After PMF: People, Customers, Sales by Mathilde Collin

Mathilde Cullen co-founded Front with Laurent Dufaux in Y Combinator's Summer 2014 batch to build an email collaboration platform that achieved zero voluntary attrition through a culture of radical transparency and a rigorous "10x hire" recruitment strategy. The company secured early product-market fit by prioritizing direct customer feedback, which led to a strategic pivot adding SMS integration and a pricing evolution from a freemium model to higher-tier subscriptions. By adhering to disciplined weekly metrics, maintaining a bottom-up sales motion, and fostering deep co-founder alignment, Front successfully scaled while navigating leadership challenges including the CTO's cancer diagnosis.