Beyond the deal: a Founder and a CEO on the real value of team.blue
When iubenda joined team.blue in 2022, the company entered a new phase of growth. Three years later, in 2025, Andrea Giannangelo, who had founded iubenda in 2010, took the decision to step back from the CEO role and into a new chapter as a Product Unit Director Compliance within team.blue, with Manuel Heilmann stepping in as CEO, inheriting a company with a strong culture, a loyal team, and big expectations. Today, team.blue brand iubenda supports +150,000 businesses across +100 countries and brings together specialised brands including consentmanager.net, Complianz.io and CookieFirst under one roof.
Here is their conversation.
On the decision to join team.blue
Manuel: When you look back at the decision to join team.blue, what was really driving it?
Andrea: It was a process of being honest with myself. The world was getting crowded: the CMP space was consolidating fast. Literally, the least-funded competitor had 30 or 40 million in the bank. We were bootstrapped. And yet we were in the top three in the market, profitable, with a product and team I was genuinely proud of. I realised I was at a rare moment of strength. I had options. And I knew that if I waited, if I pushed past that moment trying to prove I could do it alone, those options would narrow. You need to make that move before you pass the moment where you still have leverage. Most founders push past it.
Manuel: And from where I sit, that timing made all the difference. When I came in, iubenda was in a strong position. That gave us room to focus on building rather than firefighting. Joining team.blue also gave us something I didn't fully appreciate until I was in the role: the ability to focus entirely on the business. IT infrastructure, back-office operations, procurement: team.blue absorbs all of that. From day one, I didn't have to think about any of it. That freed me to focus on the things that “actually” move the needle.
On handing over the CEO role
Manuel: I have to say, Andrea, I was warned before joining that the first four to six weeks would be rough, that the transition would be tense. I kept waiting for it but nothing happened! You were pretty chill, honestly. How did you manage that?
Andrea: I think it comes down to not being possessive. It’s like a relationship with a relative: if you want the best for them, you have to let go and let them live their own life. As a founder, you should want what you created to continue for a long time. For that to happen, you have to trust whoever comes in and give them the best chance. If you’re constantly questioning and sabotaging, the company will just continue to depend on you, and it won't grow the way it should.
Manuel: That made an enormous difference. The real challenge, honestly, was not managing the handover with you. It was what I found inside the organisation. When a company has been built around a founder for 15 years, everyone eslse gest used to waiting. I came in expecting people to step up and make calls. Instead, I would look around, and no one would move. You think: what’s wrong? That was the real work: - getting the team to own decisions without looking for someone at the top to call it
Andrea: I recognise that completely. The company had a gravity towards whoever was in the founder seat. Decisions flowed to me because that was the pattern, not always because it was the right way to do things. That is one of the areas where a new CEO can do something I couldn’t: break that pattern and redistribute authority in a way that actually sticks. On what team.blue makes possible
Manuel: One thing I want to highlight is how much team.blue changed what was possible structurally. We were able to restructure the go-to-market team into clear business units with real ownership. We brought product and engineering under one roof. To be honest, those kinds of changes needed a certain amount of bandwidth and credibility to actually land: team.blue gave us both.
Andrea: And that is exactly what I was hoping for. When you’re a bootstrapped company, you are constantly playing this game of trade-offs: “Do we invest in the product, or do we keep everything else running?” Joining team.blue means you stop making that trade-off. The infrastructure is there. The backing is there. You can just build.
Manuel: There is also something less tangible but just as real: the credibility that comes with being part of a serious group. When you are talking to enterprise clients or attracting senior talent, it matters. You are not just a standalone bootstrapped company anymore.
On letting go and moving forward
Manuel: Andrea, you are now a director within team.blue. What does that look like in practice?
Andrea: I see myself as the keeper of the history. I know the “why” behind the decisions that worked, and the ones where we had to "break a few bones" to grow. That perspective is useful to you, when something needs context - and being part of the broader team.blue structure means I am never far away. But the day-to-day is Manuel. That is how it should be.
Manuel: And I genuinely value having that access. Being able to call Andrea when something needs context or perspective is an advantage I do not take for granted.
Andrea: My advice to any founder approaching this kind of transition is simple: do it before you have to. Make the move while the company is strong, while you still have options, and while you can genuinely shape what comes next. And then really let go. Your successor will do things differently. That is not a threat to what you built. It is an opportunity for the company to grow in ways it could not under you.
Manuel: And for any incoming CEO: be patient. Trust takes time to build in both directions. The organisation needs to learn that decisions can be made without the founder in the room, and you need to learn when to step back and let that happen. It does not happen overnight, but when it does, everything moves faster.
iubenda is part of the team.blue. Learn more about how team.blue partners with visionary founders to scale their businesses across Europe.