Why we invested in Hublead?

Our Investment in Hublead

At the end of 2024, we invested in Hublead, a B2B smart prospecting platform designed for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Switzerland.

What is Hublead?

Hublead is a prospecting platform that helps sales managers and their teams generate business opportunities by providing them with qualified leads, personalized outreach campaigns, and a prospecting relationship management tool.

Learn more on their website: https://www.hublead.ch/

The Problem

When we look at today's most common prospecting strategies used by SMEs in Switzerland, we find the following main solutions: database purchases + cold calling, trade fairs, leveraging the sales team network, externalizing outreach to agencies, sales tech tools such as Apollo, Lemlist, or Outreach.

Most solutions used by Swiss SMEs are still traditional solutions and yield little results. Those solutions are not scalable, often expensive, and lack personalized outreach. Who isn't tired of receiving dozens of cold outreach emails daily that all feel the same?

To gain further insights, we conducted approximately 20 in-depth interviews with Hublead’s clients and potential targets. Here are our key findings:

• 87,5% of Hublead’s clients have ambitious growth targets and seek solutions to help achieve them.
• Most of them recognize their prospecting strategies are not scalable.
• 75% of the salespeople interviewed said they have difficulty finding the right contact person at the right time.
• Over 50% complain about the time they spend prospecting.

“My main issue? The time my sales team spends finding the right contacts” said a sales director at a fast-growing tech company in Switzerland.

• 4 out of 6 companies that worked with an external partner for outreach (agencies, call centers, etc.) stopped due to low ROI and difficulty in finding a partner who understood their target and pitched their product/services with their culture & energy.
• Only 43% of companies interviewed have implemented a “sales tech” tool (other than LinkedIn Sales Navigator which is widely used) ⇒ There is a lack of awareness regarding digital sales SaaS and digital prospecting practices.
• Beyond the know-how required to use these sales tech tools, it seems that most of those are not yet suitable for prospecting in smaller markets like Switzerland.

“We had to scrap the data ourselves because solutions like Apollo and Lemlist did not have the data of restaurant owners in Switzerland” said a founder of a food startup.

The Solution

Hublead addresses these challenges by automating all stages of prospecting, including contact generation, message sequences, and follow-ups, with integrated human and AI-based coaching.

The “Job to be done” is to generate high-quality appointments while developing the skills of sales teams to maximize their performance and success.

Key Features:

1. Contact Search – A robust database combining multiple sources to help users find the right prospects.
2. Personalized Outreach Sequences – An omnichannel approach to maximize engagement across various channels.
3. Lead Management – Actionable insights powered by behavioral tracking to guide the next steps.

Each client benefits from dedicated support, ensuring a tailored approach to their prospecting needs.

Mission: Making high-quality prospecting accessible and efficient for SMEs.

According to Loris, co-founder of the project:

“Based on our data, we save sales teams 70% of their time and can reduce their customer acquisition cost by up to 3x.”

Market Opportunity

The market for B2B prospecting solutions in Switzerland presents significant potential with thousands of SMEs in the tertiary sector. There is a strong demand for scalable, cost-effective, and efficient prospecting solutions.

Here is an overview of the market size considering Swiss B2B companies in tertiary sectors:

To reach 1 million CHF gross profit within 3 years, Hublead should acquire 440 clients.

⇒ This corresponds to 1,16% of the SAM, which is very promising.

Traction & Unit Economics

Below are some of the key indicators of Hublead’s Business model:

• Hublead's Business model is subscription-based. Their average monthly subscription price is 620 CHF.
• Their actual LTV/CAC ratio at 18 months is around 3, which fits Apolo's investment criteria. They can use their platform to generate opportunities which helps to reduce their CAC (see next point “go-to-market).
• Since its launch, Hublead has demonstrated promising traction surpassing CHF 100’000 in ARR and serving over 50 clients in 2024.
• Since none of their clients had passed the 1-year milestone for renewal, we forecast an annual churn rate of about 20%. We considered factors such as platform usage, customers' ROI, industry benchmarks, and founders' gut feeling regarding renewal forecast.
• They grew 3.3x from 2023 to 2024.

Go-to-Market Strategy

Hublead leverages its prospecting capabilities to generate leads and drive adoption.

• over 60% of its clients are generated directly through the platform itself.
• 16% of customers come from referrals by active clients, which further signals problem/solution fit and customer satisfaction.

Competitive Advantage

Hublead differentiates itself on two main axes:

1 - A solution integrating the three main steps of prospection: identifying, contacting, and following up.

2 - Personalized support/coaching through human and technology-based support (notifications triggered by signals of interest, monthly Key Account manager recommendation), including augmented IA in the future.

⇒ Sparring partner Effect.

Team

Hublead was co-founded by Aymeric Buzuel and Loris Todaro.

What we liked about them:

• They’ve known each other for over 5 years from previous work experience.
• Aymeric has over 20 years of commercial experience selling to enterprises.
• While Loris has a product and marketing background, he has taught himself to code and automate different processes from a young age.
• They have complementary personalities.

Opportunities & Risks

Opportunities:

• Growing demand for efficient prospecting tools in SMEs.
• Strong early traction and validation from customers.
• Potential to expand beyond the Swiss market in the future.

Risks:

• Competitive landscape with established players.
• Ensuring long-term customer retention and renewals.
• Continuous evolution of the product to meet market needs.

In the coming weeks, we will work closely with Hublead’s founders to minimize these risks, look for repeatable tractions, and try hard to help their customers get closer to their job-to-done.

To be continued in the next episode. 😉