I recently went one on one with Antoine Argouges, founder and CEO of Tulipshare.

Adam: Thanks again for taking the time to share your advice. First things first, though, I am sure readers would love to learn more about you. How did you get here? What experiences, failures, setbacks or challenges have been most instrumental to your growth? 

Antoine: I spent the last seven years in the dating space - working for the largest dating apps: match.com, Badoo, and Bumble, before starting my own dating app called Lumen. What made me passionate about the Dating industry is the impact you have in people’s lives - we’re talking personal growth, marriage, children - really important milestones. 

Today, I run a startup called Tulipshare - an impact investment platform that enables individuals to leverage their shareholder rights to help companies get on a path to sustainability. My passion is impacting peoples lives for the better. 

When I’d see customer reports in the dating space that confirmed the product we developed  changed  their life for the better - it's the same feeling I get when, at Tulipshare, we run a campaign like the one we did at Johnson and Johnson, where we successfully helped their management team realise that talc-based baby powder was causing cancer and needed to be removed from shelves around the world. 

I made it my professional goal to use technology to create life-changing results and I’m pleased to say I’ve always held roles where I was able to achieve this sort of impact. 

In terms of failures and setbacks, well, with every setback - whether it's a company setback or something the consumer is experiencing in relation to your product - you have an opportunity to learn and grow. Without setbacks you’d just stay stagnant and you’d never evolve.

Setbacks create challenges and personally, I like the challenge of building something that millions of people want to use. I’m interested in understanding what their setbacks are, so that I can improve my product to help them overcome something. 

Adam: How did you come up with your business ideas? What advice do you have for others on how to come up with great ideas? 

Antoine: After the exit of my previous company, I looked into ethical investing for myself,  just because I wanted my money to do good for the planet. And I realized that the investing space was absolutely greenwashed, nothing felt good enough to invest in. 

My knowledge of corporate governance, from running previous companies, combined with the really bad ‘green investing’ market led me to think that there is a huge opportunity here to build something. I’d note that this was before Gamestop, before the meme stock revolution, before Joe Biden was elected to push the ESG agenda. So again, coming up with ideas, for me, has always been about solving problems.

In terms of what advice do I have for others on how to come up with an idea? Well I don’t listen too much to other people, not at the beginning of an idea at least. Follow your instinct. People who have great ideas never seem to know they have a great idea. It’s all about trying and learning, and if you’re stuck listening to everybody else all the time you might be too afraid to even try. So my advice is don’t take any advice, do what you feel needs to be done. When Google started they tried to sell their product after a couple of months to Yahoo for a million dollars. Did they know they had the largest search engine and probably one of the biggest advertising companies in their hands? No, no one knew that at the time. You only know when you look backwards.

But the difference comes down to  the execution - you have to actually implement the idea for it to be great.  What’s really important is defining the methodology of how you’re going to make your idea happen and put the plan in motion, create actual deliverables. You can have an idea that you want to buy a house, but how are you actually going to get the house? You have to figure out a plan on how you’re going to get the money. No one’s going to give it to you - unless you’re very lucky. 

Adam: How did you know your business ideas were worth pursuing? What advice do you have on how to best test a business idea? 

Antoine: Well, I think that first of all, you need to determine if you have product market fit. That is really the only validation that is needed to confirm if an idea is good. Are people willing to use or to pay for the thing you’re offering? For me, I knew Tulipshare was an idea worth pursuing after we started to onboard people onto the platform, and see how they stayed for a long time, how they were actually using the platform. 

So, as for testing a business idea, all I can say is: put it to the market. Put it in front of your customers because a good idea has to be put to the test. Focus on building the MVP version of the idea that you want to execute and deliver it. There will always be time to come back to it and improve it.

Adam: What are the key steps to growing and scaling your business? 

Antoine: Get your product out there and make sure it's you. Look at the first usage, look at the first purchase flows or experience and see how you can iterate on that. And constantly iterate, constantly be agile, and make sure that you are able to evolve, go faster, go better than anyone else. That’s the best way to scale. Oh and surround yourself with a good team.

Adam: What are your best sales and marketing tips?

Antoine: Get a good sales and marketing team. People who understand the product and love it. They’ll talk about it even when they’re not working, they’ll be thinking about it wherever they go. And your product will benefit from that enthusiasm.

Adam: In your experience, what are the defining qualities of an effective leader? How can leaders and aspiring leaders take their leadership skills to the next level? 

Antoine: First and foremost, you need to surround yourself with people who believe in your vision. No one is going to work effectively unless there is alignment around the vision of the company. Aim high, but lead by example. For example, if maximizing output is important, make sure that you’re leading by producing the most output as well. Finally, make sure your team is incentivized to keep reaching for success. 

Adam: What is your best advice on building, leading, and managing teams? 

Antoine: Stay true to the vision of your company, but be willing to pivot. Always question yourself and your team to expose the pros and the cons of your business as it evolves. As the business grows this becomes more and more important as you’ll come to crossroads where you need to make key decisions. Consistently as your team for advice - it will empower them.

At Tulipshare, we’re fully remote which comes with its own challenges and limitations.  Whilst there are tools (i.e. slack, google meet, etc.) they can’t replace face-to-face meetings.  This is where getting advice is important - reach out to other founders and see the problems they’re facing and ways they’ve addressed these issues. 

And lastly, I think it’s incredibly important to be transparent about the company's trajectory. Make sure everyone within the company is aware of your trajectory. There shouldn't be anyone wondering if the company is sinking or exploding, in terms of success. It should be crystal clear, how much cash have we got? Where are we going? What is the plan? And the financials should be super transparent. No one should ever learn at the last minute that something is going north or south. 

Adam: What are your three best tips applicable to entrepreneurs, executives and civic leaders? 

Antoine: Get shit done, do it fast, aim high.

Adam: What is the single best piece of advice you have ever received? 

Antoine: My single best piece of advice would be when things are going badly, it means it's part of the journey and you're not at the end yet. When you're down, it just means you're down, not done. You’re just absorbing that experience, and hopefully using it in the future to make yourself better.

Adam: Is there anything else you would like to share?

Antoine: Yeah - did you know that when you buy shares in a company, you can vote at their AGMs and possibly change the way that company impacts the world?


Adam Mendler is the CEO of The Veloz Group, where he co-founded and oversees ventures across a wide variety of industries. Adam is also the creator and host of the business and leadership podcast Thirty Minute Mentors, where he goes one on one with America's most successful people - Fortune 500 CEOs, founders of household name companies, Hall of Fame and Olympic gold medal winning athletes, political and military leaders - for intimate half-hour conversations each week. Adam has written extensively on leadership, management, entrepreneurship, marketing and sales, having authored over 70 articles published in major media outlets including Forbes, Inc. and HuffPost, and has conducted more than 500 one on one interviews with America’s top leaders through his collective media projects. A top leadership speaker, Adam draws upon his insights building and leading businesses and interviewing hundreds of America's top leaders as a top keynote speaker to businesses, universities and non-profit organizations.

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