The Figures Playbook: Why This French Startup Lets US Competitors Educate Their Market

The Figures Playbook: Why This French Startup Lets US Competitors Educate Their Market

When US compensation tech company Pave raised $100 million to dominate the market, most European startups would have panicked. But in a recent Category Visionaries episode, Figures CEO Virgile Raingeard revealed why he celebrates every US competitor’s success.

Turning Market Education into Competitive Advantage “Competition is a great thing,” Virgile explains. “It’s impacting us greatly because it’s showing that the space is there to stay, right? And none of those are coming to Europe.” This isn’t just optimism – it’s a calculated strategy that leverages US competitors’ market education efforts while maintaining European market leadership.

The European Market Moat What keeps US competitors at bay? As Virgile notes, “Europe is like a very fragmented geographical area. Entering Spain is no different than selling into France, entering to Germany, especially when it comes to compensation, because there’s a lot of data privacy topics that comes into play.”

This fragmentation creates natural barriers that are particularly potent in the compensation space. “Privacy is a super sensitive concern, especially in Germany and France to an extent,” Virgile explains. “And so for a US player to come in and being like, ‘Hey, come on, get give us your compensation information,’ is very tough.”

Learning Without Competing Rather than trying to outspend or out-innovate US competitors, Figures takes a more strategic approach. “When we are building this module, in terms of salary bands, one thing that we are doing, and we are very upfront about it, is we are looking at some of the three or four or five competitors in the US,” Virgile shares.

This strategy reduces product development risk: “I feel a lot more reassured that we can just in a way, have a look at some competition, some benchmark to design some of our new features instead of starting from scratch entirely, which is very more risky.”

Building Local Trust While US companies struggle with European privacy concerns, Figures focuses on building local trust. Their approach includes unconventional elements like humor in marketing – they once added zodiac sign filtering to their product as an April Fool’s joke – while maintaining strict security standards.

Market Leadership Through Focus This strategy has paid off. “We are market leaders in that space,” Virgile notes. By focusing exclusively on European market needs while benefiting from US competitors’ category education efforts, Figures has created a unique position in the market.

The Blueprint for European Category Creation For B2B founders looking to build category-leading companies in Europe, Figures’ playbook offers several key insights:

• Let well-funded US competitors handle broad market education
• Focus on addressing Europe-specific challenges like privacy and regulatory compliance
• Learn from US product innovations while adapting them for European needs
• Build trust through local presence and cultural understanding
• Embrace market fragmentation as a competitive advantage

The key lesson? Sometimes the best strategy isn’t to compete head-on with better-funded competitors, but to let them educate the market while you focus on executing in your specific geography. By turning potential threats into assets, Figures has created a playbook for European category leadership that other founders can learn from.