Thibault's earn-out linked millions to hitting high revenue targets. This reversed the psychology of growth, making each milestone a potential loss rather than a win, creating an incredibly stressful 18-month period.
After his exit, Thibault felt paralyzed to ship new products. The fear of failure was amplified because he now had a public reputation as a "successful person" to protect, making it harder to take risks on new ventures.
Despite a multi-million dollar payout, Thibault regrets the sale. Hitting the earn-out targets meant they grew the business to $8M in annual revenue, only to receive a total of $8M for it, effectively a 1x multiple on their newly achieved ARR.
Instead of traditional fundraising, Thibault plans to give small profit shares to a group of influencers. This creates a highly incentivized "creative investor" group that acts as a powerful, built-in distribution channel for all his product launches, a strategy he tested with TweetHunter.
In his first success, Thibault was the developer who partnered with an influencer for distribution. After the exit, he leveraged his own audience to become the distributor, partnering with multiple developers to build a portfolio of products. This is a model for scaling personal brand equity.
Despite a personal take-home of over $100k per month, Thibault and his family's monthly spending is only around $8k. This extreme frugality stems from a culture of avoiding debt and a desire to maintain a simple life, even with immense wealth.
Even after a life-changing exit and with a portfolio generating $1M/month, Thibault keeps building because he doesn't know what else he would do. For him, entrepreneurship is a default activity for intellectual stimulation and networking, rather than a means to an end.
To secure a powerful launch, Thibault gave a key influencer a 25% profit and exit share. He considers this his best deal, as it directly led to explosive initial growth from $3k to $18k MRR in three weeks—something he couldn't have achieved alone.
Despite having a net worth between $5-10M, Thibault keeps half of it in low-yield cash accounts (2-4%). He prioritizes flexibility and minimizing the mental load of managing complex investments over maximizing returns, opting for a simple, safe financial state.