Devialet CEO on Building a Product Loved by Musk and Beyoncé

Summary

• Devialet is a French technology company founded on acoustic engineering and run like a luxury brand, with current CEO 德蒙 driving a strategic reset and renewed focus. The 4 priorities are leadership restructuring, a leaner product line, an exceptional retail experience, and a focus on China, the UAE, and the US. The company has decided to launch an all-new generation of Phantom with a new App, positioning it in bluntly familiar terms: “The Porsche 911 has always been their soul model; Phantom is that for us.”
• The zero-endorsement-fee celebrity flywheel is the episode’s most instructive customer-acquisition model. Beyoncé, Andy Rubin, Macron, and Musk are all described as paying users: “We haven’t spent a cent on these celebrities—not even sending them a product.” Musk heard about the product on a podcast and “placed an order without a second thought”; prominent investor Jay-Z used the product and then proactively invested in the company. Marketing spend is minimal, with the budget concentrated on R&D.
• The host cites a China price of around RMB28,000 for Phantom, while 德蒙 attributes the premium to structurally high costs. R&D for the previous generation cost more than $1M—“and then some”—and the product is made in France rather than contract-manufactured in Asia. More than 1,200 components contain “not a single wire” and rely entirely on craftsmanship and design for assembly: “Costs can’t come down, so it naturally ends up positioned as a luxury product.” The show also mentions that the Paris Opera first allowed the brand to enter for an exhibition since the building was completed in 1875, though that was the host’s claim.
• The host describes China as Devialet’s second-largest market, with in-car audio a key growth engine. The complete-vehicle audio system developed with Denza was handled end to end by Devialet engineers, from design through tuning, and features 26 speakers. In e-commerce, the company is betting on JD.com and Tmall; “growth momentum will rebound forcefully very soon.” The core criterion for partners is being “like-minded,” and Chinese companies that did not feel aligned have been turned down directly.
• During 德蒙’s tenure, Nespresso’s annual revenue rose from $200M to $5B, and Devialet is borrowing the same playbook. The sequence is to establish positioning with flagship stores in core cities, expand distribution, and use cash flow to fund new markets, with a 5-year roadmap drawn in advance. Nespresso also relied on Clooney-style “cultural symbol” endorsement and a loop connecting physical experience with online repeat purchases. At the celebrity level, Devialet uses private tasting dinners and insists that its global brand touchpoints be 100% consistent.
• Musk taught 德蒙 to move fast and think on a 10-year horizon. 德蒙 reported directly to Musk for more than 2 years and saw decisions made the same day and executed the next: “decide today, start executing tomorrow.” He recalls hearing Musk outline 10-year visions for SpaceX and Starlink at a meeting in Amsterdam—visions that Musk has now realized one by one. 德蒙 subsequently developed the habit of using data to make fast decisions and thinking about where the company should be 5 or 10 years out.
• The technology bets are extending AI to other product lines and developing “single-point sound source” spatial audio. AI is currently used in only one product in the Mania line and will soon expand to other product lines. The App “shouldn’t just be an accessory; it should become an independent product line.” The biggest prediction is blunt: “I believe we can launch revolutionary single-point sound source technology within a few years,” allowing one speaker to deliver immersive sound throughout an entire home. “This could very well be the future of audio technology.”

Deep dive

1. Who Is Devialet? A French Acoustic Technology Company—Refined, with a Rebellious Streak

• 德蒙’s framing: Devialet—the French name means “to give voice”—is an acoustic technology company that “uses sound to convey emotion.” Its 3 founders were an engineer, an entrepreneur, and a designer. They started with the Expert amplifier, then one day realized, “My God, this sound quality is stunning.” The legend of 3 audio obsessives began there.
• The host’s key footnote: Phantom, the “little golden egg,” delivers outsized power from a compact form factor, with bass extending down to 14 Hz—below the 20 Hz lower limit of human hearing. The year it launched, it “quietly appeared on Musk’s desk,” a moment that changed the fate of the startup.
• On the divide between Paris and Silicon Valley, 德蒙 says, “We don’t have to keep looking to the American model.” French innovation draws on values, fashion heritage, and history. Phantom’s design from 10 years ago “is still a trend benchmark today,” with the goal of creating work that will not look dated 10 years from now. His definition of romance: “Romance is like an adventure between 2 people, the meeting of design and aesthetics, and more importantly, the collision of technology and acoustics.”

2. Career Beginnings: Learning Service Culture at Starbucks, Then Collecting Global Brands

• 德蒙 spent his first 10 years at McDonald’s and Starbucks, benefiting early on from systematic training. At Starbucks, he learned customer-service culture from Schultz, along with a hard focus on product development and a precise roadmap for entering Europe. He later insisted that 100% of partners be able to explain the products professionally, emphasizing that “when the product is good enough and the training is good enough, that’s the winning formula.”
• His most memorable Schultz moment came in Zurich, where Schultz went out of his way to shake hands with all 50 employees one by one: “The contribution of every role moves the company forward; every role is critical to success.”
• The rest of the path: 2 years running Tissot in North America and Europe at Swatch Group → general manager of Tesla France → back to Canada to help Tiger Motors go public, developing battery technology for small and midsize vehicles and EV retrofit solutions → Devialet. His case is that after more than 6 years in tech, combined with experience across retail expansion, wholesale, and other channels, Devialet feels “quite familiar.”

3. Nespresso: A Playbook That Took Revenue from $200M to $5B

• During 德蒙’s tenure, Nespresso’s annual revenue rose from $200M to $5B. He attributes it to 3 factors: top talent, a superior product, and an especially accurate read on the future direction of the coffee industry. He opened more than 400 stores globally and built the North American business from zero in Canada.
• The real inflection point was bringing in George Clooney as an endorser with “cultural symbol” status, then combining physical stores to drive discovery with the official website to drive repeat purchases.
• The core-city breakthrough strategy was to build a flagship store in the capital of each target market to establish positioning, then expand distribution and use cash flow from core markets to fund the next wave of growth. “Every market will eventually face saturation,” so a 5-year roadmap has to be drawn in advance. New-market launches rely on sending Europe-trained talent abroad to carry the brand culture with them.
• The discipline Devialet borrowed from Nespresso is 100% consistency across global brand touchpoints: “No matter where you are in the world, the brand character you experience must be exactly the same.” Every touchpoint in Shanghai and Paris should leave customers with the same impression.

4. More Than 2 Years Reporting Directly to Musk: Decide Today, Execute Tomorrow

• When 德蒙 joined Tesla in 2017, the company had virtually no name recognition in Europe; in 2018, it even came close to failing. Under that pressure, CRM data was synchronized in real time across the world, around the clock. “It was like attending a top business school,” he says; the Tesla résumé itself was “the best endorsement.”
• His assessment of Musk: a “tech maverick” whose leaps in thought can sometimes be hard to follow, but who is always talking about what will happen 10 or 20 years out. At a meeting in Amsterdam, 德蒙 heard Musk discuss concepts for SpaceX and Starlink that “he has now realized one by one.”
• The 2 methods 德蒙 took away were to look at the data, analyze it, decide quickly, and act immediately, and to keep asking where the company needs to be 5 or 10 years from now—whether that means transforming or pursuing M&A. The organization was extremely flat: Musk would often meet with regional heads, make a decision that day, and begin execution the next.

5. Running Devialet: 4 Strategic Priorities, with Phantom Returning to Its “911” Role

• The strategic reset has 4 pillars: restructure the leadership team, streamline the product line to create synergies and lift cross-sell rates, build an exceptional customer experience in retail, and focus expansion on China, the UAE, and the US.
• The tradeoff is explicit: the previous team expanded into portable devices, headphones, and other adjacent lines to complete the portfolio, “but honestly, we can’t cover every direction.” The answer is a new generation of Phantom with breakthrough technology, a new design, and a new App: “The Porsche 911 has always been their soul model; Phantom is that for us.”
• “Learn from history, create the future” opens all of 德蒙’s important communications. The company also has the Project Mountain development path. 让·卢, who joined when Devialet was still just a project, is both a technical veteran and a guide for AI R&D. Engineers mostly come from France’s top technical schools; more than 25% hold at least one patent, and R&D teams receive bonuses when their work has real-world value. “Put simply, we’re paying for ideas.”

6. Technology Roadmap: AI Across Product Lines, and Single-Point Sound Source Spatial Audio

• AI is currently used in only one product in the Mania line and will “soon be rolled out to other product lines.” The App “shouldn’t just be an accessory; it should become an independent product line,” using software algorithms to continuously improve sound quality and service.
• Today, locating sound in a room requires multiple speakers working together. “But I believe we can launch revolutionary single-point sound source technology within a few years”: one speaker in a room could deliver immersive sound throughout the space. “This could very well be the future of audio technology.”

7. Automotive and Licensing Partnerships: No Compromise; Like-Minded Partners Only

• The complete-vehicle audio system developed with Denza was handled end to end by Devialet engineers, from design through tuning. Its 26-speaker spatial audio is “absolutely stunning,” with the goal of delivering “the original French acoustic aesthetic.” The company is currently in deep discussions with multiple automakers on complete-vehicle audio systems.
• On the Hisense partnership, 德蒙 says, “We alone determine the brand positioning,” and “there is no question of compromise.” The rules have to be set upfront. Some Chinese companies had previously wanted to partner, but Devialet declined when the fit did not feel right; with Denza, the companies are “completely aligned” on market strategy and global rollout.
• His view of emerging technology companies is that their impact is limited: “They are targeting completely different market segments… we’re not even on the same wavelength.” The company will, of course, continue to watch them.

8. China: The Host Calls It the Second-Largest Market; Sanlitun Was Just a Location Change

• The host says Devialet entered China in 2019 and quickly made it the company’s second-largest market. Asked about the withdrawal of its first Sanlitun store, 德蒙 clarified that it was a pop-up used to test the market; the company later moved elsewhere in the same retail district. “We didn’t exit; we just optimized the location.”
• The next steps are to build brand showcase stores in Shanghai and other tier-one cities, while using JD.com and Tmall to scale quickly. “Although the Chinese market is facing some challenges right now, I believe growth momentum will rebound forcefully very soon.” Mexico and other emerging markets are expected to deliver “very significant growth” over the next 3-5 years.

9. The Zero-Fee Celebrity Flywheel and the “Conscience” Behind Luxury Pricing

• The celebrity strategy in practice: “We haven’t spent a cent on these celebrities; we haven’t even given them a product. To date, we haven’t paid any endorsement fees.” Musk heard about Devialet on a podcast and “placed an order without a second thought.” Other celebrities generally pay out of pocket after experiencing the products at private tasting dinners. Investor Jay-Z is both a user and someone who proactively invested in the company.
• On pricing, the host cites a China price of around RMB28,000 for Phantom. R&D for the previous generation cost more than $1M—德蒙 adds, “a little more, actually.” Marketing spend is minimal and the budget is concentrated on R&D. The product is made in France and imported; when the little golden egg is opened, “there isn’t a single wire inside.” More than 1,200 components are connected entirely through craftsmanship and design. “Costs can’t come down, so it naturally ends up positioned as a luxury product. Calling it a luxury product is not an exaggeration.”
• The entry point to the luxury ecosystem came through the LV collaboration, which traces back to Arnault investing in Devialet personally several years ago. On the Paris Opera, the host says Devialet was the first brand to enter for exhibition since the building was completed in 1875. 德蒙 summarizes the logic: “They wanted the opera house’s international influence, while we wanted a high-end acoustic positioning.”
• The closing definition: “Every detail is taken to the extreme, and every step is executed perfectly.” That pursuit of perfection in craftsmanship is finesse.