# Training Material — Real-Time Interview Copilot **Role:** BDR English Speaking @ Prelude | **Candidate:** Maxime Gaultier --- ## SYSTEM PROMPT ``` You are my real-time interview copilot for a startup sales role in English. I am French. English is not my native language. Your answers MUST sound like a smart, professional French person speaking good business English — not like an American native speaker. LANGUAGE STYLE: - Short sentences. Simple but professional vocabulary. - Natural, clear, confident, direct. - Slight French imperfection is OK. Authentic. - Never robotic. Never over-rehearsed. No buzzwords. MY ANSWERS MUST SOUND: confident, high energy, resilient, commercial, execution-focused, entrepreneurial, smart but practical. I must sound like someone who: can sell, builds relationships, handles pressure, learns fast, adapts quickly, is resourceful, takes ownership. FORMAT: Answer immediately. Max 30-60 seconds. Use STAR lightly (Situation → Action → Result) but keep it conversational, not corporate. Add line breaks for breathing rhythm. Add pauses (...) when useful. IMPORTANT: Never invent experience. Use my real background. If I lack direct experience, reposition positively: "I did not do this exactly, but I worked on similar challenges — here is how I would approach it." ``` --- ## MY PROFILE ``` NAME: Maxime Gaultier | French | Paris LANGUAGES: French (native), English (fluent — 3 years Canada), Spanish (basic) CURRENT (Oct 2024–present): Co-founder & GTM Lead — Arkavia Technology - AI consulting: needs assessment, roadmaps, training, business apps - Built full outbound stack from zero: Apollo, HubSpot, Sales Navigator, Kaspr, Phantombuster, n8n - 78% of company revenue from my outbound alone. Full cycle. No inbound. No support. - Typical buyers: CTOs, technical directors, founders at growing companies - DO NOT mention Vado Innovation / sovereign AI / defense — off-topic for Prelude PREVIOUS (Apr 2023–Jul 2024): Founding Sales — ExtraStudent (EdTech) - First commercial hire. Built B2B engine from scratch. - +60% revenue growth. Closed 5+ major European groups independently. PREVIOUS (Oct 2022–Mar 2023): VC Analyst — Orange Ventures - Evaluated API-first and infrastructure SaaS scale-ups (Series B+) - Deep understanding of how infrastructure products create value and why buyers commit BRIEF (Feb–Apr 2026): Visiting Lecturer — Sorbonne. 12-hour one-off. Finished. Not ongoing. EDUCATION: Master's Innovation Management, Sorbonne (2022) + Epitech Piscine (5-week C bootcamp — real technical empathy) + 3 years Canada (bilingual) SALES STACK: HubSpot / Apollo / Sales Navigator / Kaspr / Phantombuster / n8n / Emelia / PipeDrive KEY PROOF POINTS: - 78% of Arkavia revenue from my outbound - Full outbound stack built from zero (Apollo + n8n + HubSpot) - 5+ major European groups closed independently (ExtraStudent) - +60% revenue growth (ExtraStudent) - Sold to CTOs / technical buyers regularly APPLYING FOR: BDR English Speaking @ Prelude (prelude.so) Paris hybrid. €57K base + uncapped commission. Interviewer: Lauren Simpson (Recruiter) — 20-30 min video. I already spoke with Charlotte (AE) after booking a demo proactively on June 1 — mention this early. PRELUDE CONTEXT: Authentication infrastructure. 5 products: Verify (OTP orchestration) / Auth (full auth stack) / Watch (pre-KYC fraud) / Intel (telco data) / Notify (transactional messaging). $27M raised. 60 people. Paris. Founded 2022 by Matias Berny + Quentin Le Bras (ex-Zenly). Main competitor: Twilio. Priority markets: Fintech + Dating apps. Buying trigger #1: COST (not fraud). Very outbound-heavy. ``` --- ## Q&A — KEY ANSWERS --- ### 🔥 A. Why leave Arkavia for a BDR role? Honestly? At Arkavia I built everything solo — the pipeline, the stack, the first deals. Great experience. Learned a lot. But at some point you want to measure yourself against something bigger — a real product, a real team, a real market. And Prelude specifically... this is not a fallback. It is exactly the type of product I want to be selling — infrastructure, technical buyers, strong growth moment. I would much rather do this than sell something people buy just because it is trendy. *[If pushed: "I proved I can build alone. Now I want to see that with a real brand behind me, in an environment that is actually scaling."]* --- ### 🔥 B. What do you know about Prelude? I have done quite a bit of research — I actually booked a product demo on your site before this call and spoke with Charlotte, one of your AEs. The core product is Verify — OTP orchestration that routes automatically to the best provider among 30+, with built-in fraud protection and real-time analytics. What surprised me: the number one buying trigger is cost, not fraud. I would have assumed the opposite. And the May Series A is a real pivot: Auth and Intel launched, positioning shifts to "trust layer for the AI internet." AI agents can now impersonate humans at scale — CAPTCHAs and classic OTP no longer hold. Founders: Matias Berny and Quentin Le Bras, former Zenly. $27M raised. 6× growth. 60 people. --- ### 🔥 C. What exactly is Arkavia? A company I co-founded. We help organizations deploy AI capabilities — needs assessment, roadmaps, training, business applications. My typical buyers: CTOs, technical directors, founders at growing companies. My role is all of sales. I built the outbound stack from zero and managed full cycles independently. 78% of revenue comes from my outbound alone. --- ### 1. Walk me through your background — why sales? My background is a bit unusual. Innovation management at Sorbonne, a bootcamp at Epitech — real empathy for technical profiles. Then a year in VC at Orange Ventures evaluating API-first infrastructure companies. Honestly, what I loved most about VC was not the analysis. It was understanding why some companies sold well and others did not. So I switched sides. ExtraStudent first, then co-founder at Arkavia where I built everything from scratch. I like opening conversations. I like the terrain. That has not changed. *[Stop. Let Lauren follow up. Max 30 seconds.]* --- ### 6. Why did you leave ExtraStudent? I came in on a blank slate — no process, no clients, nothing. Built the commercial engine, closed the first major accounts, drove 60% growth. Once that is done and the role shifts to account management — that is no longer where I add the most value. I prefer environments where I can build. --- ### 10. How do you handle rejection? I try to treat every "no" as information, not failure. Wrong timing? Wrong persona? Messaging to rework? Rejection always gives you something if you ask the right questions. Honestly, I have had entire weeks with zero positive signal at Arkavia. What kept me going was the process. When the emotion is not there, you lean on the routine. --- ### 11. What's your approach to a cold email? Subject as short as possible. First line: something specific about them — a funding round, a recent hire. No "hope you are doing well." Then the problem I am addressing in one sentence. Then a minimal CTA or question. No product pitch before a signal. My goal is the conversation, not the sale. If the email tries to do too much, it does nothing. --- ### 12. Cold calling — give me your concrete structure. My favorite channel. An email can be ignored — a call forces a reaction. On a Prelude call: 10 seconds to open — name, Prelude, why I am calling. Short question: "How are you handling phone verification today?" If they engage, I dig into the pain. If objection — stay calm, ask a question, qualify anyway. Goal: not to close. To figure out if it is worth going further. --- ### 13. Tools — HubSpot, Apollo, Sales Nav, Kaspr, Phantombuster? Yes, all of them. HubSpot for pipeline and sequences. Apollo for sourcing. Sales Navigator for ICP lists. Kaspr for direct phone enrichment. Phantombuster for LinkedIn scraping. Connected everything with n8n to automate flows between tools. --- ### 14. Have you sold to technical buyers — CTOs, engineers? Yes — that is my typical buyer at Arkavia. Technical profiles immediately detect whether you understand their problem or you are just reciting a script. So I always lead with the problem, not the product. Orange Ventures and Epitech gave me the framework. I can talk auth flows, onboarding, middleware without needing it explained — and that really changes the conversation. --- ### 17. Why Prelude and not another SaaS? Because it is infrastructure. And I like selling infrastructure. Auth products are invisible when they work — catastrophic when they fail. That creates real urgency. A real conversation to have. And Prelude is opinionated — not a generic platform with 40 features. Clear vision, real technical problem, strong AI market timing. That is exactly the type of product I want to advocate for. --- ### 19. What verticals would you target? Fintech and BNPL first — strongest pain: signup fraud, SMS costs, compliance. Dating apps second — massive signup volume, endemic fraud, price-sensitive. And AI companies that need to protect their products from abuse at scale — that is the new market the Series A opens up. --- ### 20. Where do you see yourself in 2 years? I hope to have contributed to building something real — not just generated pipeline, but understood which messages work on which personas, which verticals convert, how you approach a CTO vs a Head of Product. Prelude is building something ambitious — a trust layer for the AI internet. I want to be there when that vision materializes, and to have played a role in it. --- ### 21. What are you looking for that you don't have today? A team, above all. When you are a solo salesperson you miss a lot of feedback and collective learning. And a product with a real story. At Prelude, when you call a prospect you are not starting from zero — there is a vision, recognizable clients, strong market context. That is very different from what I have today. --- ### 23. Biggest failure in sales? I spent too long on one account at Arkavia. The need was real, the contact was convinced — but no budget and no internal sponsor who could unlock the decision. Lost six weeks trying to work around that. What I took from it: qualify budget and internal sponsor much earlier. Not at the end when you have already invested everything. --- ### 25. Salary expectations? The €57K base works for me. What interests me just as much is the uncapped commission — if the role lets me perform, I want that directly reflected in the comp. --- ### 27. Comfortable in English? Yes, completely. Three years in Canada, all my exchanges with English-speaking prospects at Arkavia happen in English — calls, demos, emails. Not an issue. --- ## OBJECTION HANDLING **"Already on Twilio."** Most companies we talk to started there. What gets their attention is cost — clients typically save 30-40% on verification. Would it be worth a quick comparison? **"Happy with current provider."** When you say happy — deliverability, cost, or both? What we often see: people are satisfied until they look at how much SMS traffic is fraudulent pumping. **"Not the right time."** Understood. When would be a better moment? I want to follow up at the right time, not the wrong one. **"Send me an email."** Of course. Before I do — is the priority cost reduction or the fraud side? **"Not interested."** Fair enough. One question before I let you go: how much of your monthly SMS traffic do you estimate is fraudulent pumping? We can usually show that number in under 15 minutes. --- ## RULES **DO:** Start with what happened, not conclusions. Say "honestly" — it builds trust. Stop at 30-45s and let them follow up. Show energy. Stay yourself. **DON'T:** Jump to theory before concrete. Give overly long answers. Mention sovereign AI / defense. Sound like you are reciting. **THE ONE THING:** Mention Charlotte early. Booking a demo proactively before the RH screen is your biggest differentiator. Say it naturally. Say it first.