He co founded a Unicorn, left before the big payout, and started over — Jordane Giuly, Defacto

Jordane Giuly co-founded Spendesk — one of France's fintech unicorns — then walked away before the biggest payout. Now with a team of fewer than 30, he's built Defacto into a company that's lent over €1 billion to SMEs. And he says banks still can't figure out how to do it in seconds. Jordane is a Stanford-trained engineer, repeat founder, and the CEO of Defacto, the first pan-European credit infrastructure delivering instant working capital to SMEs through embedded finance. In this conversation, he breaks down the full journey: a failed first startup, the eFounders (now Hexa) playbook that shaped how he builds companies, scaling Spendesk from 3 to 250 people, knowing when to leave, and why he chose to start from scratch again in one of the most regulated industries in Europe. In this episode, you'll see : ⚡ Why Jordane's first startup failed — and the Paul Graham essay he read a year and a half too late ⚡ How eFounders (Exa) turns first-time founders into unicorn builders ⚡ The moment Spendesk's challenges shifted from product to org — and why Jordane left ⚡ How Defacto underwrites loans in seconds when banks take weeks ⚡ The open banking mistake that made them lend too much to the wrong company ⚡ Why Jordane refuses to scale by hiring — and plans to 2x revenue with under 40 people ⚡ The one quality he looks for in every product hire 👉 Subscribe for more real stories from the founders building France's most ambitious companies. 📌 Follow me:   / cedblanchard   📌 Follow Jordane:   / jordane-giuly   📌 Defacto: https://www.getdefacto.com/ Chapters: 00:00 – Intro 01:21 – Jordane's Silicon Valley origins • From Stanford ML classes with Andrew Ng to building in France 02:18 – Growing up in an entrepreneur family 04:45 – The first startup failure • Building a product nobody wanted for 18 months 07:17 – Discovering eFounders (Exaā) • The startup studio model and its hidden value 10:35 – Building Spendesk's MVP • How they validated the pain point with 50 beta customers 11:49 – Scaling from 3 to 250 people • Growing the product team from one squad to five 15:23 – What eFounders actually brings • Network, funding, and the accountability hack that works 19:05 – The forcing function of accountability • Why external pressure beats self-discipline 20:51 – Walking away from a unicorn • When the challenge shifts from product to organization 24:48 – Choosing to start over • Why he turned down senior PM roles at Stripe and Ramp 25:59 – Finding the next big problem • Why credit is the largest untapped fintech market 28:02 – What Defacto actually does • Rebuilding credit infrastructure from scratch 30:21 – The partnership model • Why they chose not to hire to scale 34:48 – The instant underwriting bet • How they answer in seconds when banks take weeks 37:05 – Open banking and AI advantages • The two tailwinds enabling automated underwriting 39:37 – The mistakes nobody talks about • Categorization errors and lending to the wrong companies 44:28 – Building trust both ways • Why even embedded products need brand visibility 46:31 – Keeping direct SME relationships • Why 30% direct business keeps them grounded 47:51 – What scaling looks like at 30 people • Growing 2x revenue without doubling headcount 50:07 – The pan-European expansion challenge • Why even Stripe struggles to replicate products across regions 52:32 – Advice for zero-to-one founders • The energy management secret nobody mentions 53:17 – The pricing book that changed everything • Why engineers need to think about monetization early 54:09 – The one quality in product hires • Do they test products randomly? 55:17 – Outro 📚 References mentioned in this episode: "Monetizing Innovation" (book) Paul Graham's essays on how to build startups Spotify squad/tribe organizational model #frenchtech #fintech #defacto #embeddedfinance #productmanagement Music by Tony Vodnik and Dmitry Taras from Pixabay