May 16, 2019 · 16m · top-founders
1391 Can they Become B2B Version of LastPass?
gold bands on the timeline = statements, start to end. Hover to read, click to jump. CC turns on captions
In this interview, Ease Space founder Benjamin Prigent discusses how he bootstrapped and pivoted his cybersecurity startup into a B2B password management platform, detailing his pricing strategy, user onboarding, and operational growth.
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 35.3% of the talking time here. How this is scored →
speaking balance: gold is Nathan, purple is the guest (3 minute bins)
Benjamin rejects Nathan's critique that they are underpricing like a B2C product, asserting that their priority at this stage is user activation and retention over near-term revenue.
Hardest push from Nathan ▶ 9:44 Interrogating the 11-customer cohort sizeNathan interrupts Benjamin to point out that they have only signed 11 paying customers over six months, rejecting the premise that this is enough data to measure retention.
Biggest teaching moment ▶ 11:09 CTOs insecure password habitsBenjamin educates Nathan on the reality of early client security practices, revealing that even security-conscious CTOs frequently store credentials in unencrypted CSV and Word files.
Nathan holds their own ▶ 12:30 Nathan explains password manager UX realitiesNathan draws on his own workflow with password managers to explain why measuring dashboard logins misrepresents true retention, as users expect the tool to work transparently in the background.
the scores for every segment, with the reasoning behind each
| Chapter | Topic | Nathan as informed peer | Guest teaching | Guest disagreement | Nathan pushing back | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ease Space Value Proposition, Security, and Pricing | 5 | 2 | 2 | 4 | Nathan seeks a clean comparison by framing the business as LastPass for B2B, but Benjamin clarifies that their core differentiation lies in simplified UX and shared synchronization across team members rather than just additional security features. | |
| Transition from Smartphone Repair to Software Development | 5 | 1 | 1 | 3 | Nathan drills into the unit economics and exit mechanics of Benjamin's prior campus repair business, asking how the multiple and valuation were calculated when selling via French classifieds. | |
| Iterations, Market Pivots, and Early B2B Traction | 5 | 3 | 1 | 3 | Benjamin explains their early market pivots, noting French universities took 12 to 24 months to negotiate while they had 3 months of runway, forcing a pivot through consumer free tiers into B2B. | |
| Low Pricing Strategy and User Activation Dynamics | 7 | 2 | 2 | 7 | Nathan forcefully challenges the startup's low pricing structure and questions how meaningful retention metrics can be with only 11 paying customers, expressing disbelief at CTOs keeping passwords in CSV files. | |
| Defining Retention Metrics and Paid Feature Strategy | 7 | 4 | 2 | 6 | Nathan uses his own experience as a LastPass user to push back on Benjamin's definition of an active user, prompting Benjamin to clarify that activity means background password autofill usage rather than web dashboard logins. | |
| Bootstrapping Structure and Co-Living Company Setup | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | A brief operational recap confirming the 5-person bootstrapped team lives and works together in a shared apartment in France before transitioning into the closing questions. |