Fabien Pinckaers

Founder & CEO, Odoo · 1 appearance on the record.

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founderexecutiveengineer@fpodoo ↗LinkedIn ↗odoo.com ↗

Fabien Pinckaers is the founder and CEO of Odoo, an open-core business software suite originally launched as TinyERP. He bootstrapped and scaled the Belgian company into a profitable global tech enterprise.

87statements → 33claims → 13claims resolved → 69%fully supported → 4.15/5average certainty → 2.47/5average debate potential → 4.5/5argument clarity · the sources →

9 supported 3 partly supported 1 contradicted 6 not yet assessed 14 not checkable as stated how the 33 claims stand · each chip opens the sources

7 predictions · 26 assertions · 9 opinions · 22 insights · 21 disclosures · 2 what ifs · every statement was checked. The predictions and assertions are the 33 claims: statements the public record can support or contradict. 13 are resolved, 6 are not yet assessed, and 14 name no date, number or outcome precise enough to check. Everything else (opinions, insights, what ifs, disclosures) can never be settled by the record, so it carries no assessment.

The record, in short

What the tape says about how Fabien argues and how the claims held up. Everything they said, and everything said about them, is in the tabs below.

Their most notable supported claim

Assertion Supported
Odoo bans recurring meetings to avoid traditional managers
“I forbid the recurring meeting at the company. They can do meetings. But on the job, or for specific tasks, or trainings, but not recurring meeting. I mean, recurring meeting is a way to manage people, and we try to avoid managers. We want team leaders that wo…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 30:52 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Their most notable contradicted claim

Assertion Contradicted
Under 10% of SMBs use integrated management software
“The equipment rate on the market is still very low, less than 10%.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 19:30 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Expressed certainty vs assessment result

none yet certainty 1
none yet certainty 2
none yet certainty 3
63% certainty 4
91% certainty 5

weighted support: a fully supported claim counts one, a partly supported claim counts half. Each filled bar is clickable and opens exactly those claims; "none yet" means nothing said at that certainty level has resolved yet

Argument clarity: do they answer the question? how? →

4.5 / 5 directness 4.9 · coherence 5 · precision 4.3 · compression 3.9

answered every one of 14 assessed questions directly

This is a score against a rubric. It is not a rank. Every host question → answer exchange is scored with names hidden on directness, coherence, precision and compression, 1–5 each, on meaning alone: disfluencies are ignored, and only raw unedited episodes count. This is the score that measures thought. Every scored exchange, scores shown → · The rubric and its checks →

How they sound: speaking style how? →

268 words/min while actually speaking · 26.7 um and uh per 1k words · 15.6 false starts per 1k · 26.4% of pauses land inside a clause

English is their second language (first language: French). These numbers measure fluency in English. They do not measure thought; the argument clarity score above is read from substance alone.

Measured by listening to the audio itself: 10,780 words across 1 episode of raw-level tape, transcribed verbatim with every um and uh kept, each one attributed only where the alignment onto our timed stream is unambiguous. These are measurements of speaking style. We do not rank them: across this corpus, fluency and argument quality are nearly uncorrelated (ρ≈0.2), and smooth talking does not signal clear thinking. How it's measured →

Everything Fabien Pinckaers said on 20VC that made the record, most notable first. Filter by type, assessment or year in the ledger →

Insight
Rejecting the MVP model drove Odoo's ultimate success
“It was very risky, because it took time to monetize and get to something that I could sell and everything, but now that I am looking back, it's probably what Medo do today. It's because I thought about the big picture, everything's smooth together, and it's no…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 4:36 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Management software will commoditize into standardized horizontal tools across industries
“And I think as part of, for my vision is to commoditize the management software market. When you see that as a commoditization, I think everybody will use the same CRM, the same accounting, the same website builder. It doesn't have to be dedicated to one indus…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 18:24 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Odoo's product is years ahead of Microsoft and SAP
“I think our product is years ahead of the competition. There is no way they can do what we do.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 20:06 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Engineering managers must be the best developer on their team
“There is no way you can Make a team of developers become a better developer if you are not the best developer of the team yourself.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 21:44 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Giving budgets to employees encourages irresponsible spending
“If you give budget to people, they will just spend the budget. They won't have any responsibility or whatever. If you don't give them budget, they will have to spend responsibly.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 22:56 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
IQ tests are the second best predictor of job performance
“One thing I noticed is that we also do an IQ test, and it's the second best predictive KPI on the performance of the person.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 26:04 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Odoo bans recurring meetings to avoid traditional managers
“I forbid the recurring meeting at the company. They can do meetings. But on the job, or for specific tasks, or trainings, but not recurring meeting. I mean, recurring meeting is a way to manage people, and we try to avoid managers. We want team leaders that wo…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 30:52 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
SAP and Microsoft enterprise software is shitty, slow, and expensive
“On the market, you have two types of market. You have the large players, like SAP and Microsoft. They do several applications, but it's shitty, it's slow, it's expensive. And people are not happy using it.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 40:41 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Universal software adoption requires low pricing
“If you want to commoditize the market and have every company own your software, you have to have a very small price.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 41:48 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Feb 2045
Odoo will displace SAP within 10 to 20 years
“First, I think it's just a matter of time. I think I don't know how they can survive to what's coming in from them. We have so much advance, years in our head, we are stealing so much clients to them, that it's just a matter of time for me. But it's gonna take…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 46:25 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
SAP's S/4HANA ERP product is a disaster, says Odoo CEO
“Thanks for Sapphorana, which is a disaster. Nobody wants to go. So that opens the door to new entrants like us.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 1:00:07 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Feb 2030
Odoo will never go public via an IPO, says CEO
“No, there will never be an IPO.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 53:56 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
In slow markets like ERPs, superior product always beats marketing
“You can save time with marketing, you can save two or three years, you can grow the company, but at some point you cannot, the product matters. I am on a market that is very slow, you know, ERPs are very slow, LCPs is still shitty after two years, Microsoft Dy…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 11:52 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Scaling is easier by training young talent than hiring VPs
“I think it's easier to scale when you don't need to get the top people. I mean, you just recruit young people, a lot of them, and train them and make them evolve. It's easier than always looking at the best VP of X, the best managers of X.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 25:23 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Odoo ignores resumes and evaluates candidates strictly on practical tests
“So we don't look at resumes, we just make them do some practice and look at it.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 26:00 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Hiring well-rounded candidates yields average talent
“If you look for people that are perfect in everything, you will get people that are average in everything. I mean, if you want people who speak multiple languages, who is a good developer, who is a good communicator, Probably it's gonna be average. So if you d…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 34:57 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Assertion Supported
Odoo never hires managers or directors externally
“Yes, we never recruit managers and directors. Never ever, even when we reopen a subsidiary in a different country.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 38:22 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
What-if
Opening Odoo's San Francisco office was a mistake
“Retrospectively, if I would have opened it elsewhere, I would have preferred, yes.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 38:52 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Meeting VCs outside active deal cycles is a waste of time
“Waste of time. I meet them when we have an operation, so once every three years we get a transaction, then I'm happy to meet everybody, but .”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 52:18 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Feb 2030
Odoo will never sell to an industrial buyer
“We will never sell. At least industrial exit. So it's clear.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 53:38 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Insight
Good product UX is often more efficient than AI agents
“So in a lot of ways, UX having a very, very good product is more efficient than AI, but there are also a lot of use cases where AI is good.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 57:05 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Opinion
Traditional education destroys personal responsibility in young people
“And young people, they are not responsible by default. School, the education system killed that.”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 1:02:47 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Disclosure
Reinvesting personal funds in Odoo because it reliably returns 50% yearly
“I still if I have money, I don't have a lot of money in my bank account, but if I have money, I will buy or do shares. Even more. I mean, it's the best investment I can do, so. It's purely financial. I don't know another company that can give me 50% year after…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 1:12:02 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings
Prediction Open · timeframe Feb 2035
Management software market will consolidate to two or three players
“I do believe that management software will follow the same trends. Today, there are plenty of factors. But in the future, such technology will be so will be a commodity, like so much mature that there will be one, two, or three players that will have the world…”
Fabien Pinckaers Feb 12, 2025 ▶ 1:14:31 Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 · 20VC with Harry Stebbings

Show 24statements(63 left)

Appearances (1)

EpisodeDateSpeaking time
Fabien Pinckaers, CEO @Odoo: The Billionaire Founder Who Doesn’t Care About Money | E1259 Feb 12, 2025 47m
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