How Mistral committed to Lago in 17 days and went to prod in 52 days

Mistral, an AI company known for developing 14 frontier models in 18 months, has partnered with Lago to manage the billing for its paid products. Mistral's mission focuses on making their AI models accessible to the developer community while maintaining a business model. To address billing complexities such as implementing token-based pricing, metering usage in real-time, and managing taxes, Mistral collaborated with Lago, which provides an open-source, anti-lock-in billing solution. Lago's approach enabled Mistral to launch their billing system swiftly, allowing them to focus on their core expertise of building large language models (LLMs). The partnership has resulted in efficient revenue management, with Mistral issuing over 32,000 invoices in under a year. Lago's integration with systems like Stripe and Salesforce supports Mistral's global operations, offering flexibility in pricing and billing for both standard and custom contracts. This collaboration has been pivotal in allowing Mistral to scale its billing infrastructure in alignment with its growth and international expansion strategies.