Which is clearly not enough
22:38 to make money run long-term.
22:40 "Potentially, we have no more company,
22:41 that's what's happening."
22:43 It's Friday,
22:43 Monday, we'll be able to recover the guarantee fund.
22:46 Kim will spend the weekend
22:47 looking for solutions
22:48 to keep the company going
22:48 as long as possible
22:49 with what's left.
22:50 "Because, me, alive,
22:51 the company won't crash."
22:53 So we have to reduce costs as much as possible,
22:54 so reduce advertising,
22:56 lawyer fees,
22:57 application fees,
22:58 and unfortunately,
22:59 reduce the team.
23:00 "So, on Monday,
23:01 we have to go to the office,
23:02 we have to meet in a meeting,
23:03 and I have to tell everyone,
23:04 'here's the situation,'
23:05 and then unfortunately,
23:06 most of you won't be able to stay."
23:08 It's humanly horrible to get there,
23:09 especially when no one is faulty on our side.
23:11 We feel completely powerless,
23:12 and we count the hours
23:13 when suddenly,
23:14 Sunday afternoon,
23:15 the American president
23:16 finally speaks.
23:18 "All customers who had deposits in these banks
23:21 can rest assured they'll be protected,
23:23 and they'll have access to their money
23:25 as of today."
23:26 To prevent too many firms
23:28 from losing their jobs
23:29 to thousands of Americans,
23:29 Joe Biden and the Federal Reserve
23:31 are committed to lending the funds necessary to the bank
23:33 so that its customers can recover their funds
23:34 and save their company.
23:36 Chiffre is saved,
23:36 and here's Kim's reaction
23:38 a few seconds after the announcement.
23:39 "Dude, what was that?
23:40 This pork weekend?
23:42 I'm going to tell that to my dogs,
23:44 my dogs' sons,
23:45 and my dogs' sons' sons."
23:46 There you go, that was Chiffre's story,
23:48 or at least its beginnings,
23:49 until this improbable weekend
23:50 where we almost lost everything.
23:51 In the next few months,
23:52 the country will change its design again,
23:53 open up in new cities in Mexico,
23:55 and a priori,
23:56 open up in new countries
23:57 in South America.
23:58 So if all goes well,
23:59 I'll definitely do an episode 2
24:00 to keep you up to date.
24:01 So don't forget to subscribe for the rest.
24:03 (upbeat music)
24:08 (upbeat music)
24:10 (upbeat music)