What resilience looks like
Issue #11: ft. the founder who went from 4 months of runway to €1M ARR in a year
We talk a lot about resilience in startups, but most of the time, we oversimplify it.
It’s not about pushing through at all costs or working yourself into the ground. Resilience, at least the kind we’ve seen in the best founders, is much more thoughtful than that.
It looks like:
Staying connected to your long-term vision, even when the day-to-day gets rough
Knowing when to adjust course, and when to hold steady
Taking care of your energy, not just your output
Creating a culture where people feel safe to say “I’m not okay”
That’s what gives a company real staying power, and that’s what keeps founders grounded through the highs and lows.
One of the clearest examples we’ve seen of this is Alexandre Louisy, co-founder & CEO of Upflow (HX18).
We sat down with him to shed light on his journey, one underpinned by resilience. Watch our Q&A episode to hear the full story 👇
Files from Hexa
📊 Benchmarking early employee salaries
What should you earn as an early employee at a startup? What equity is fair? In partnership with Early Builders, we’ve published a detailed guide to business roles in early-stage startups, including compensation benchmarks (France), equity ranges, and negotiation tips. Whether you're in your first startup job or hiring for one, this is your go-to reference.
🧩 Is MCP the next big GTM play for AI startups?
Our Partner Florent Quinti explores a new go-to-market model emerging in the AI-native era: Model-Centric Products (MCPs). Think: apps built directly on top of LLMs like ChatGPT or Claude, distributed through their ecosystems. Still early, but with the potential to change how the next wave of startups gets to market.
Other files we recommend
🧠 Ivan Zhao on the untold story of Notion
Notion’s cofounder shares how the team rebuilt the product from scratch, nearly crashed during Covid, and why they’ve kept things small and intentional, even at scale. A masterclass in product, perseverance, and craft.
🎙️ Fred Montagnon on the real lessons of entrepreneurship
The cofounder of Overblog and Arianee looks back on two decades in startups, reflecting on value creation, ethics in tech, and what he tells his kids about success. A candid take on what really matters in entrepreneurship. In French.
News
🏥 Parallel (HX23) raises $3.5M to bring AI to hospitals
Born from a pivot inside the Hexa studio, Parallel (formerly Kiosk Medical) just closed a $3.5M seed round led by Frst. After an early project fizzled post-YC, the team regrouped, and came back with a mission that truly resonated: using AI to ease the admin burden in public hospitals. Their first agent tackles medical coding, with more to come. Meet Parallel.
🩺 Hexa is hiring a Health Partner
With three new healthtech companies already launched—Annette (HX24), DermaScan (HX24), and Orygin (HX25)—we’re now looking for a full-time Partner to help us build the next wave. If you’re a founder or product builder ready to reinvent healthcare with SaaS and AI, we want to hear from you. Apply here.
☎️ Tengo (HX23) wins Hexa Cold Call Battle
Last week, we hosted the second edition of Hexa’s Cold Call Battle, bringing together over 30 top salespeople from startups like Pigment, Catalog, Tengo, and Swan. With just 90 minutes on the clock, they booked nearly 60 demos live, powered by Enzo Colucci’s coaching. Congrats to Charlotte Géraud (Tengo) for taking the win. See the recap.
↕️ Hexa to welcome Vertical SaaS founders
On April 22, we’re bringing together three standout founders—Louiza Hacene (Malou), Antoine Puymirat (Planity), and Jean-Gabriel Niel (Graneet)—for a live, founder-to-founder discussion on building Vertical SaaS. From pricing and GTM strategy to product complexity, this candid exchange (moderated by Augustin Celier) is for anyone building niche-first software. Request your spot.
Jobs
Founding Engineer AI @ DetectX (HX25)
COO @ Veevart (HX25)
Thanks for reading! If you have any questions or suggestions for this newsletter, don’t hesitate to hit reply. In the meantime, you can follow us on LinkedIn.
Cheers,
The Hexa Team