Davy Tessier and Mickael Lellouche founded and managed the communication agency Disko for 10 years. They are now at the head of the start-up Furious Squad, which offers a complete solution for agency management.
Interview.
In a few words, what is Furious
Furious is an innovative tailor-made platform capable of managing all operations (CRM and commercial management, reporting, staffing, projects, fees, subcontracting, etc.) via artificial intelligence. Furious has already seduced many leading and growing agencies.
With AI, Furious allows us to anticipate and improve our customers’ operations (not just follow them). And it changes everything (conversational interface, predictive alert, HR management and prediction, etc).
With all their feeds in one place, Furious replaces on average 7 tools at our customers and saves 30% of back-office time and 20% of management time.
It’s the most comprehensive service management tool on the market. It’s the most important success factor for us. The higher the speed of adoption, the lower the risk of internal tool and method change. A tool change cannot be done without the support of the teams.
We invest a lot on this point with our customers to secure the change.
This interview was conducted by CB News on July 14, 2020.
Why created Furious
At the time of Disko and our strong growth, we challenged the best tools on the market but we came to a simple conclusion: the more tools, the less visibility.
So we thought of a method, then interfaces, then tools, then correlations and finally APIs to better manage the growth and profitability of the agency.
But in agencies, it is practically impossible to make publishing coexist with service. Whenever a talent was free, it quickly found taker on an urgent customer need.
So we had to wait to sell the company and a suggestion during a coffee with a former colleague: “And now that we are no longer competitors, you do not want to help me restructure my internal tools?”
Furious was born…
How did you experienced the lockdown period?
Very good! We have two locations, one in Paris and one in Montpellier.
We already have (thanks to Furious) a culture of dematerialization. For example, we apply telework days on a weekly basis for all. So we used to hear the children behind the videos! In short from the internal point of view not much change.
On the other hand, in terms of activity, we had a high workload (and it does not weaken!).
Indeed, many agencies were not prepared to manage operations remotely. Therefore, they found themselves for some blind during this period (planning, kpis, customer relationship monitoring, capitalization, HR etc).
So we’ve done a lot of work to help our new customers get the best out of this period.
What is your news?
We had the chance to convince many agencies with very different profiles: advertising agencies, digital, PR, development, media… And let’s continue to invest in the product so that each type of agency, ESN, start-up finds its mode of operation in Furious.
We released a variant of Furious that allows us to deploy within integrated agencies in large groups, for example at the advertiser.
Why do you think you are the best tool for agencies?
We already have the widest functional coverage on the market.
This allows us to take advantage of a lot of data and correlations.
Our goal is then clear: to save time for all the professions of the agency and especially to be predictive.
And this is clearly our great strength! Rather than just leaving the dashboards after the battle, Furious consistently provides projections that make decisions faster.
With Furious, it’s impossible to lose money without being warned before losing!
What is your goal for back to school?
Nous continuons d’investir « Furiousement » dans le produit.
We continue to invest “Furiousement” in the product.
Because we are investing heavily – and will continue to do so – on integration, our tool deployment time is already among the lowest in the market (about 3 weeks).
This is the most important key success factor for us. The higher the speed of adoption, the lower the risk of internal tool and method change. A tool change cannot be done without the support of the teams.
We invest a lot on this point with our customers to secure the change.
This interview was conducted by CB News on July 14, 2020.
