He Makes $50m/yr on Cookie Popups, Controls 2% of all Web Traffic

Speaker A: We're basically a uh, B2B software company and specialized in consent management. So what we do is that we help enterprise and middle market companies to comply with privacy laws. We raised the series B 34 million or $40 million and then we got Marlin, uh, as a majority stakeholder back in April 2025. And yes, they paid quite a strong multiple above Ah, 10x I can say.

Speaker B: Do you have any million dollar per year customers yet or you're still fighting for that contract?

Speaker A: I have some, um.

Speaker B: You do? Congratulations.

Speaker A: That's a surprise. I wouldn't have expected that.

Speaker B: Congratulations. Hey folks, my guest today is Raf Buchris. He's the co founder and chief revenue officer of dot com, responsible for scaling revenue across the us, Europe and Latin America. He's also an angel investor in over 30 startups and is based in France. Raf, you ready to take us to the top?

Speaker A: Hi Nathan, thanks for having me.

Speaker B: Okay, tell us what the company does and what you're selling.

Speaker A: We're basically a B2B software company and specialized in consent management. So what we do is that we help enterprise and middle market companies to comply with privacy laws like GDPR in Europe, uh, or CCPA in the US and lots of other laws everywhere in the world.

Speaker B: This is like when I visit a website and I'm in Europe and it says accept all cookies or opt in to consent. You're powering a lot of that.

Speaker A: 100%. We are one of the largest providers, uh, helping the largest publishers in the world, including Gutenberg, sky, uh, Lezeco, uh, Adevinta, uh, big marketplaces. I would say that basically we help them sleep properly, avoiding fines and making sure that they can monetize also their data in the legal way.

Speaker B: When you say you're the largest, what does that mean? Are you processing the most consents per day?

Speaker A: We are not the largest, but I would say one of the largest. We got an SDK that we display on the different websites on our customers websites. And just to give you one number, um, more or less 2% of the global web traffic is going through our SDK. 2%, which is a very large number.

Speaker B: How many consents are you approving on a daily or weekly or monthly basis right now? Are we talking tens of millions or billions?

Speaker A: Billions.

Speaker B: With a B.

Speaker A: With a B. With a large B. Why? Because our customers are mostly publishers, immersions, uh, very large traffic websites. If you're just an SMB with Google Analytics and hundreds of visitors, you don't go to Didomy. You're going to choose Something that is, I would say lighter when you don't need to customize a lot.

Speaker B: So just to be clear, you're processing billions of consents per month across your customer base.

Speaker A: Correct.

Speaker B: You know, everyone in the age of AI is trying to figure out how do you price per seat usage based something else. How are you pricing?

Speaker A: That's a great question, Nathan. Just before this interview, I was in a two hours workshop because we are revamping all the pricing. We basically price on the monthly unique visitors. Okay. So the more traffic you get on the different devices, the more you're going to be charged. And we are thinking of new ways you write with agents, AI boots on websites. There are lots of different challenges and we always want to bring more value to our customers through maturity models through the different platforms that we acquire. Uh, so very large topic, but long story short, so far the more visual you get, the more you're gonna pay.

Speaker B: Is most of your selling happening by automatic no touch upselling or do you have sales reps calling into your accounts with a quota target to drive upsell

Speaker A: and NDR at ddome you need to cut a sales. Okay, we have almost no reseller. Uh, so you go on our website, you ask for a demo, you're going to get a sales. I try to get the sales cycle shorter because I think that buyers don't want to be sold too much through first meeting, second meeting, first meeting. But anyway, if you are an enterprise with 20 stakeholders, you're going to go through this process. We are covering different segments of customers and Didomy is super focused on enterprise and mid market and I don't really believe that you can, you know, pay hundreds of uh, thousands of euros ARR. Without talking to a sales. Not yet or we haven't succeeded to do that so far.

Speaker B: AddingWell was PLG. You acquired them in April 2025. What was their average revenue per customer when you acquired them? Are we talking like 10 bucks a user or like a thousand a user?

Speaker A: No, more than that. I would say a few thousand euros ARR. Because that was a mix, you know, between plg that was very efficient. When I opened data room they wow, that's a fantastic model. And the sales that because they also get some mid markets and enterprise. Um, okay.

Speaker B: And what was that company doing total in ARR before you acquired them?

Speaker A: A few millions in ar. That's something that we can say.

Speaker B: Why acquire them? Were you acquiring the sales motion? Was it a product? Were you acquiring the team? What was the number one reason we

Speaker A: raised this R series B back in 2021, you know, that was uh, very intense year in terms of fundraising. There was lots of money, um, and then we had two great years. 2024, uh, 2023, 2024. But we were almost focused on one consent management platform product. So as a CRO, I needed to get some cross sell. And as it takes more time, you know, to develop new lines of products, we're really looking to do some M and A and look for cross sell products. So what you should do as a founders is you just need to ask your customers and your partners what are the best tools that you are using or that can make sense to complement our offer. And we bumped into Addingwell, um, and we say, oh, you get a great business, more or less the same icp, more martech than a privacy tech. But that can be a very good bender and we can do lots of cross sell. So then yeah, we designed it to make an offer and then to look for the money.

Speaker B: Are you comfortable sharing the multiple range you paid for Addingwell?

Speaker A: I cannot, but I can say it was uh, we paid kind of a premium when we approached them. They had less than three years and the growth was just insane. And EBITDA was so positive that second paid, you know, some dividends. So there is a big trade off between selling and keeping the company and milking the company. So we paid a good price. That also, that's also the reason why we did the roadshow and handed raising money from a PE firm. We did double track between VC and NP and PE was much more adapted for the next phase of the DOMI doing more and more M and A consolidation.

Speaker B: My research team only told me that in 2021 you raised a 40 million Series B. Did you raise money prior to that?

Speaker A: We raised three rounds. One very small round that you cannot find in the press. That's with Business Engine. But I would say that's 200 less than €300,000. Okay, so very small dilution then. We raised 5 million in 20 end of 2019 with a French DC that is called Brega, that is still there, uh, long term partner. Uh, and then we raised the series B34 million or $40 million back in summer 2021. And then we got Marlin, uh, as a majority stakeholder back in April 2025

Speaker B: going back to the 2021. I mean so many companies were trading for insane valuations back then. You three being smart founders said hey, we should take advantage of this. If you were a good negotiator, maybe you traded at 15, 2030 x forward looking ARR. Is that true?

Speaker A: We traded at the strong multiple. That's what I can say, more than what is trading now. Um, we knew for sure that uh, that was kind of a bet. So we had different offers. And also for the story we raised with elephants and approached us before Series B, they were kind of aggressive. They do outbound and they say, okay, we did big research on your company. This is why you're exceptional. This is why we want to invest. And then we say, okay, you get one offer, but you need to do a roadshow, you need to challenge to see what's your value on the market. And then at the end we say, hey guys, you're interested? We got different offers from CR A vc. Are you still interested? And they say yes and yes, they paid quite a strong multiple.

Speaker B: Did you trade for larger than a 20x multiple?

Speaker A: Cannot answer this question, but can you

Speaker B: give me a wide range? I'm trying to get a sense if it was like 5x or 50x. Can you just give me a really broad range?

Speaker A: It's not a 5 or 7x. So it's more than above that. Above 10x, I can say okay, above 10x.

Speaker B: Fair enough. Okay, so now the question to you is, you know, you're one of the founders. Obviously the team's excited in 2021 about their equity. Right? There's new investors coming in now. You know, everyone, not just you, everyone's trading at lower multiples. How do you manage the psychology of your team and their options potentially being underwater?

Speaker A: That's a great question. So I think we got long term employees, okay, that got uh, stocks at a very, very low strike price. Okay. So I would say that we get early employees that were very, very happy and we got employees that joined in 2021 that made less money.

Speaker B: You're 10 years into this since the launch in 2017. Really good founders will try and find a way to create liquidity, a little liquidity both for themselves and early employees. Was any part of that M40 million series be a secondary?

Speaker A: There was secondaries, uh, not as much as when the B came in, but yeah, there was liquidity. And especially for the business angels, I

Speaker B: want to understand how the company's growing as you're thinking about these funding rounds. What year did you pass a million of ARR. Do you remember?

Speaker A: I think it was more or less when we raised uh, the 5 million with uh, Briga company was launched in 2017. We started to sell early 2018, man. I think that in less than two years we did the first million of AR.

Speaker B: And when did you break 10 million?

Speaker A: Maybe 2020, maybe end of 2023, something like that.

Speaker B: And now that you've got private equity on, are they demanding at board meetings, Raf, you've got to be growing 200% year over year. Or what's, what's the goal for 2026 in terms of growth rate?

Speaker A: I think that they also, I would not say patient, but we made two acquisitions in a row, uh, which is a lot. So I think that the first priority is to make this two acquisitions quite successful because they injected money also for these acquisitions. Okay, so that was the first step, second step. They also want to make sure that you get the right people in your C suites, uh, to succeed in the five coming years. the end, they just want you to be efficient. So rule of 40, if you grew by 40%, you can be breakeven. You should grow by 20%. And now, you know, with AI, because you mentioned in Nathan, uh, more and more you get the rule of 60, which is challenging. But, uh, if you want to be a tier one company in 2026, you need to reach it. But we are not there.

Speaker B: Are you profitable today?

Speaker A: I think this question is quite complex because as we acquire, we acquired one profitable and one non profitable company and the M was more breakeven. So, no, I would say we more or less. I would say more or less depends the way you compute it. But the group is more or less fluctuating and depends on the investments.

Speaker B: But I'm trying to get a sense if you're a gambler or not, what your risk tolerance is. Was there any point of time before you raised from Marlin in April 2025, where you burned through the full 40 million Series B and your bank got so low you considered shutting the company down?

Speaker A: No, absolutely not. Uh, we had lots of cash. Uh, and no, uh, we are not gamblers, even if I've been a poker player for 20 years. But we are not gamblers with the company, with people's lives. So we didn't want to be in a situation when we had to raise. So, um, for instance, just after Series B, when we saw the collapse in the stock market in March 2022, we said, okay, the plan, that's a Series B plan. That's crazy. So we still have tons of money in the bank. Uh, we need to be capital efficient.

Speaker B: Were you growing like 100% year over year in 23, 24, 25 or more or less?

Speaker A: Less. Less, because no less. SS 2023, 2024, we were targeting inefficient growth. Okay. So.

Speaker B: Mhm.

Speaker A: I would give you the range 20 to 50%. Why? Not burning all. Not burning a lot.

Speaker B: If you negotiate with Marlin in 2025, there's a lot of my listeners wondering what do growth equity firms pay? What multiples are they paying today? Are you comfortable sharing what multiple you negotiated with Marlin and why they were the right partner?

Speaker A: I cannot, I cannot mention the multiple, of course. Uh, but I would say this is a great multiple. And you know, with P, what is great is that to get a buyer that is paying a fair price and is very different from the stock options, the liquid preferences. So that's what we like, you know, and we didn't try to over negotiate valuation because as founder you roll out tons of. You, you do a big rollover. Okay. Of your equity. So.

Speaker B: And you were, I mean you traded above 10x in 21, it's fair to say 2025 you were, you were maybe, you know, above 2x but below 10x. Right. Something in that wide range.

Speaker A: I can say this range 2 to 10 is the.

Speaker B: Yeah, it's a big range.

Speaker A: 2 is really low and 10 is quite high for PE. So that's a big uh.

Speaker B: And you were, and you were saying that time period you're growing 20 to 40% year over year. So on a 10 million base in 23, you were doing something like 15 to 18 million of revenue in 2025, something like that.

Speaker A: Not too far as you think about

Speaker B: moving into sort of 2026. You've obviously done some massive acquisitions. A lot of the press was reporting. I mean that Source Point acquisition, I mean you weren't materially bigger than them. Right. Would you agree that that was sort of a combination of equals in terms of revenue sizes?

Speaker A: We're bigger than them in terms of ARR.

Speaker B: Okay, but they'd raised 48 million bucks. Right.

Speaker A: They raised tons of money. Uh, and they launched earlier than us. Maybe that was the trap. Uh, but what was great is the quality of their customers. So the ICV was much higher than Didomy, Uh, the number, big multiple because you get lots of mid market at Didomy. So the quality of their customer portfolio and also the GEOs, you know, a company that has lots of enterprise customers in the US and in UK is worth more than in other GEOs. So that was the perfect acquisition for, for dummy. And now we are very happy. It's hard to know the story, uh, looking forward, but looking backward, we are more than happy.

Speaker B: How many customers are you Serving today,

Speaker A: now at the group level. Um, three, five K customers.

Speaker B: That's amazing. Okay. And I mean do you have any million dollar per year customers yet or are you still fighting for that contract?

Speaker A: I have some, um.

Speaker B: You do. Congratulations. That's a surprise. I wouldn't have expected that. Congratulations.

Speaker A: I cannot mention the name, but we get one multimillion dollar customer.

Speaker B: Tell me more about your team size today. How many full time, um, we are

Speaker A: a bit less than 200 full time employees.

Speaker B: How many are engineers versus like sales team?

Speaker A: Revenue team is half of the company and plus engineers, plus support team is the 40 to 50 presets.

Speaker B: Let's wrap up with AI. Where are you taking your product? Your customers are listening to this interview. What do you want them to know about your product roadmap?

Speaker A: AI? We have more and more. Uh, it's in the plan. But that's not in industry compliance where you are going to rush to put some agents because compliance is quite complex and you cannot take too much risk. It's not like in the voice industry or retail or other industry. But yes, it's coming. I would say that for the Didomy group, we have massively invested internally in our operations. So far, not a lot of AI that is in the product suite.

Speaker B: Okay, makes sense. And are uh, you comfortable sharing just overall combined company revenue range today in

Speaker A: dollars, 40 to 60 million dollars.

Speaker B: AR go back 10 years to when you launched this thing. Raf, did you ever imagine you'd be running and serving 3,500 customers with 40 to 60 million of ARR?

Speaker A: No, to be honest, we have always been very ambitious. But it has been a step by step game. Uh, and uh, no, that, that, that's fantastic. And I think that's every phase has been crazy. And that's also why I like to angel invest. I like to share all the learnings, the different phases. Uh, I, I, I love that.

Speaker B: And what's your situation today? Like how old are you today? You know, married, single. What is, what's your life look like?

Speaker A: I'm 35. I'm father of three young kids, 9, 7 and 2. I live in southern France now. I quit Paris last summer for Nice French Riveria. Uh, what can I share? Uh, also actively engine investing in more than 35 uh, companies. Also love to, to do sports, boxing and, and I play poker if you want to know everything about me.

Speaker B: Uh, but we're hosting a founder poker night in Paris. Get a sense. You're probably pretty good, so maybe, maybe I don't want you at the table. You'll take all my money.

Speaker A: That's always what people are telling me. I want to invite you. I want to be purchased and not invited. Guys.

Speaker B: Didomi IO launched in 2017 by three co founders with this team of 190 people, 80 on the revenue side and 80 on research, product engineering, product managers, et cetera, doing between 40 and 60 million of ARR today. Rob, thank you for taking us to the top.

Speaker A: Thank you, Natalie.