The CEO who turned down VCs, bought back his company, and built a $1.7B SaaS empire - Ross Andrew Paquette

Today on BILLIONS, I'm sitting down with Ross Andrew Paquette, the CEO who broke every Silicon Valley rule: he bought OUT his investors before buidling a 1.7 billion dollar empire. He founded Maropost in 2011, and by 2016, it ranked #7 on the PROFIT 500 as one of Canada's fastest-growing companies.Ross, thanks a lot for being here!TIMELINE : 00:00:00 - 00:01:12 : From lifestyle business to a $1.7 billion empire00:01:12 - 00:03:32 : The 75% ebitda secret and why growth at all costs is a trap00:03:32 - 00:05:37 : Founder mode and signing clients every single day00:05:37 - 00:08:18 : Why "experienced" executives fail and the return to young and hungry teams00:08:18 - 00:12:14 : The $37 million wire transfer to buy out investors00:12:14 - 00:16:18 : Why advisory boards beat professional investor boards every time00:16:18 - 00:26:48 : The contrarian ipo strategy for australia and canada00:26:48 - 00:33:08 : Why you should never take vc money if you want to keep your drive00:33:08 - 00:51:56 : The brutal reality of m&a and culture integration00:51:56 - 01:00:48 : Two metrics that actually matter: revenue and profitREFERENCES :- Adam Robinson - Larry Ellison - Patrick Campbell - Elephant & Highland Europe - Summit, Insight, TA - Shopify Plus- Atlassian - Oracle - Attentive & Klaviyo .- Groq - Neto & Retail Express - Australian companies acquired by Maropost - Findify - Swedish search/merchandising company acquired by Maropost- ProfitWell & Baremetrics- Stripe