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Jan 4, 2021 · 17m · top-founders

Amilia Makes $8m/yr From Event Organizers on 3 Revenue Streams

Francois Galliette · 10m spoken Nathan Latka · 4m spoken
0:00 / 0:00

gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions

In this interview, Amilia founder and CEO Francois Galliette explains how his Montreal-based activity e-commerce platform generates $8 million in annual revenue across three distinct monetization streams while serving over 1,000 community and municipal recreation organizations.

How this conversation actually went

Every chapter scored 0–10 on four independent dynamics. Hover any point for the reasoning behind the score. Nathan holds 28.9% of the talking time here. How this is scored →

Nathan as informed peer 5.3 Guest teaching 2.8 Guest disagreement 1.0 Nathan pushing back 2.3
05100:0010:001:34–4:34 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Introducing Amilia: Activity-Based E-Commerce Platform Nathan introduces the company and explores Amilia's activity-based e-commerce model. Francois explains why activity booking is much more complex than traditional e-commerce like Shopify.4:34–7:10 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Transactional Pricing Structure and Gross Merchandise Volume Nathan drills into the GMV numbers, take rates, and top-line revenue growth across 2019 and 2020, actively calculating the revenue contribution of their 1% take rate on the fly.7:11–9:30 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 SmartRec for Municipalities and Payment Monetization When Nathan tries to attribute remaining revenue purely to SaaS subscriptions, Francois corrects him by introducing their payment processing stream (2.85% + 30c), which accounts for a third of total revenue.9:30–11:49 · Nathan as informed peer 4/10 Bootstrapping History and Market Opportunity Francois discusses bootstrapping $12M CAD with friends and family over a 10-year horizon to build a horizontal platform across overlooked municipal and recreational markets.11:49–14:45 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 Team Metrics, Unit Economics, and Upcoming Fundraise Nathan pushes on unit economics, CAC, and payback periods. Francois pushes back on Nathan's 6-month gross payback assumption, clarifying that payback must be calculated on gross profit after payment margins.14:47–16:49 · Nathan as informed peer 6/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Francois answers the rapid-fire questions and shares his transition from VC to founder. Nathan closes with a crisp, authoritative synthesis of Amilia's multi-stream 'SaaS plus' business model.1:34–4:34 · Guest teaching 3/10 Introducing Amilia: Activity-Based E-Commerce Platform Nathan introduces the company and explores Amilia's activity-based e-commerce model. Francois explains why activity booking is much more complex than traditional e-commerce like Shopify.4:34–7:10 · Guest teaching 2/10 Transactional Pricing Structure and Gross Merchandise Volume Nathan drills into the GMV numbers, take rates, and top-line revenue growth across 2019 and 2020, actively calculating the revenue contribution of their 1% take rate on the fly.7:11–9:30 · Guest teaching 5/10 SmartRec for Municipalities and Payment Monetization When Nathan tries to attribute remaining revenue purely to SaaS subscriptions, Francois corrects him by introducing their payment processing stream (2.85% + 30c), which accounts for a third of total revenue.9:30–11:49 · Guest teaching 2/10 Bootstrapping History and Market Opportunity Francois discusses bootstrapping $12M CAD with friends and family over a 10-year horizon to build a horizontal platform across overlooked municipal and recreational markets.11:49–14:45 · Guest teaching 4/10 Team Metrics, Unit Economics, and Upcoming Fundraise Nathan pushes on unit economics, CAC, and payback periods. Francois pushes back on Nathan's 6-month gross payback assumption, clarifying that payback must be calculated on gross profit after payment margins.14:47–16:49 · Guest teaching 1/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Francois answers the rapid-fire questions and shares his transition from VC to founder. Nathan closes with a crisp, authoritative synthesis of Amilia's multi-stream 'SaaS plus' business model.1:34–4:34 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Introducing Amilia: Activity-Based E-Commerce Platform Nathan introduces the company and explores Amilia's activity-based e-commerce model. Francois explains why activity booking is much more complex than traditional e-commerce like Shopify.4:34–7:10 · Guest disagreement 1/10 Transactional Pricing Structure and Gross Merchandise Volume Nathan drills into the GMV numbers, take rates, and top-line revenue growth across 2019 and 2020, actively calculating the revenue contribution of their 1% take rate on the fly.7:11–9:30 · Guest disagreement 2/10 SmartRec for Municipalities and Payment Monetization When Nathan tries to attribute remaining revenue purely to SaaS subscriptions, Francois corrects him by introducing their payment processing stream (2.85% + 30c), which accounts for a third of total revenue.9:30–11:49 · Guest disagreement 0/10 Bootstrapping History and Market Opportunity Francois discusses bootstrapping $12M CAD with friends and family over a 10-year horizon to build a horizontal platform across overlooked municipal and recreational markets.11:49–14:45 · Guest disagreement 2/10 Team Metrics, Unit Economics, and Upcoming Fundraise Nathan pushes on unit economics, CAC, and payback periods. Francois pushes back on Nathan's 6-month gross payback assumption, clarifying that payback must be calculated on gross profit after payment margins.14:47–16:49 · Guest disagreement 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Francois answers the rapid-fire questions and shares his transition from VC to founder. Nathan closes with a crisp, authoritative synthesis of Amilia's multi-stream 'SaaS plus' business model.1:34–4:34 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Introducing Amilia: Activity-Based E-Commerce Platform Nathan introduces the company and explores Amilia's activity-based e-commerce model. Francois explains why activity booking is much more complex than traditional e-commerce like Shopify.4:34–7:10 · Nathan pushing back 4/10 Transactional Pricing Structure and Gross Merchandise Volume Nathan drills into the GMV numbers, take rates, and top-line revenue growth across 2019 and 2020, actively calculating the revenue contribution of their 1% take rate on the fly.7:11–9:30 · Nathan pushing back 3/10 SmartRec for Municipalities and Payment Monetization When Nathan tries to attribute remaining revenue purely to SaaS subscriptions, Francois corrects him by introducing their payment processing stream (2.85% + 30c), which accounts for a third of total revenue.9:30–11:49 · Nathan pushing back 1/10 Bootstrapping History and Market Opportunity Francois discusses bootstrapping $12M CAD with friends and family over a 10-year horizon to build a horizontal platform across overlooked municipal and recreational markets.11:49–14:45 · Nathan pushing back 5/10 Team Metrics, Unit Economics, and Upcoming Fundraise Nathan pushes on unit economics, CAC, and payback periods. Francois pushes back on Nathan's 6-month gross payback assumption, clarifying that payback must be calculated on gross profit after payment margins.14:47–16:49 · Nathan pushing back 0/10 The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions Francois answers the rapid-fire questions and shares his transition from VC to founder. Nathan closes with a crisp, authoritative synthesis of Amilia's multi-stream 'SaaS plus' business model.

speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)

0:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%0:00 · Nathan 56.6% · guest 43.4%3:00 · Nathan 9.8% · guest 90.2%3:00 · Nathan 9.8% · guest 90.2%6:00 · Nathan 33.2% · guest 66.8%6:00 · Nathan 33.2% · guest 66.8%9:00 · Nathan 12.3% · guest 87.7%9:00 · Nathan 12.3% · guest 87.7%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%12:00 · Nathan 28.4% · guest 71.6%15:00 · Nathan 34.5% · guest 65.5%15:00 · Nathan 34.5% · guest 65.5%
Sharpest disagreement ▶ 14:06 Francois rejects Nathan's payback calculation

Francois directly refutes Nathan's simplified 6-month payback calculation, insisting that payback must account for blended gross margin on payments rather than gross ACV.

 Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 7:50 Nathan probes revenue breakdown reconciliation

Nathan refuses to accept generic figures and does live arithmetic to reconcile the $2.5M GMV take rate with the company's $7M total revenue.

 Biggest teaching moment ▶ 7:50 Missing the payment processing revenue stream

Francois informs Nathan that his assumption attributing all non-GMV revenue to software subscriptions overlooked the multi-million-dollar embedded payment processing business.

 Nathan holds their own ▶ 16:49 Nathan summarizes the 'SaaS plus' model

Nathan effortlessly synthesizes Amilia's three revenue streams—pure SaaS, payment processing, and GMV take rate—into a cohesive industry framework.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
ChapterTopicNathan as informed peerGuest teachingGuest disagreementNathan pushing backWhy
Introducing Amilia: Activity-Based E-Commerce Platform 4311 Nathan introduces the company and explores Amilia's activity-based e-commerce model. Francois explains why activity booking is much more complex than traditional e-commerce like Shopify.
Transactional Pricing Structure and Gross Merchandise Volume 6214 Nathan drills into the GMV numbers, take rates, and top-line revenue growth across 2019 and 2020, actively calculating the revenue contribution of their 1% take rate on the fly.
SmartRec for Municipalities and Payment Monetization 6523 When Nathan tries to attribute remaining revenue purely to SaaS subscriptions, Francois corrects him by introducing their payment processing stream (2.85% + 30c), which accounts for a third of total revenue.
Bootstrapping History and Market Opportunity 4201 Francois discusses bootstrapping $12M CAD with friends and family over a 10-year horizon to build a horizontal platform across overlooked municipal and recreational markets.
Team Metrics, Unit Economics, and Upcoming Fundraise 6425 Nathan pushes on unit economics, CAC, and payback periods. Francois pushes back on Nathan's 6-month gross payback assumption, clarifying that payback must be calculated on gross profit after payment margins.
The Famous Five Rapid-Fire Questions 6100 Francois answers the rapid-fire questions and shares his transition from VC to founder. Nathan closes with a crisp, authoritative synthesis of Amilia's multi-stream 'SaaS plus' business model.

Statements from this episode (14)

Opinion
Galliette: Activity-based e-commerce is harder to build than traditional e-commerce
“Probably that's much more difficult to build an e-commerce platform for those organizations that is to do it for traditional e-commerce.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 2:43
Disclosure
Amilia charges $99/month plus transaction fees to generate $10K per club
“Typically, they pay me nine, nine dollars per month. One percent of every transaction plus three percent of credit cards. So most of the money I made is transactional. Typically, I do about, I generate about 10,000 a year with a club, but it goes through fees.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 5:03
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Galliette: Amilia operates at a $350M GMV run rate across 1,000 organizations
“Well, unfortunately with the COVID it's probably around two hundred million, but on the run rate of three hundred and fifty million. So it adds very a lot. But we're at a run rate of three hundred and fifty million. Across a thousand organizations.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 5:41
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Galliette: US market comprises 500,000 potential community recreation organizations
“And just to give you the number of potential organizations in the US, it's half a million. There's a half a million of park and rec, GCC, YMC, community center, gymnastics, cheer, dance.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 6:00
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Galliette: Amilia generated $7M in 2019 and expects ~$8M in 2020 revenue
“So 2019, we did around seven million of revenue. This year we were on a run rate of 12, but because of COVID we'll be around eight.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 6:39
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia Generates One-Third of Its Revenue From Payment Processing
“One third of my revenue comes from payment.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 8:35
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia Charges 2.85% Plus 30 Cents on Card Payments
“So basically a typical customer comes to Emilia, they buy the platform and they, and then we tell them to do a credit card, it's 2.85 plus 30 cents. And we build them to, we front everything. We have a partner, a payment processor partner in the back where we …”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 8:55
Disclosure
Founder Francois Galliette burned $12M CAD from friends over ten years
“Well, it's bootstrapped from my money and my friends. So over 10 years, we've burned, there were twelve million Canadians over 10 years from me and my friends.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 9:34
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Galliette: US recreation market is a neglected $500B software opportunity
“There's probably half a trillion dollars spent in the US. But nobody is taking care of that market.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 11:43
Disclosure
Amilia targets a $20 million fundraise in 2021
“20, twenty million.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 12:47
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia achieves a 6x LTV:CAC ratio on core product
“On the Emilia product, lifetime value to CAC is around six times.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 12:57
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia reports annual customer churn under 8%
“On the Emilia churn is less than eight percent. Annually.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 13:09
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia boosts customer revenue by 20% on average
“Typically, an organization, when they put in Amelia, they increase their revenue by 20%.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 13:25
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Amilia reports 14-to-16-month customer payback periods across products
“On the EMEI side, 14. On the Smart Break side, 16.”
Francois Galliette Jan 4, 2021 ▶ 14:36
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