SaaStock Paris - Customer Acquisition Challenges with Arthur Waller (Pennylane)

Inside Pennylane — How Arthur Waller Built a New Accounting Platform by Partnering with Accountants

Arthur Waller, cofounder and CEO of Pennylane, shared how the company grew from 3,000 to over 100,000 connected businesses in just four years.
His story captures how to win in the SMB space, master a replacement market, and build a product that unites — rather than replaces — accountants and entrepreneurs.

1. From First Exit to a Bigger Mission

Arthur and his cofounders had already sold their first startup, PriceMatch, to Booking.com.

“At Booking, we learned how to scale — data, product, and large teams.”

In 2019, they decided to start over, guided by three criteria:

1. A large market, to build something enduring,
2. A tech-driven advantage, leveraging their core expertise,
3. A replacement market, where customers already pay for software.

“In our first company, prospects kept saying: ‘Your tool is great, but I already use Excel for free.’ This time, we wanted to replace existing software, not invent a new habit.”

2. Finding the Real Problem

After interviewing more than 100 SMB owners, a clear pain emerged:

“Everyone loved their accountant — but hated working with them.”

SMBs used scattered tools (CRM, banks, Excel), while accountants worked on closed systems (Sage, Cegid).
Pennylane was born to bridge that gap: a single platform for financial collaboration between companies and their accountants.

“Big companies have ERPs. Small ones don’t. We’re democratizing the ERP for SMEs — one side for financial management, the other for accounting.”

3. Partnering with Accountants, Not Replacing Them

Arthur insists Pennylane never wanted to “disrupt” accountants.

“Clients told us: don’t replace my accountant, just make our collaboration smoother.”

From day one, the company chose to work with accounting firms — not against them.

“By equipping accountants, we reach their clients. 90% of our users come through their accounting firms.”

Pennylane became a technology partner, not a competitor.

4. An Indirect, Scalable Growth Model

Accounting firms became Pennylane’s primary distribution channel.

“When a firm migrates to Pennylane, they bring hundreds of clients at once.”

Some of these migrations now represent over €200K in annual revenue per firm.
The next challenge: turning partial adoption into full migration.

“We work with 2,000 firms — only 15% have migrated all their clients. That’s our growth engine for the coming years.”

5. Driving Productivity for Accountants

The value proposition is clear:

“Accounting firms become more profitable when each employee manages more clients. Pennylane boosts productivity by 20–30%.”

The product was built hand-in-hand with accountants:

• Keyboard shortcuts for daily workflows,
• Dense, efficient interfaces (not just pretty ones),
• Native automation for invoices, payments, and reconciliation.

“Adoption speed comes from usability, not aesthetics.”

6. Product Organization Focused on Use Cases

Today, Pennylane has 350 employees, including 190 in tech and product.

“Even with that scale, we’re still catching up feature-by-feature with legacy tools like Sage.”

The product team is structured into four “tracks”:

1. SMB – tools for company-side financial management,
2. Accountant – tools for accounting production,
3. Internal tooling – billing, revenue recognition, reporting,
4. Financial Services – bank accounts, cards, lending.

“Just like HubSpot became the OS for marketing, we want to become the Operating System for finance.”

7. Education as a Core Growth Lever

Pennylane’s success depends on training and support, not just software.

“No accounting firm adopts us without strong onboarding.”

The company built a certified online academy, a peer-to-peer forum where 60% of questions are answered by other accountants, and a dedicated support team made of former accounting professionals.

“Training 100,000 accountants on a new system is a national project.”

8. Inbound Growth by Proof, Not Promotion

Pennylane now runs almost entirely on inbound growth.

“90% of our leads come from accountants themselves.”

But early on, the company spent 18 months with no real users.
To test the product, the founders created their own accounting firm — their first lab.

“We ran our own accounting practice to get real feedback fast. It was the best product lab we could imagine.”

This unconventional approach shaped the product’s reliability and credibility.

9. Building on Strong Architecture

Arthur emphasizes how crucial the early technical choices were:

“The decisions you make in your first six months will define your next ten years.”

Unlike others who tried to automate all accounting processes, Pennylane chose flexibility:

“Total automation creates a black box — and accountants can’t work in a black box.”

Instead, they automated mechanical tasks and left the judgment calls to professionals.

10. Scaling the Organization

As the company grew from 50 to 350 people, leadership had to evolve.

“At 50, you know everyone. At 300, you have to structure, communicate, and connect silos.”

Arthur points to three pivotal moments:

1. Shifting from service to pure SaaS, sacrificing short-term revenue,
2. Scaling engineering across Europe, moving to English-first operations,
3. Aligning the company around multi-product growth (management, banking, finance).

“The CEO’s job is to bring everyone onboard for the next phase — even when the path isn’t fully clear yet.”

11. Long-Term Vision — The Financial App Store

“Our ambition is to become the platform where financial services plug in.”

Pennylane is partnering with traditional banks and fintechs to distribute products — credit, factoring, insurance — directly inside its platform.

“Tomorrow, we’ll tell a restaurant owner: you’re overpaying for coffee. Here’s a better supplier.”

With electronic invoicing arriving in France, this vision of a smart ERP for SMEs is quickly becoming real.

12. Key Takeaways

• Work with the system, not against it.
• Architecture choices define your destiny.
• Customer education is a growth lever, not a cost.
• Inbound comes from value, not ads.
• Automate without removing human control.

“Our job is to align the interests of the accountant and the entrepreneur. That’s how real collaboration scales.”