Adrien Barthel is the co-founder of Sleek, a platform that frees up entrepreneurs' time by removing the pain of admin and accounting tasks, allowing them to focus on building and growing their businesses.

Before Sleek, he spent six years structuring management roles focused on marketing and growth for eCommerce ventures.

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👋🏼  How would you explain your job to someone outside tech?

I give back time to Entrepreneurs by taking the admin hassle off their plates.

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🧐  What's something about you or your job that would surprise us?

I am not an accountant, and I repeated almost all of the accounting-related exams I had at business school. I was just a frustrated client of accountants for some time, and instead of being the French national that I am and solely complaining, I decided to build a solution.

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🏆  What has been the biggest highlight of your career so far?

People that decided to join us on this journey to make the lives of entrepreneurs easier. It's really great to see that we've come over seven years of growth, across multiple countries.

Yet, we were able to build a strong culture around the core Sleek values of Simplicity, Loyalty, Excellence, Entrepreneurship and Kindness. Even at the peak of covid, when we had to hire, onboard, train, grow remotely, sometimes in new countries, we always managed to have our core values thrive.

To the people that have decided to trust our services as clients, we currently manage the back office of over fifteen thousand companies. I am always thrilled to meet leads or clients to hear their stories, understand their business, and what their goal is.

From solopreneur to startup founder or traditional SME owner, it's always a pleasure to have a chat, although with the years, I'm not as much on the frontline as I used to.

But from time to time I'm still taking calls or doing tickets to support clients, it's a great way to get quick learnings and stay connected with our audience.

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🔍  What's a startup trend or space you're watching this year?

Obviously anything AI based is the logical answer to this question as it's clearly an industrial revolution happening.

It's important to stay connected to the latest innovations and see how we can leverage them.

No one wants to miss the train, but at the same time, you want to choose carefully which wagon of the train you enter and at what price. It can be a major distraction and drainage of resources if not done pragmatically.

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💼  What advice would you give someone starting out in your industry?

Be obsessed with client satisfaction and engage with us regularly. We are at seventy NPS in an industry where being close to zero or negative is the norm.

Listening carefully to your clients is a great way to learn about new trends and adjust your trajectory. Obviously, they will help you spot inefficiencies and opportunities quickly. Being fast to execute would come second.

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🗣  What's one thing you can keep talking about for hours?

Anything food or skiing related. Southeast Asia was a great playground to discover new cuisines. For skiing it's a different story!

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🎥  What's your favorite movie/TV show?

As a startup nerd, it would be Silicon Valley. But recently, I was hooked on Shōgun.

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🍨  What's your go-to ice cream flavor?

Salted caramel, coffee and whipped cream. The Nickie Glass ice cream from Messina in Sydney where I am based at the moment