Techstars CEO Maëlle Gavet on Keeping Startup Spirit Alive While Scaling Globally

From building Russia's Amazon to running billion-dollar operations, discover the leadership principles that keep entrepreneurial culture alive at massive scale.

Key Takeaways

• Preserving entrepreneurial spirit requires deliberately tolerating inefficiency in the name of supporting founders and innovation
• Strong personal values, developed early through mentorship, serve as an unshakeable framework for business decision-making under pressure
• The best acquisition strategies balance "smart connections" over forced synergies, allowing acquired companies to maintain their founding DNA
• Supporting entrepreneurs globally means recognizing that talent is distributed evenly while opportunities remain concentrated in specific regions
• Successful scale requires reframing company identity from service provider to investment partner focused on measurable founder success
• Crisis leadership involves asking stakeholders directly what support they need rather than imposing predetermined solutions from above
• Building sustainable competitive advantages often comes from solving fundamental infrastructure problems that competitors overlook or underestimate

Building Russia's Amazon: From Consultant to CEO

Maëlle Gavet's journey to becoming CEO of Ozone, Russia's dominant e-commerce platform, began with a six-week consulting project that fundamentally shifted her career trajectory. While preparing for partnership at Boston Consulting Group, she discovered something profound about entrepreneurship: "I had this aha moment where I thought oh I can be an entrepreneur I can work in an entrepreneurial company without having to go through the zero to one because I had been an entrepreneur three times before and every time I was like oh my God the 021 is so excruciating."

• The transition from consultant to CEO happened within 18 months, starting as sales and marketing director before being promoted to lead the entire organization during Russia's most open period to Western investment
• Ozone grew from under $100 million to over $1 billion in revenue during her tenure, establishing the first nationwide private delivery infrastructure across Russia's vast geography
• Her decision-making framework relied heavily on the combination of fear and excitement: "If I feel that combination of like there is something big and maybe I'm not going to get it that I don't know maybe my inner competitive double is like yeah sure let's do it"
• The company pioneered pickup points across Russia to solve cash-on-delivery challenges, with over 2,000 locations that Amazon later adopted: "I sometime joked but I don't know if it was a joke like I do think that Amazon did copy some of the thing that we were doing"
• Success required explicit conversations about ethical boundaries with board members, including Western investors like Index Ventures and Intel Capital, establishing non-negotiable principles for clean business operations
• Her grandfather's influence proved crucial during this period, providing the moral compass needed to navigate complex business environments while maintaining personal integrity

The Pierre Principle: Values-Based Leadership in Complex Environments

Gavet's leadership philosophy stems directly from her grandfather Pierre, a French resistance fighter who worked multiple jobs despite losing part of his right hand in World War II. His teachings created an unshakeable framework for business decision-making that guides her approach to this day.

• Pierre's core principle that "nothing worth doing is ever easy" became her response to entrepreneurial challenges: "When I worked at ozone or when I worked at Compass or even when I work at BCG or when I work with Founders now teex Stars I'm like yeah I know it's painful you want to have an impact"
• Gratitude served as a fundamental rewiring mechanism, extending beyond simple courtesy to existential appreciation: "Thank you for the opportunity that I have to be alive thank you for the fact that I have amazing grandchildren thank you for the fact that there was fresh bread today"
• The "ask why five times" methodology, which she later discovered was a core BCG principle, originated from her grandfather's insistence on understanding deeper motivations behind decisions and requests
• Fighting for personal beliefs became non-negotiable, regardless of external pressure: "You got to fight for what you believe in which means that if the right decision is option A versus option b even if there's a cause for option A go with option A"
• This value system proved essential when navigating Russia's business environment, providing clear boundaries for what she would and wouldn't accept in terms of business practices
• The framework continues to inform her advice to portfolio companies at Techstars, starting with helping founders identify and write down their personal values before making difficult decisions

Speaking Truth to Power: When Leaders Should Take Public Stands

Drawing from both her grandfather's resistance background and modern business realities, Gavet has developed a nuanced approach to when business leaders should speak publicly on controversial issues. Her framework balances personal conviction with corporate responsibility.

• The conversation always begins with values clarification: "Most people actually have never done the exercise of actually writing what are the values that they follow in their life what are the lines that they are not ready to cross"
• Personal values must be distinguished from company values, even for founders where significant overlap exists, because public statements are assumed to represent the entire organization
• Leaders should only speak on issues directly impacting their business or where their personal values compel them to act, avoiding topics unrelated to their company's mission or expertise
• The decision requires consultation with trusted advisors to understand potential reactions and ensure the message achieves its intended impact rather than creating unintended consequences
• Strong leadership sometimes means knowing "when to shut up and not say anything because you're not supposed to have an opinion on everything and certainly you're not supposed to have an opinion on everything publicly"
• Her grandfather's resistance work provides context but doesn't create obligation: modern business leaders face different constraints and should make decisions based on their specific circumstances and capabilities

Scaling While Preserving Entrepreneurial DNA

At Priceline Group (now Booking Holdings), Gavet learned how massive organizations can maintain startup energy through deliberate structural choices. The company's approach offers a blueprint for preserving innovation at scale.

• The key insight was tolerating strategic inefficiency: "We are going to tolerate inefficiency in the name of supporting entrepreneurship" rather than forcing synergies that would damage entrepreneurial spirit
• "Smart connections" replaced traditional synergy discussions, focusing only on value-added integrations: "If this connection actually create something better let's do it otherwise let's not do it"
• Most acquired brands maintained their founding teams, including Steve Hafner at Kayak and original leadership at Agoda, allowing them to feel ownership over their continued operations
• The company operated multiple parallel systems (like five different translation centers) because consolidation would have harmed individual brand effectiveness and founder autonomy
• This approach required strong market performance to provide cover for inefficiencies: when companies consistently exceed expectations, markets tolerate less optimal margins in exchange for continued growth
• The framework worked because leadership explicitly chose entrepreneurship over optimization: "We will not sacrifice the entrepreneurial Spirit In The Name of synergy"

Transforming Techstars: From Accelerator to Investment Platform

Gavet's transformation of Techstars required a fundamental shift in organizational identity, moving from founder happiness metrics to success-based outcomes while maintaining the personal relationships that make the platform valuable.

• Her initial employee listening tour revealed identity confusion: 280 employees gave different answers about what business they were in, with none identifying Techstars as an investment company
• The strategic reframe focused on founder success rather than satisfaction: "What we're optimizing for is for you as a Founder to be the most successful that you can be and that was a big shift"
• This required maintaining intensive personal relationships while tracking hard metrics: "We need to be there for these Founders like we know the name of your dog and we know if you're getting through divorce"
• The company's global expansion strategy recognizes that "talent and ideas are distributed evenly but opportunities are not," focusing investment in overlooked markets with extraordinary potential
• Supporting entrepreneurs requires realistic timeline expectations, with successful companies typically taking 10-15 years rather than the 3-5 years most founders anticipate
• Crisis support, including during the October 2023 events in Tel Aviv, involves asking stakeholders what they need rather than imposing predetermined solutions: "What do you want like what is the best way for us to support you"

Global Leadership in Crisis: Supporting Entrepreneurs Under Extreme Pressure

Gavet's experience supporting entrepreneurs during wartime demonstrates how leadership principles adapt to extreme circumstances while maintaining core commitments to founder success.

• When conflict erupted in Tel Aviv just as a new Techstars cohort was beginning, leadership's first response was direct stakeholder consultation rather than unilateral decision-making
• The solution involved flexible program delivery: part in London, part remote, with additional mental health support, based entirely on founder feedback about their needs and priorities
• This approach reflects broader international experience, having lived and worked in Russia, India, South Africa, Ukraine, and China, witnessing "extraordinary Talent everywhere"
• Crisis leadership requires understanding that entrepreneurs face compounding pressures: normal business stress amplified by external circumstances beyond their control
• The key insight is that entrepreneurs in crisis situations often want to continue building despite extreme circumstances, viewing their businesses as stability anchors rather than additional burdens
• Supporting founders globally means recognizing that the best investment opportunities often exist in markets that others misunderstand or avoid due to perceived complexity or risk

The companies that successfully preserve startup spirit while scaling globally share a common thread: they deliberately choose inefficiency over optimization when that inefficiency protects the entrepreneurial DNA that created their success. Leaders who embrace this paradox, guided by clear personal values and genuine commitment to founder success, build organizations that thrive across decades rather than quarters.