Jérémy Grandillon

Summary:

Jérémy started his business in the most simple way possible – He had developed a set of skills working 9-5 (in sales) and he combined this with his interests (in technology) in order to start a company that he is (1) passionate about, but also (2) knew would bring him money. He started an AI based sales agency that generates him $360 000 / year. Oh and I almost forgot, he is a SOLOPRENEUR! That's $30K / month in his back pocket.

Keen to learn more? Let's dive in...

Tell us about yourself and what your business does?

Hey, my name is Jérémy Grandillon and I am the founder of TC9.ai, which is a sales agency that focuses on both outbound and inbound lead generation for my clients. I am busy trying to normalize the term “allbound” for the type of work that I do. 

Allbound = outbound + inbound. This essentially means that I implement and execute cold email strategies + LinkedIn content creation for my clients so that they can get leads.

What is the specific problem that your business solves?

The problem is that startups need good quality leads, but these are traditionally expensive to acquire. In the past, companies would have had to hire an entire outbound sales team in order to get the business they need to keep going. In addition to this, during my time as a sales rep and sales leader, I realized that we (in Europe) are late to the newest methodologies, approaches, tools etc. compared to the US. Thus, I realized that there was a gap that I could fill. I could position myself as a leader and at the forefront of the AI lead generation and GTM space for startups in order to help them remain lean, but get good quality leads through the door.  

Essentially, because so many people have been left behind due to these AI changes, I am in a position where I am able to help European companies get more leads and stay up to date, by implementing AI outbound processes and / or LinkedIn content creation systems into their GTM strategies.

How did you find your business idea?

I don't come from a very rich family. So early on in my life, I realized that I had to do the extra work and I had to put in the extra effort if I wanted to live a different life. No one else was going to do it for me.

At 15, I was a gamer and all my friends kept asking me if they could play on my server. So there was a point where I was like: “wait, there is an opportunity to make some money here”. So I created a pirate game server where people could pay me to play on my server. I didn’t really know this at the time, but I got shut down as it is not actually allowed. Nonetheless, this gave me good experience to know that, at the end of the day, even these huge gaming companies don’t really care. You can do what you want and no one really knows nor cares so why not just give it a go... This has stuck with me ever since and it’s why I haven’t been afraid to try anything. Because at the end of the day, less than 0.1% of the world will know if you failed.

So, how did I come up with this business idea specifically – During my 9-5 career, I always gravitated towards technology. For my first work experience I was a Project Director in digital events, then an IT consultant, then in 2019, I became a business developer for a French tech startup. This experience showed me that sales was the core to any business. I later realized that I didn’t need a revolutionary idea. I just needed to be super good at something and do it again and again. I was good at outbound sales and I loved technology, so naturally, this combination led me to TC9.ai.

How did you find your first customer?

At the beginning, I didn’t have time to work on my own outbound strategies, so the only channel that I used for acquisition was content creation and posting on LinkedIn. This wasn’t intentional, but in retrospect, this was actually the best way to go about it for 3 reasons:

• It helped me build up a loyal following (I’m currently sitting on around 40K followers on LinkedIn)
• It positioned myself as a thought leader and so people gravitated towards me
• It proved the power of content creation and how it can lead to business and revenue (it was basically an active case study of what I can do for my customers, but using myself as the case study subject)

 In the first four to five months of running the business I started conversations every day, naturally, and some of those conversations ended up in meetings, and some of those meetings ended up in deals.

How do you find customers on a regular basis nowadays?

Both inbound and outbound. The majority of my business comes from inbound—that's the benefit of having an audience of almost 40K on LinkedIn. But that’s not where it stops. Leads don’t just pour through the door. It's about being intentional. It’s nice to have likes, comments and profile views, but that means nothing. The next step is to analyze those guys that engage with my content and if they match my ICP, I reach out to them. I start 10-20 conversations every day. 

What are your current revenue streams and how much do you earn from each?

I have one revenue stream which is client work. I don’t do any sponsored posts as I feel this will do damage to my brand and reputation.

I have 3 packages:

• Inbound package = $3 000 / month
• Outbound package = $4 000 / month 
• Allbound package = $6 500 / month

I currently have 5 customers (I can’t really take on any more on my own, so I am looking to grow my team as we speak). 4 of these customers are on my Allbound package. The last one is just on the outbound package (i.e.: automated emails). Thus, in total, my revenue is $30 000 / month. My margins sit at around 90% as I am a solopreneur and so I have no other costs except for tech tools.

What are your future plans with the business?

To go international. I am going full steam ahead and putting all of my energy into the agency. I want to make sure our clients have the best experience possible, make sure we are always using the best tools, using the best methodologies and staying at the forefront of the AI outbound and content creation industry. My first step is to hire the best talent or partner with people who are in the early stages of doing something similar so that I can scale and bring on more clients.

What type of life has running your own business allowed you to live?

There are two things that spring to mind: (1) Being my own boss and earning a decent amount of money, I have financial freedom and I don’t worry as much as I used to (2) Running a fully remote business means that I have location freedom so that when the weather is shitty in Paris, I can very easily hop on a plane and go to Greece and the wheels in the business will keep turning.

What piece of advice would you give to someone wanting to start a business?

If you are thinking about starting a business, I’d challenge you to post every day for 90 days before you quit your 9-5. This will do several things:

• It will help you build a following and start to get the wheels turning before you make the scary jump full time
• It will build the “consistency” muscle in your brain to keep going, even when you don’t feel like it. Motivation will fade, but if you get up and do what you said you would do, you will become unstoppable 
• It will help generate interest in what you are doing and so leads will start to inbound at around the 4-5 month mark so you won’t be dead in the water and need thousands saved up to stay alive while you’re trying to find your first client 

Where can people find you & your company?

You can find me on LinkedIn HERE, or on my website TC9.ai. I am always open to chat and help people out so if you have any questions, feel free to connect with me.