56% of failing companies do so because they cannot reach their customers and meet market needs. This quantifiable and documented observation is what drove Cyril Brousse and Emmanuel Espias to found Flankers, a strategic and operational support agency specializing in Go-to-Market (GTM). Based in Bordeaux, the three-person firm works with both launch-phase startups and growing companies, on a simple promise: to transform an idea into commercial traction. The agency has notably collaborated with players in the French tech ecosystem such as INRIA, Station F, Bordeaux Métropole, and Ubiwan.
Go-to-Market, as defined by Flankers, refers to that long and uncertain phase where a company seeks to acquire its very first customers, generate its initial sales, and transform what works into a predictable and repeatable acquisition system. Concretely, the agency helps founders answer fundamental questions: who to sell to, how to reach them, with what offer, at what price, and through which channel. The support program unfolds in six stages, from market segmentation to defining prospecting channels, then from lead acquisition to customer conversion and retention.
In March 2026, Cyril Brousse launched "Aller au marché" (Going to Market), a weekly newsletter published on Substack dedicated to Go-to-Market topics. The format is intentional: articles taking five to ten minutes to read, published every Tuesday morning, with in-depth analyses of sales, marketing, and startup strategy. "No punchlines, no magic recipes. Depth, nuance, and real-world feedback," Brousse writes in his launch post. Among the initial topics covered: the three essential stages of GTM, and why Go-to-Market is "the only place where marketing, sales, and product truly talk to each other."
Flankers is part of a rapidly structuring ecosystem in Bordeaux. The Girondin metropolis, supported by infrastructure like Le Cockpit—a campus dedicated to technological innovation—and local support programs, is seeing a new generation of specialized agencies emerge, aiming to fill a blind spot in the French startup ecosystem: the transition from idea to market. While incubators often focus on product and fundraising, Flankers positions itself on commercial execution—a link that technical founders frequently underestimate.
Flankers' approach exemplifies a broader trend in entrepreneurial support: vertical specialization. Instead of offering generalist support, the agency focuses exclusively on GTM, with an iterative methodology—test, measure, adjust—borrowed from product culture. 29% of startups fail due to funding issues, the agency recalls, but the majority simply fail because they never found customers. It is in this less glamorous, but far more crucial, arena that Flankers intends to make a difference.
