Case studies

Specific proof behind the Europe GTM and revenue claims

This page groups the quantified stories that matter most for recruiters, founders, and investors: the scale-up from €1M to €12M ARR, the enterprise deal that mattered, the team that had to be built, the founder journey from zero, and the market-opening work in France and Spain. Each card below states the challenge, the action, the outcome, and what a founder should take from it.

Adrien de Malherbe

Adrien de Malherbe

VP Sales Europe · CRO · GM Europe · B2B SaaS

Barcelona-based · Open to relocate across Europe

€12M ARR

Scaled SaaS revenue across UK, DACH, Nordics & Southern Europe as VP International Sales

€1M ARR

Founded Allcolibri from zero, secured €1M financing (€500k equity, €500k debt)

25+

Built and led a team of 25+ across UK, DACH, Nordics and Southern Europe

€1M+

Personally drove strategic deals including a €1M+ contract with Schibsted

Kaisa: €1M to €12M ARR

Challenge: A B2B SaaS company stuck around €1M ARR with a founder-led motion that could not scale past its first markets.

Action: Rebuilt the commercial system: ICP focus, a repeatable sales motion, the first real sales hires, and forecasting discipline the board could trust.

Outcome: Scaled from roughly €1M to €12M ARR by turning founder-led selling into a repeatable, multi-market revenue engine.

What a founder should learn: The jump from €1M to €10M+ is a systems problem, not a hustle problem. The bottleneck is usually the absence of a repeatable motion, not a lack of effort.

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The €1M+ Schibsted enterprise deal

Challenge: Winning a strategic seven-figure enterprise account against incumbents, with a long buying committee and real switching cost.

Action: Ran a multi-threaded enterprise motion: mapped the committee, built internal champions, aligned to the business case, and managed procurement and legal to close.

Outcome: Closed a €1M+ enterprise agreement that became an anchor logo and reference for further expansion.

What a founder should learn: Enterprise deals are won on access and business-case alignment, not feature lists. One anchor logo changes how the next ten conversations start.

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Building a 15+ European sales team

Challenge: Build a commercial team across multiple European markets and languages without diluting quality or burning the first hires.

Action: Defined scorecards by role, sequenced hiring to demand, built onboarding and ramp standards, and put a forecasting and management cadence in place.

Outcome: Built and operated a 25+ person multi-market European sales team with a consistent motion across countries.

What a founder should learn: Hiring ahead of a repeatable motion creates expensive churn. Sequence the team to proven demand and standardise ramp before you scale headcount.

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Allcolibri from €0 to €1M ARR

Challenge: Take a company from zero revenue to a real commercial base, with founder-led GTM and the financing constraints of early stage.

Action: Owned founder-led selling, found the first repeatable use case and ICP, and built the earliest commercial and financing foundations.

Outcome: Grew from €0 to roughly €1M ARR and established the first repeatable commercial motion.

What a founder should learn: Zero-to-one is about finding the one use case that repeats. Everything before that signal is search, and it should be run as search, not as scaling.

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Opening France and Spain from zero

Challenge: Open two new European markets from a standing start, with no local brand, pipeline, or playbook.

Action: Built local pipeline from zero, adapted the motion to French and Spanish buying behaviour, and created the first references in each market.

Outcome: Established working pipeline and first customers in both France and Spain, creating the template for later market entries.

What a founder should learn: Market-opening is a different job from territory management. The first year is about creating pipeline and proof where none exists, which is exactly the experience to screen for when hiring.

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Recruiters

Use this site if you are hiring a VP Sales Europe, CRO, GM Europe or interim revenue operator for a B2B SaaS company.

Founders

Use this site if you are opening Europe, hiring your first senior sales leader, or need a sharper GTM motion by country.

Investors

Use this site if a portfolio company needs Europe market entry, sales leadership, or a faster path from €1M to €10M ARR.

Work with Adrien

Need proof that maps to your search?

Use the case studies to pressure-test fit for a role, an advisory mandate, or a Europe expansion plan.