Intro
BEN: We’re conducting our first community spotlight. The idea is to ask one of our members to share everything about their life, career, and relationship to events. We have someone very well-suited for this.
As usual, we’ve been welcoming some guests (non-members), contributors, and friends subscribed to SELECTED. I hope some of them will soon become members to enjoy these sessions in the future.
Our guest today is Vincent Touati-Tomas. He’s French and started his career in tech as early as 2011. He has a very international background, working his way up from being an independent marketing freelance consultant to head of marketing and communication at Northzone – a major VC firm. They’ve backed companies like Spotify, iZettle, Avito, Kahoot!, Klarna, as well as the big event platform unicorn Hopin.
[00:01:27] Meet Vincent Touati-Tomas
We first met when I was hosting small events at the Silencio club in Paris. I’m not sure if he even had the legal age to enter the club at that time.
VINCENT: No, I didn’t.
BEN: You see… After that, he joined France Digitale at 20 years old, then the Daphni VC fund, then Founders Factory before Northzone.
That’s it for the bio, Vincent. How are you feeling today? Tell us a bit more about your work and why you’re here today.
VINCENT: I’m feeling great, thanks for having me. What you’re missing in the bio and our relationship is the amazing radio show we did a couple of years ago. We did this entrepreneurial show, “Let’s Talk
About Web, Baby.”
BEN: Well, I didn’t forget it. I just kept it under my belt to make it a surprise point. So yes, we did a radio show a few years ago, and Max was with us as a producer. So, why did you mention the show? Do you want to launch a new radio show? Maybe you prefer to do a Clubhouse show?
VINCENT: You know what? I wish I could do another radio show. It might be an open question because I do miss this regular catch-up with you guys. But I’m glad that I’m here today and able to talk about my
passion, which is communications and events as well. I’ve always been passionate about bringing people together. I think the startup and tech communities are the best communities for this.
[00:03:56] Northzone
VINCENT: Maybe I should explain a bit about Northzone and what we do.
Northzone is a pretty old firm; I was one year old when the firm was created. We’ve been investing in category-defining businesses such as Spotify, Klarna, iZettle to name a few. When I joined the VC community a couple of years ago, my role was very much a junior position. I was doing everything, a sort of unicorn role, if you will. I was handling everything from content to PR. When I joined Northzone, it was a significant moment in my career where I realised that for maybe the first time I had a role that perfectly fit my expertise.
BEN: I guess your job and your work at Northzone is also why people are joining us today. They want to hear more about what you do at these VC firms, and also how it is to do this from, how should I say it properly? Like a younger perspective. You’re probably in the millennial category, but you’re borderline Gen Z.
VINCENT: I’m already out of the scope for TikTok.
[00:05:42] Vincent’s work @Northzone
VINCENT: If I go back to the basics of what I’m doing in terms of my
daily job, I’m basically in charge of everything related to the brand.
Every time someone wants to interact with Northzone, or every time we
want to communicate something to the markets, I need to shape this
into a format that will work for the audience. That’s my job in a
nutshell. Since I’m talking to marketing experts here today, most of
the time that often means doing PR.
I work a lot with journalists, making sure they know exactly what
we’re up to and the type of companies we back. More recently, I’ve
been creating original content and ensuring we have a process in place
internally so we can be editorial about it. Because creating content
is one thing, but you really need to have an editorial strategy when
it comes to extracting opinions on deals, which are often very
financial or industry-driven. You really need to shape the
storytelling.
BEN: Wait, what are you trying to say? Is it about how you make boring
financial information interesting and sexy?
[00:07:06] How to make boring financial information “interesting & sexy”
VINCENT: The way I do this is by running editorial sessions, which are
sometimes boring, but I really try to make them better and more
engaging over time. It’s very much a conversation with the people who
know better than me. I just try to grill them with a lot of questions.
Then I take notes, and with this information I work with copywriters
on various outputs – either articles, opinion pieces, or events.
[00:07:40] Becoming a Hopin manager or Zoom Coordinator
VINCENT: Another aspect of my job involves organising events. We have
someone on the team now who’s in charge of events, both within our
portfolio and externally. Right now, she’s focusing a lot on virtual
events. If we were pre-COVID, she would very much be in charge of
physical events.
BEN: Instead of being an event manager, you could call her a Hopin
manager, right?
VINCENT: Yes, and that would be on-brand because we’ve invested in
Hopin. Of course, to produce online events, you now have Zoom
coordinators. I think that’s amazing because it really means it’s not
just a quick fix for the pandemic anymore. It’s something that’s going
to last. We could dive into this right away, but I think what’s
happening with Hopin is really interesting. I’m not talking only about
Hopin, but I think what’s happening with virtual event platforms is
amazing.
[00:08:51] Events to big media?
VINCENT: Whether it’s Hopin or another platform, they are turning into
media. It’s something we’ve talked about a lot together. Most of the
good events or good content producers are now turning into big media.
I see Sebastian (Toupy, former The Next Web) here, and I’m pretty sure
he’ll have things to say about this because the relationship between
media and events is especially blurry nowadays.
BEN: Sebastian, if you want to jump in, you can share some quick
feedback from your experience working at The Next Web. Actually, TNW
started as an event and then they started to do media because it was
like, “Okay, no one is talking about our events, so let’s do media.”
In a nutshell, you can hear the interview with Boris that Dan (Taylor)
did recently, but yeah, it’s happening again – events are now
announcing their own media.
VINCENT: And the other way around. If you look at Sifted, for example,
they would at some point have to invest in events as well. Right now,
they’re doing white papers and doing an amazing job on the press side
of things, but at some point they really need to do more events.
[00:10:07] Will people still pay for events?
VINCENT: Even today, events are something that people are ready to pay
for. So there’s a big market for events to become media, and media to
become events.
BEN: You’re saying that people are willing to pay for events? They’re
willing to pay for a media experience?
VINCENT: Yes, and this is actually a discussion I’ve had with many
event organisers. At the very beginning of the pandemic, people were
afraid to pay for event experiences, but now we’ve experience life
without event, it’s clear people want to pay for events.
[00:10:55] What are event organizers selling now? Do people want to buy tickets?
VINCENT: I think in our community, we’re just very picky. VCs are the
worst type of customer you can ever have because they will always
negotiate a 5k partnership or a 500€ euro ticket. They would pay 20K€
to have access to a data room or things like that. Even Eventbrite –
we thought Eventbrite was going to die because of the pandemic, but
actually, Eventbrite as a public company is thriving because they’re
selling a lot of tickets right now.
BEN: I see some comments here from Ana and Amanda about the fact that
Sifted is mentioning events in their membership. We’ve also heard a
lot of those conversations on our side where event organisers are
moving around, sort of avoiding the word “events” and instead saying,
“Oh, we’re selling you a community, and that includes events.” Because
if they’re just selling events per se within the tech industry,
there’s a reluctance to pay. Basically, people are just expecting it
to be free.
People are willing to pay for events, but not for content (or
conferences or talks) from our point of view. But then you have a
different point of view, Vincent. I know you say no, good content has
to be paid for. It’s normal that it costs money.
[00:12:18] Normalize paying for good content & events
VINCENT: Yeah, so I think we really need to be almost political about
this. As a communication person, I could say that 10 times a week I
have people asking me, “Oh, can you download this PDF from Business
Insider because I want to read this article?” Well, okay, pay for it.
So I’ve been this bad guy always saying, “Well, can you afford it? Pay
for it.” But I think there’s not this culture to pay for content
behind paywalls. It’s also the chicken and the egg problem.
If we don’t produce content behind paywalls, articles, or events, we
will never attract people. This is what we’re doing with the Sesame
community. Sifted did it super well – and I think this is a use case
that we would have to ask them about members, but I know that at least
within the VC community, it’s working pretty well.
I remember when I was an organizer of the France Digitale day, we were
giving away tickets because we just assumed that people would be happy
about it, but actually, in the long term, you don’t really create
long-lasting relationships. Slush is market leader on that topic. They
just don’t give away free tickets. And I think it’s very healthy for
the ecosystem because there is a business, there is teamwork behind
the scenes.
[00:14:25] Creating a content paywall
BEN: Sebastian, I was mentioning you earlier. I’m going to bring you
in to take the mic. You said on Tuesday (during our Coffee with
Sesame) that Sifted was very clever with the paywall they were using.
From your perspective as a user, you were like, “Oh, the articles I
actually want to read are all the ones that are behind the paywall.”
So they are smart enough to put the paywalls exactly where it’s going
to hit, you know, where you’re going to be like, “That’s exactly the
piece of content I want to read.”
SEBASTIAN: Yeah, totally. I think it’s very true. I agree with Vincent
that it’s very smart how they did it. I’ve been reading their
newsletters almost daily or every couple of days for a little while
now, and I sort of realised that all of the articles I tend to be
drawn towards are the ones they would make paid.
Then it’s funny, Vincent was mentioning that within the VC community
it’s working. I was on the main site today, which I almost never visit
– I often read the stuff through the newsletter but don’t visit the
Sifted website. A lot of the VC-related articles, the ones that are
about valuation or about funding rounds – those are the ones they make
paid. Which is also fair because if you’re in the industry and you’re
a fund, you can definitely afford to pay for some of those
memberships.
If you’re someone who’s just looking for news or startup-related
articles, and not particularly so much about VC, then it’s different.
It’s also not a massive percentage of those articles that are paid
for. I think at the moment it’s probably like 20% or so, not even, but
those are the ones that are super interesting.
[00:16:12] Don’t underestimate FOMO
VINCENT: I think we shouldn’t underestimate FOMO (Fear of Missing
Out). FOMO is selling a lot of tickets and a lot of content. I can
actually talk from experience. So this is free, but maybe ultimately
we’ll be competing at some point. I’ve created a newsletter this year
with people that you might know in this room: Willy Braun, founder of
daphni and Nicolas Colin of The Family. We’re curating what VCs are
writing every week. You can’t even imagine the number of VCs that are
emailing us ahead of Thursday – when we publish it – to make sure they
are on the list. And honestly, we are not even a media. We have a
pretty small database, but still people care about it.
ANA: I do agree with you also on the fact that media are smart in the
way they’re presenting things. What I’ve noticed with Sifted content
is that this content is presented in the way that VCs are used to see.
So like reports and data intelligence. So basically Sifted is
**speaking the right language to VC therefore it’s easy to bring them
together.** And yes, I agree, the word event is basically sort of, you
know, in a body copy. So no one is actually stressed about it. It’s
presented more as an opportunity for VCs to discuss and build
relationships with media. And that’s another thing that we’re looking
for anyway, just to save on PR agents.
VINCENT: Yeah. And, and to your point, I think what Sifted is doing
super well is getting a European voice and a real editorial standpoint
on things. And I wish that they would do even more big pieces about
Europe versus China, Europe versus Africa, Europe versus the US
because we have very different ecosystems and really need to
understand how we build bridges.
ANA: Yeah. And Sifted has actually a very digestible way to produce
this content. Like if you look at a Pitchbook or Dealroom reports,
they’re dry, right. Because it still has this more **startup feel to
it and you’re actually enjoying it the way you read it.** However, one
thing that I was surprised about is, you know, when I think about it
is that Tech.eu produced those reports for a good few years now. And
somehow Sifted is doing it now. There is this FOMO to do it, but you
know, the value is involved.
[00:20:30] Creating a different angle
VINCENT: Something I would say is that what I find amazing in the
press is competition. I think you need to have a different angle,
different journalists, different point of view, and Tech.eu for
example, took a very clear angle. They do a lot of opinion pieces and
they really want to be very collaborative and they are clear about
this. I think Sifted has a more enhanced digital strategy when it
comes to what they really want to push and because of the format of
their newsletter and just what they stand for.
BEN: Can I ask you, and now that you started to say, you know, things
that you wouldn’t like to be recorded, what are the worst European
outlets?
VINCENT: I have names, but you know, these people are running
businesses and this is pretty hard. I wouldn’t be even capable of
doing a third of what they are doing. So I wouldn’t name and shame.
Honestly, it’s very hard to build a media and get an outlet.
BEN: Well done. Okay. You escape.
[00:22:10] The value of Selected by Sesamers
BEN: Let’s go and talk just shortly. Like I’m going to branch out,
Selected by Sesamers. We’re not really a media. I know. We try to
bundle everything that is out there. So we do content with the member
base, you know, paywalls, all that stuff. You’re among the first to
join, as as a member – actually as an annual member, I sold you into
like, it’s going to be easier for you to pay only once, you know, you
get one invoice, happy, everybody, you know, accounting is happy. Tell
us, I mean, okay, we’re friends. So maybe it’s also because of this.
Why are you a member (of Selected by Sesamers)? How do you use it?
What is interesting about having access to calendar of events in your
job? You know, I’m not just doing this for the sake of you. Like, you
know, tapping me like saying yeah, great job, Ben, but actually say
also what it’s missing and what’s, you know? Give us an opinion.
VINCENT: The reason why I paid for it is because I had a business
opportunity here for me. I spend a lot of time screening events and
it’s really hard. And one of the hardest part of my job is
prioritizing what I’m going to engage with or not. You guys are the
experts. The conversation that we have right now is super valuable
because we are a community and it’s not only you and I talking about
it. When we say something that is a bit off the road, we’re going to
have people on this grid saying, no I don’t agree. And this is going
to be interactive, so that’s why I’ve subscribed.
[00:24:50] How to use the Selected Calendars (or why you should start)
BEN: I’m using you as a customer case. Sorry for that. We’re going to
move to all the questions that I want to cover with you today, but you
actually using the (Selected) calendar. I’m saying these because we
know that among our paid members there are people didn’t get through
installing a calendar. You know, you actually use it and you kind of
review these with your team. Like you, you have the process around
like checking what events are coming up. And I’m also saying this
because here in the call, we have a couple of team members who spend,
you know, hours building those things. So it’s great to hear that it’s
actually valuable. Tell us about this. Like what do you, you know,
what, why is it useful and what do you need from a sort of evaluation
point of view? Like we said, you evaluate you then how do you decide
that in events is good?
VINCENT: So that’s two different questions. The reason why it’s super
useful is because I can plan in advance. I can’t miss the big ones,
but I just don’t know exactly when they’re going to happen. And if
they are in my calendar, I would see them and I would be like, “Oh, I
have to engage”. Or I have to reply to the event organizer and going
through my CRM and engage directly.
So that’s the calendar part. And then on the, how do I choose an
event? So when I don’t know the event, the [info on calendars and
Selected] was super insightful, I can get directly into the website
and actually find the description of the event before even asking
other people or going to the website, which is the hardest part of our
jobs, because cutting through the noise of all the events is really
hard.
VINCENT: And to be even honest and fair, you know this, because you
notice a bit about our strategy at Northzone, but I really don’t
engage with events at a senior level. I really try to make sure that
we at least are responding to the event organizers because there’s a
lot of inbounds. So we make sure that we have the top 20 events top of
mind and engage with them. And then for the others, I really try to
have an overview of what is good or not, because I won’t have the time
to do what you guys are doing in terms of research. So that’s what I’m
using the project for.
VINCENT: And we could talk about features that you have in the roadmap
that are super interesting as well. And I wish I could already use
them, but this is already solving a big part of my marketing problems.
BEN: Amazing. Thank you for this. And we’re going to, you know, quote
you and then use that, you know, billboards everywhere.
[00:28:11] Content works from vision
BEN: You think that good content and events being part of it is
actually something that takes time. That takes expertise. They expect,
you know, quite the opposite of serendipity, that curating stuff. And
I’m wondering, you know, like it would like to, to share a bit more,
what is your point of view around content, you know, like the bigger
picture, not just events related.
VINCENT: So my thinking content and I’m pretty sure a lot of people in
this room who have marketing roles will understand most of the time
when you’re into marketing function, people expect you to produce the
content and be like, “Oh, we have an amazing product. Can you please
market it and go to the markets and sell it and, and, you know, build
content out of this?” But it’s not how content works. Content works
from vision. And it’s very hard to find a founding team that has
vision around content. And this is, I think the hardest parts in a
marketer’s job is picking the right team that is going to provide you
with a lot of vision strategy and raw content.
VINCENT: And I think this is something that it’s very hard with VC.
Welcome to the community, Ana. And I really hope that you’re going to
have partners that are going to help you through this funnel of ideas,
but most of the time, VCs have a lot of ideas but they just never
conceptualize them. They would have gut feelings, they would have
amazing vision and would be innovative, but they wouldn’t know how to
editorialize these ideas.And this is the role of the marketer. Like
how do you make sure that, you know, out of everything that they say,
because they see a lot of things and have new ideas, you really spot
what makes them unique and what is going to drive the audience?
VINCENT: And this is what I’m doing with the partnership at Northzone.
I could spend hours every day on each partner to do some stuff for
them, but I can’t. I really need to spot what is unique. And
sometimes, you know, for one month, I’m going to spend a lot of time
with one of the partners because we have the serendipity, you know,
just makes us closer because we have something that we are talking
about. So now my job is to convert these discussions into concrete
opportunities because we basically went down the rabbit hole of
something.
[00:30:50] Putting a process in place
VINCENT: I would never enter my week and be like, Oh, what is
interesting this week? Let’s write about. And let’s do another article
about tips for founders. No, this is not how this works. And so this
is why, and I know we had thousands of discussions around this Ben, I
think it’s a very hard job in the long term because sometimes you’re
very creative and some other times you’re not.
VINCENT: Hence, you need to put in place processes to be sure that you
always produce content, stay top of mind. But my vision of content is
that it’s not a question of writing or processes which are tactics. So
most of the time people assume that talking about content or doing
great content is having an amazing person that is going to do
everything. No – it is a culture. You need to build this culture first
and you need to build this culture of creating content. I’m lucky with
Northzone because these people are producing a lot and I basically
just select what is going to be newsworthy or interesting for
entrepreneurs.
[00:32:03 ] Prioritizing content
BEN: So what you’re doing with the Northzone newsletter is the same as
with Capital Call? You basically have to curate what is worth going
in?
VINCENT: Yes. And it’s very hard because even though I have values
that are written in a Notion page, or, you know and a strategy, but
most of the time it’s going to be my gut feeling, my opinion on the
new cycles. This is really my role to make sure that on top of
curation, I prioritize well.
[00:33:00] Capital Call
BEN: Talking about Capital Call. I think there’s an interesting point
that we haven’t covered yet. So one of your objectives with these
newsletter is that you want to push VCs to write more, to share their
ideas more. And especially in Europe. And there’s a kind of a lobbying
element there that is maybe not really visible when people go and
subscribe, you know, I’m a subscriber. That’s great I can find some,
you know, maybe one or two articles that I can reuse for my own
reading list that I publish. So, you know, what is the behind the
door? Like? What is the bigger plan? Like do you expect to get VCs in
Europe to write more? Because there is an opportunity to lobby for
Europe as a place for entrepreneurship and so on. Can you explain
this?
VINCENT: You already said everything. A lot of VCs were pissed off.
This is unfortunate that it’s recorded. I think maybe – I’m not going
to name and shame – but a lot of VCs are pissed off because we don’t
feature them and they spend a lot of time writing articles, but with
the brand name. So you would have “X” ventures writing an amazing
piece, super well written, and then signed by “X” ventures. It’s
already half of the work. You need to embody your opinions.
VINCENT: It is too easy to publish content without a person or without
a team. If it’s your intern that is building this, do put a name on
it. They deserve the exposure.
[00:34:49] VC & Media, Vincent’s Take Away
VINCENT: So I think that this is the point that we are making with
Capital Call is that we always complained that we haven’t been vocal
about our ecosystem and we complain that when it’s (unnamed American
VCs) coming into town basically saying, “We’re going to conquer you.
We know better Europe. We hired amazing people in Europe and we now
are going to invest in Europe.” Well, they know how to shape a
narrative. It’s amazing. And we don’t, and this is what we’re trying
to do with Capital Call. We tried to say to VCs, if you don’t want
these VCs to overtake the media attention, write, do interviews, go to
the press.****
VINCENT: This is something I talk about with Sifted and Tech.eu, for
example, they don’t have a lot of interaction with VCs because when
VCs come to them, they come with news. They have something to announce
and, you need to publish it because it’s important for my business
that people notice… No, the way you create relationships (and this
is the point with Capital Call) is that you really need to shape an
opinion.
VINCENT: We have a have a lot of great VCs that we may know in our
circles, but we just don’t know what they stand for. And they have
been backing companies like Spotify, Kahoot!, Datadog, Deliveroo, but
they never wrote something. Or when they did it’s ghostwritten and
it’s obvious. I think they need to take up their pen and stand for
something. We come to the same conclusion that we needed to drive FOMO
around this.
VINCENT: One of the main firms we feature is is Point Nine Capital.
They are doing a lot for the entrepreneurial community and the big
names are not. And I think this is this important to highlight.