from extreme sports pro to running mobile phone innovation in estonia

Onoff CFO Olivier Pelletier explains how e-⁠Residency helps the tech company manage cross-border admin between France and Estonia.

Many founders who run their businesses through e-Residency have interesting back stories – although not many have one as astonishing as the founder of mobile phone number application Onoff. Taïg Khris went from being a professional roller-skating champion and familiar face on French television to establishing a tech company with revenue in the region of €25 million.

The Estonian talent pool and the advantages of e-⁠Residency have played a part in making Onoff what it is today. It’s one of thousands of innovative companies registered in Estonia, operating across borders, and with leadership based in different parts of Europe. In this article, Olivier Pelletier, the company’s France-based chief financial officer, walks us through the Onoff story, and how the company has thrived thanks in part to e-⁠Residency.

Onoff: innovation dreamt up from a hospital bed

Onoff is an international company, offering multiple mobile telephone numbers through its patented technology. This means you can have more than one number without having to juggle multiple SIM cards or phones – something truly useful for anyone running their own business or as part of a call-centre. Onoff Numbers offers the service to private clients, while Onoff Business serves B2B clients. 

The idea for Onoff took shape during founder Taïg Khris's career as a professional skater. "Our founder, Taïg Khris, is a former roller-skating champion who is quite well known in France and has also appeared on several television programmes," explains Pelletier.

Khris broke bones on numerous occasions during his sporting career, and it was during one of these recoveries that he had time to contemplate what he would do once his skating career was finished. "He was interested in telecommunications and, as a competitor travelling across different countries, had personally experienced several difficulties obtaining local phone numbers easily," Pelletier says. That frustration became the idea behind Onoff.

With a solid idea of what he wanted to do, Khris founded the company around 12 years ago, raising money from friends, family, and private investors. He then moved to Estonia to launch the business. 

When Onoff discovered e-⁠Residency

Pelletier says that Khris chose Estonia partly due to its pool of skilled technology professionals, a product of Estonia’s investment in education and its digital economy. But while the country proved a productive base for the budding business, they kept running into administrative headaches with certain staff being based in France. 

“Estonia is far more digital than France when it comes to these processes: filing accounts and signing documents are done electronically,” Pelletier explains. “Because we did not have the appropriate digital identity, we had to send documents, sign them and scan them within very short deadlines, sometimes on the same day.”

Onoff’s auditor was the one who suggested the CFO obtain e-⁠Residency, which “significantly simplified our compliance obligations, including filing annual accounts, management reports, and board minutes and resolutions”.

E-⁠Residency “genuinely saves us time”

In his role as CFO, Pelletier manages finances for both the French and Estonian entities of Onoff. Working with colleagues based in Estonia, e-⁠Residency has smoothed a number of processes within the organisation.

He explains that along with using it for simplifying payroll tasks, the e-signature offered by e-⁠Residency helps them to formalise powers of attorney and allow local employees to carry out certain procedures. They even used this to sign booking agreements and contracts for their teams based in France and Romania, so they could attend a company summer event in Estonia. 

“The e-⁠resident card allowed us to sign those documents officially from a distance, without any additional travel and without having to print or scan anything,” he says.

Managing admin between France and Estonia

“Onoff is an app that allows users to obtain phone numbers from different countries in just a few clicks, including France, the United Kingdom, Israel, the United States, Canada and Belgium, wherever they may be in the world,” says Pelletier. While the company was founded in Estonia, there is a main entity that owns the company, and that is based in France.

It’s a strong example of how companies set up in Estonia but mainly operated elsewhere can be smoothly run thanks to e-⁠Residency. “Today, the product and technology teams are mainly based in Estonia, while sales, marketing and part of the management team are primarily based in France,” Pelletier says. 

Onoff and the e-⁠Residency Marketplace

Another key advantage of becoming an e-resident is that you get access to the e-⁠Residency Marketplace. Here, entrepreneurs can access service providers who have experience working with e-⁠resident companies, offering everything from business banking, accounting, acceleration programmes and legal addresses.

Onoff Business has now joined the Marketplace, offering Estonian phone numbers to e-⁠residents and prospective entrepreneurs. For someone planning to set up a business in Estonia without living there, getting hold of a local number can be a surprisingly tricky step. “It is difficult to obtain an Estonian number when you do not physically live in the country,” Pelletier explains. “That is precisely the advantage of Onoff: we can provide an Estonian number to someone located anywhere in the world.”

An Estonian number can be vital from the early stages of setting up a business in Estonia. It can be required for contacting banks and other service providers, or simply to establish a local presence before actually arriving in the country. Pelletier says the goal is for Onoff Business to fit naturally into that journey, appearing when someone is looking for a way to get an Estonian number. By joining the Marketplace, Onoff Business can add their services to the large array that already supports new e-⁠residents and entrepreneurs from the start of their journey.

What Estonia offers international founders

Pelletier makes a point of highlighting how multicultural Estonia is, and how that draws talent from all over the world. It’s a reflection of the Onoff team, where there are “around 30 nationalities, including Estonians, Ukrainians, Indians, Pakistanis, Georgians, Turks and French people, among others”. 

He describes Estonia as “attractive, dynamic and international”, with a digital culture baked into the system, making both public administration and the functioning of the private sector smoother.  

This mix of talent and outlook is a draw for many new companies, especially ones that have an international client or customer base. Pelletier points to other Estonian success stories as proof of what's possible locally. “Companies such as Bolt demonstrate that there is an environment where businesses can innovate and move quickly,” he says, calling it “a useful benchmark and a very stimulating dynamic”.

He also credits Estonia's entrepreneurial culture for shaping its workforce. Many Estonians run a side business alongside their main job, he says, which makes it easier to find employees and local leaders who understand the realities of running a company.

Looking ahead, Pelletier sees Estonia playing a role in Onoff's next stage of growth too, particularly as a potential entry point into the Baltic and Nordic markets. For a company built on solving practical cross-border problems, it's a fitting next chapter.

Onoff Business is a cloud-based telephony solution that lets you give professional phone numbers to your employees to make calls, send SMS and manage communications from desktop or mobile devices. Learn more on their website.