Interview with Pierre Leroux, solopreneur, and founder of EdTech Lemon Learning. Established in 2014, the company is currently experiencing exponential growth and has already achieved a turnover of €5 million.

When did the idea for your creation come to you?

The idea came to me in 2014. I was passionate about everything related to training and support. I discovered a real challenge in helping people effectively use their software, a challenge that remains relevant today. That’s how the idea for Lemon Learning was born. With Lemon Learning, we enable our clients to improve software support, training, and Short-Term Data by integrating directly into the software. We add an overlay that offers content: help bubbles, news bubbles, interactive guides, and more. Today, we’ve even added a feature that automates certain processes. We are here to support and ensure our clients make the most of their software.

Was it immediately easy to capture the attention of major corporations?

Yes, because we had this “wow” factor when they saw the demo. It was something they had never seen before, very innovative. Even today, when we present to potential clients, there’s still that “wow” effect that is pleasing because they immediately see the value and how useful it will be for them. If you stick to the somewhat traditional approach of implementing e-learning videos or operating procedures, no one will bother to consult them. On average, the consultation rate for such content is around 5%, whereas with our solution, interactive features result in an around 80% content consultation rate.

That’s a significant difference. What have been the major milestones since the beginning?

The first step was to create a prototype of the product and then meet the first clients. They recognized its value, but not all of them became clients immediately! We had to develop the solution. Another major step, once we had our first clients, was to structure the different teams. We had to create a sales team, a customer services team, and a structured development team.

Where are you today?

Today, we are in a development phase, not in France anymore because we are the market leader in France, but in the international market (especially in Germany and the United Kingdom). We are also in a product development phase. We have launched features that automate certain processes in software, as I mentioned earlier. Now, we want to add an AI layer to our solution to fully exploit its potential. We see a lot of use cases that could be very relevant for our clients.

Was there a significant development phase initially?

Yes, initially, we had a limited version of the product. We had only one functionality, the guides, and we almost created them manually. As we took on new projects, we added features. It was something that was built quite iteratively and is also related to the fact that we self-financed.

When did the new phase begin?

The international phase started two years ago, and the R&D phase on AI started this year in September. What will be the biggest challenges ahead? It may not be a challenge, but it is to accomplish the necessary work, especially in terms of AI. One must realize that there are many ongoing researches in this field. For me, the real revolution that AI has brought, especially ChatGPT, is a usage revolution more than a technological one. Many of these technologies already existed. It’s just that we didn’t understand their scope, didn’t apply them, or didn’t pay attention. However, it has shown its strong potential and given us confidence to invest in these technologies. Today, I am confident that we will succeed, and that’s why it’s not necessarily a real challenge.

“Many of these technologies already existed. It’s just that we didn’t understand their scope, didn’t apply them, or didn’t pay attention.”

So, what will be the biggest challenge?

 I think the biggest challenge will be to move very quickly on all international markets because we are dealing with different cultures. It is also about successfully recruiting and managing the right people. So, here we touch on the human aspect, and, for humans, we have not yet found the intelligence that will solve all the related issues.

What has been the biggest challenge since the beginning?

What has caused you the most difficulty? What comes to mind is that when you work in the software publishing industry, you really have to be an expert in many fields. You have to be an expert in the technical, commercial, customer, and financial aspects. Ultimately, being a software publisher is a rewarding but demanding job at all levels. SaaS is very satisfying because it allows for significant growth and clever economic models, but it is also a demanding job.

You have succeeded, which is quite rare today, in not raising funds, and you didn’t have that need or desire? Indeed, we did not. We had a somewhat different approach. If you have a trajectory that you want to self-finance or a trajectory that you want to finance externally, I think you have to approach things differently. However, if I had behaved like a company that had raised funds, I don’t think I would have lasted long. There is the iterative aspect that we mentioned, meaning we built progressively. We added a little more R&D to the solution each time and recruited at a continuous, sustained pace.

Many initial decisions affected our way of moving forward, such as meeting with major corporations or the fact that we focus on annual contracts. This allowed us to finance the activity according to its evolution, and we might not have acted the same way without this approach. Also, we were fortunate that banks trusted us, especially in the early stages of the venture, which helped finance part of the necessary investments. It seems that in your journey, you had already been an entrepreneur? I studied engineering and have a master’s in entrepreneurship from HEC. I started the company after my studies and during my studies.

However, I had indeed already created startups. I sold IT services and even created a startup in the pizza industry. It’s a field I particularly love—pizza, gastronomy. These were not resounding successes because starting a business alongside studies is not easy. But it gave me major lessons that allowed me to save time on my adventure. I’m not sure I would have succeeded in creating this company if I hadn’t had those first entrepreneurial experiences, if I hadn’t learned the basics of IT development or marketing before diving in.

In how many countries are you present today? Today, Lemon Learning is present in 35 countries with its clients. We are present in all countries where our clients are located. We have projects, for example, in 25 languages. We are active in many countries, especially through our international clients. Since many companies, large corporations, are international, we are consequently well established in various European countries.

There was an acceleration between 2018 and today, as you went from 10 clients to 120, what explains that? For me, a company is an exponential curve. If we grow by 20% when we are 10, we are twice as much at the end of the year. If we grow by 10% when we are 100, that’s 10 more people. That’s an example. When you reach a certain size as a company, everything moves much faster, and you also benefit from what you built in the past. Initially, I think the company searches a lot, but once there is a model, that model only improves, and the company gains more value. Are your employees present internationally.