Lille · Pre-seed · Demanding B2B software
We knowwhich problemsarereal.
Eleven years spent facing the executives who sign. Menlo Capital invests at pre-seed in software that has to convince an organisation, not a user. Cybersecurity is where we come from, not where we stop.
Julien Beuvelet
Founder and president
17 years in IT and cybersecurity, 11 of them at Accenture Security
LinkedIn ↗Three questions. They rule out half the deals.
We do not invest in sectors. We invest where we can tell a real problem from a good idea.
Does the problem exist?
Plenty of products solve an annoyance, not a problem. The difference shows up in the budget: an annoyance gets worked around, a problem already has a line in the accounts, however badly spent.
Who pays for it?
A user who loves it and a buyer who does not exist means a product without a market. We ask for the name of the function that signs, and what it has to justify in order to do so.
What has already failed?
Almost every business problem has been attacked before, often three times. Knowing exactly how it failed is worth more than any market study.
Eleven years facing the executive committees and CISOs of industry, retail and consumer goods. These three questions are what remains of it.
What to send us
- What you are building, in three sentences, and for which function inside the company.
- Who has already paid. Or who said no, and what they answered when you asked why.
- What you want from us: capital, a board seat, or both.
No twenty-page deck for a first exchange. We reply within 2 to 3 business days, including when the answer is no.
Email usThree levels. This is where we learned to judge.
We operate in what we invest in. Cybersecurity is the field where we prove it every week, and the school that taught us to recognise a real business problem.
Operate
Purcept
Cyber consulting in Lille: governance and risk, digital trust, cyber operations. We sit in our clients’ executive committees and incident rooms every week.
Build
Mindlapse
AI-native cyber governance SaaS, for CISOs and boards. We know what building a cyber product actually costs, because we are building one.
Invest
Menlo Capital
A pre-seed cheque when the technical conviction is there. An Advisory Board seat when support is worth more than capital. Private capital, no imposed exit date.
Holding · Lille, 2025
A cheque, a seat, or both.
Two ways to commit alongside a founder, one standard: a limited number of commitments each year, chosen with conviction and held over time.
Capital · Pre-seed
Business Angel on your first rounds
We invest at pre-seed alongside technical founders we back for the long run. Private capital, no external fundraising constraints.
Learn more →Counsel · Advisory Board
What we can do in your place, once
A team grown to 130 people · an industry P&L defended every quarter
Beyond capital, we sit on your Advisory Board to act where eleven years of leadership at Accenture left transferable reflexes, whatever your sector.
Learn more →Latest note
12 September 2026
'What has already failed?', the question that saves us the most time
The third question in our filter is the least welcome in a meeting, and by far the most informative. Here is what we are actually looking for.
One email is enough. No 40-slide deck.
Tell us what problem you solve, for whom, and what you have already learned. We reply within 2 to 3 business days.
Email Menlo