Here is a summary of their passage. You can also watch the video by clicking on the link at the bottom of the article.

Public affairs, politics and technology

Le Parapheur

With an associate, Paul-Antoine created Le Parapheur, which aims to digitalize the way communities manage their mail. They also intervene on phone calls and emails. Their clients are about fifteen cities with populations ranging from 2,000 to 15,000. The challenge is to introduce the users of these cities to this technology and this change.

Le Parapheur is incubated in the incubator of ScinecePo Paris which is surprising. Indeed, this school does not have the vocation to teach business or technology. It was far from entrepreneurial policies for a long time. Paul Antoine thinks that through its incubator, SciencePo wanted to allow local authorities to catch the web and digital wave in order to promote the development of startups specialized in the digitalization of local authorities and state agencies.

The state startups

In all this, the gold mine so sought after is called “developers”. They are the ones that the state needs to be able to code new solutions. The executive wants them to create startups for a public market. Indeed, in France there are 36,000 municipalities that cannot afford to hire in-house developers to code their solutions. So this is a big market to conquer for startups.

However, there are difficulties in setting up such a market because among these 36,000 communes scattered over the territory, some are rather isolated villages; others are still in white zone internet (no good internet connection). There is also the generational conflict of older elected officials, who feel distant from this whole digital trend.

Will local authorities become technophiles?

There are many types of municipalities and elected officials. Some are still reluctant to change because they are looking for simplicity. Others already have a foot in the digital world and could jump on the bandwagon. We just need to make these two types of communes aware that the changeover is underway. It’s only a matter of time.

Moreover, with the times we live in and the rules imposed by the confinement, the digitalization has proved to be very effective and it is accelerated. Before the lockdown, appointments were made in person. This imposed a trip to the mayor and his collaborators. But today, because of the social distance, the municipalities have started to use video-conferences. For Le Parapheur, the canvassing of cities by startups will finally convince them to digitalize.

Is the cloud for municipalities?

In the digitalization of our municipalities, there is still a debate about data storage. The most common thought in France is to store data on French territory. Our local authorities think that we should have our own servers, either at the town hall or on servers domiciled on the territory in order to guarantee the security of the information. Then there was a change in thinking. We said to ourselves that the cloud is the right solution because it is economical. But the fire at the OVH hosting company has called these new arrangements into question because data has been lost.

For Paul-Antoine, we should no longer have local servers. They are expensive to maintain and there is the risk of hacker attacks. Economically speaking, the cloud is the winner.

As for security, Paul-Antoine prefers the cloud to have his server in the town hall or at a hosting company. Hosting companies are able to protect our data. Indeed the RGPD is also respected. The fire at OVH can be seen as an industrial accident. It does not happen every day. It is not because one center is burned that all centers will be.

Conclusion

The digitalization of local authorities is underway. There is still some resistance to change, which is normal. But the COVID and the confinements have accelerated the process. Moreover, it is a large market that is opening up to young entrepreneurs and startups, so digital solutions will not be long in coming.

Follow the link to watch the video.

L’article The digitalization of local authorities est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Here is a summary of his passage. But you can watch the video by clicking on the link at the bottom of the article.

Woodoo

Woodoo is a technology startup that aims to make wood the material of the 21st century. Wood will be one of the pillars of tomorrow’s bioeconomy. Thanks to it, we will be able to reduce greenhouse gases in heavy industrial sectors such as construction.

At Woodoo, they do biochemistry. It removes a troublesome molecule called lignin from wood. It replaces it with a filler that makes the wood a super material. It allows the wood to become translucent. It also allows it to become hyper rigid. So rigid that it can replace concrete, aluminum or steel! But the must is that this wood can also become a touch interface like our phones!!!

L’avantage de ce matériau est qu’il a une faible empreinte carbone. Il peut être utilisé dans de nombreuses industries qui font appel à Woodoo.

Imagine the possibilities of use:

• We can build light fixtures out of wood.
• Replace our touch screens with touch wood.
• Build buildings with a design and super solid.
• We can………… I let your imagination do the rest.

The history of Woodoo

Woodoo was created in 2017 by Timothy as a “solo founder”. It was hard at times. He would have liked to have someone with him to give him feedback on his crazy ideas. He didn’t have that colleague who would have had his feet on the ground. The challenge as a solo founder is to be innovative and dream of possible opportunities but also to have your feet on the ground and face reality.

Today, they are 32 people with 3 production sites: Troyes, Pont sur Seine and Lyon. They work with companies like Mercedes in the automotive sector; Unibail for the real estate sector; and other companies in the luxury sector.

The next step is to raise funds to support this growth and tackle the mobility and building markets. They also plan to move to the United States to further expand.

The crisis situation

Sudden infant death syndrome is a risk for start-ups. In order to grow, they need cash but they don’t have it. For Woodoo, the crisis situation was at the beginning of the company. We had to find money.

To find this money, Timothée participated in a competition of the ADEME (Agency of Development of the Environment). He got a grant of 150 000 €. But to complete this financing it was necessary to add private capital. Rather than raising funds in seed or pre-seed, he preferred to take out a €150,000 bank loan. The banker was willing to grant him this loan because of the innovation of the project. Here is an article that explains in detail the financing of a startup.

These 300 000 € allowed him to settle in Troyes, to have a head office in Paris and to hire 2 doctors in chemistry to develop the material. To achieve this result, he had to force fate because he started from nothing, having no employees, no money or even the premises. There was only Timothy and his idea.

An accompaniment

The support was decisive in Woodoo’s growth. It needed a specific actor for each step of its growth. They were accompanied by a lot of ecosystems receiving all kinds of help.

The startup was accompanied by an incubator called Agoranov. They support companies and startups with a scientific connotation. They have accompanied tech startups like Alan or Doctolib. Or even more scientific startups like Ynsect, Criteo and many others. The interest of this support is to be followed by a business manager who is specially dedicated to the success of your company. You can also exchange with other entrepreneurs on the best practices to have. And this helps you to integrate the ecosystem.

Woodoo also benefited from support from European-wide networks such as EIT and Climate KIC. But they were also helped by other networks like Chimie Paris Tech and even accelerated by LVMH at Station F.

Competitiveness clusters have also come to their aid. These are networks that help launch activities. This is something that all French people should be aware of because we excel in this field. Woodoo has therefore integrated structures such as Plastipolis, Xylofutur and IAR.

Advice to entrepreneurs

If you want to start a business but have no idea, the first step is to find a partner. Meet people who have the same desire as you and maybe your partner will have The idea.

For those who already have the idea, you can take a chance and go now. Go meet entrepreneurs and ex-entrepreneurs. And above all, get some guidance.

Follow the link to watch the video.

L’article Growing your startup despite the difficulties est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Here is a summary of their interview. However you can watch the video through the link available at the bottom of the article.

Le secteur du tourisme

This sector is always experiencing international turbulence. This forces companies to adapt regularly. September 11 is a good example. For several years, it prevented the travel of many travelers because they were afraid. Natural disasters are also part of the game, notably the eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010. The smoke disrupted air traffic, cancelling more than 100,000 flights.

COVID is also one of these crises, but on a different level, as it has already been going on for a year and has an international scope.

The impact of the crisis

For RP Digital, the announcement of the first lockdown in March 2020 was a harbinger of loss. They lost clients, time and had extra work.

The first consequence is the loss of customers. Two of them decided to break the contract, including a client with whom he had been working for three years.

There was a catuegory of customers who stayed and wanted to focus on commnication. They did not want to be forgotten by travelers during this period of non-travel. So to do so, RP Digital had to be creative in order to allow their client to remain visible. That’s why they organized “Apéro Zoom” with the client’s fans. The consequence was that the basic tasks became time consuming due to the excess of creative research.

And finally, other clients kept their relationship with RP Digital but wouldn’t communicate until the situation moved forward. This is a complication because they have to put journalists and social media fans on hold who want information.

Waves of optimism

After the first containment in France, summer arrived. With this season, the professionals had hope for a possible recovery and for a post COVID tourism. They hoped to have a more sustainable and different tourism. This was the new axis of communication on which they communicated. But in the fall, came a second lockdown that quarantined the hope of a normal recovery. It was a second round of customers stopping or suspending their contracts.

But in January 2021 hope is reborn. This wave of optimism is based on the fact of the new year and the arrival of vaccines. Then comes back on the table this Post COVID tourism but once again stifled by a third containment. This is the daily life of professionals in this sector who know ups and downs depending on the news. They adapt.

The rebound

Post-COVID tourism will come one day, but in the meantime we have to find something else. We have to bounce back. Having no more short or medium term visibility, RP Digital started to prospect in the ecological environment sector. This is how they concluded a contract with an ecological detergent company. They refocused on their core target but they also extended their horizon to new sectors.

This situation has also allowed them to refocus on themselves and to reflect on their values. They seek to be consistent in what they do.

The rebound also passes by the use of new technology. Like Startup SAFARI which was held in a virtual 3D world, RP Digital had to discover and use the Zoom platform in a professional way. They also innovated. They proposed podcasts on travel to their customers. They also invested in the new social network Clubhouse to be up to date.

And finally, the rebound also involves collaboration and the creation of new offers. This is what Mathilde has undertaken with a colleague in communications. They combined their specialties: tourism for Mathilde and sports for her colleague. They have created an offer on sports tourism for local communities to enable them to promote their territory for the Olympic Games 2024.

Public aid and support

Like many companies, RP Digital called upon the partial activity device. Being an agency with two employees, Mathilde’s colleague has been on partial activity for a year now, alternating full time and half time work. This allows to maintain the job.

RP Digital then called on PGE (State Guaranteed Loan) to be able to absorb the financial problems. However, the situation remains complicated because these are still loans that must be repaid. Moreover, the agency is considered by the state as a small company that has not lost enough to be helped and yet they have lost too much to be in good financial health.

Forecasts for the summer of 2021

French tourism could be back on track as the French will travel in their own country. But tourism abroad seems more complicated to predict because not everyone is vaccinated yet and some countries like the United States remain closed to the world.

In the meantime, the agency is postponing its communication plans and is preparing to resume activity as soon as the situation is resolved.

Some tips for young professionals

In communication, it is always necessary to be on the lookout for novelties, innovations and latest technological news. This is what the agency has had to do with zoom and Clubhouse. It is also necessary to participate in events and trade shows to build a network and to train. With the issue of containment, Mathilde discovered webinars and online events such as Startup SAFARI.

For tourism, young professionals need to be interested in the tourism of tomorrow and sustainable tourism. There are a lot of events on the subject that need to be followed.

It is also necessary to see broadly during its monitoring and not to remain only in its field. This is why Mathilde looks at the social network accounts of companies in other completely different sectors. She then finds good practices that she can reproduce in her field.

Here is the link to the video.

L’article How to bounce back from a crisis like RP Digital est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Instead, follow Fabrizio’s presentation.

This article is a recap of his passage. However, you can view the video through the link at the bottom of the article.

A short history

In 1914, two major things happened. One was the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, which led to the First World War. The second major event had taken place a few months earlier. It was the creation of silent films with audio.

This second event is important because it foreshadows our future. Today films are audiovisual. There may be another meaning that will be added to this media. However it seems that there is a delay of our growth because we remained at the revolution of 1914.

The human senses

The taste

The first of our senses is taste. Indeed, when we come into the world as babies, our first way of apprehending the things which surround us is to taste them. That’s why it’s dangerous to leave a baby alone because he puts everything in his mouth.

We are looking for innovations that would allow to experience the taste through technological devices. This could be used in advertising to give the consumer a taste before he buys. Or we could taste flavors through TV etc… It would be fantastic.

The sense of smell

Like taste, smell is a huge factor in recollection. It is very important. It is so important that car manufacturers always make sure that their cars smell like new. It is also the case of coffee shops that let out smoke from their coffee through ventilation pipes. By smelling these flavors, passers-by on the street are already experiencing the taste of coffee. They will soon enter and experience it with their other sense which is the taste.

Through various interactions, Fabrizio has noticed that we increasingly need to add this sense to our media. Imagine watching Game of Thrones while smelling the action; or watching nature documentaries while having the scents of those places. This is what we call immersive reality. According to a survey that Xplus conducted, 56% of respondents expect to smell the scents of different locations in movies by 2030. That’s really close.

The touch

Today, touch through a medium is found in the world of video games. Through the vibrations of joysticks, it is possible to feel shocks and the action of characters. However, these are limited to the hands. The cinema is also advanced in the immersive experience. Thus, in cinemas there are seats that move at the rhythm of the protagonists. But these shocks remain partial. It would be necessary to go beyond.

For example, it would be nice to be able to touch on the screens of our phones, the material and the texture of what we are looking for. This can be useful when buying to have more confidence on the product before buying it.

The purpose of Xplus

Xplus wants to bring into existence a digital augmented reality in which you interact with your five senses. They are currently working on a technology to do this. They propose two things:

• Creating the technology to experience media with our 5 senses. They make this technology available to content creators on a platform.
• It is also an ecosystem that they build with partners. They allow to create hubs or meeting places where people can experience virtual reality. Indeed the problem that remains are the devices. They are very expensive to buy and few people have them. So they can go to these hubs to benefit from it. In the near future, they would like to rent these devices, to allow people to experience the five senses augmented reality directly at home.

And finally, Xplus is organizing an event that will take place in the following months. This event will allow you to experience the reality they promise you. A reality with 5 senses.

To watch the video of his speech, follow this link.

L’article How to create an immersive reality on the internet est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Unfortunately, with the health crisis and the confinement, we could not meet in a physical way. Thus, the 2020 edition of the event was cancelled. Which was a shame because it was in these times of social distancing that we needed to see each other the most. So Startup SAFARI became Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience.

This article is a summary of the presentation made by Ondrej Svoboda and Vincent Chauvet who are the organizers of Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience. You can watch the video through the link available at the bottom of the article.

Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience

This virtual edition took place in a 3D virtual world. Just like in video games, you could connect in this world and walk around thanks to an avatar. Just like in reality, you could run, jump, dance and even fly over an Eiffel Tower.

With this description, you may think it’s a video game, but it’s really an event in which there were several thematic presentations and meetings.

The creation of this world was possible thanks to the inventiveness of Confer-O-Matic and the financial support of our partner and friend Mangopay, who had also supported us during the 2019 edition.

The organization of this edition

Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience, it was 4 thematic stages that hosted several presentations. The organizers wanted to provide quality content to help entrepreneurs develop their startup:

The Impact scene

• Breaking the codes of entrepreneurship in culture with LAFAAAC & CINE CHITA
• Changing the norm of disability in entrepreneurship with H.A.S.C & H’UP
• Demystifying the relationship between impact and fundraising with La Ruche & Alliance for Impact
• Deconstructing preconceived ideas about the integration of refugees with Josiane Kijigo, project leader at La Ruche
• Reacting around entrepreneurship for health with Caring company project & TUTTIS

The Learn scene

• Augmented Reality for education and training with Foxar
• Stop wasting time on development environments by Myceleum
• The method to learn to code in the Montessori spirit from 3 years old without screen by COLORI
• Coding your first web page with HTML and CSS by Le Wagon

The Scale stage

• Scaling experience shared La Ruche qui dit Oui
• How to scale your project with crowdfunding ? by Kiss Kiss Bank Bank
• Incubator and third-party innovation center, what advantages and impacts for startups by Incubastreet
• Speakers’ Keys: Why is speaking well so important? by Faiza Chaarani
• How to scale with Mangopay by Romain Mazeries

The rebound stage

• How Immersive Media and Internet of Senses can create Unlimited Realities by Xplus
• La digitalisation des collectivités territoriales par Le Parapheur avec Vincent Chauvet – Maire d’Autun
• The story of our birth during the first lockdown by Confer’o’matic
• SAFARI Talks – Grandir c’est savoir rebondir avec RP-Digital, Woodoo, Fleurs d’Ici

With this rich and varied program, Startup SAFARI also allowed to meet coaches in specific fields. They were present on their stands to welcome anyone who wanted to. Thus, we welcomed :

• Emeline FOISSEY, CEO and cofounder at Adverti
• Eden Clairicia, Freelance Growth Marketer
• François Lespagnol SEO consultant at EpikWeb
• Ludivine Cherdo, Head of content at Aniwa
• Lucille Packo, freelance graphic designer
• Emeline Bosset, eco responsible designer at Boeme Design
• Killian Talin creator of Inspiration Créative
• And Tristan Jouguier, cybersecurity consultant at Protectam

Support the association

The goal of Startup SAFARI is to build bridges between people and countries, to allow people to integrate innovation ecosystems. In this context, the Start in France Association was created to continue to finance events such as Startup SAFARI and to be able to organize other events of this kind throughout the year.

To do this, we need your support and donations, which will be greatly welcome to achieve our goal. You can support us on this page.

To watch the video of their presentation, follow the link.

L’article Presentation of Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

This article is a recap of his passage. However, you can view the video through the link at the bottom of the article.

What is a development environment

The integrated development environment, also called IDE, is the place where you develop a project. It is an application that gathers a set of tools to optimize work time and productivity.

The problem with development environments is that when you have tools to download into your environment, they have to be compatible with each other. When there are version discrepancies, bugs appear because of conflicts between the different tools. So you have to debug and that adds extra time.

Or when you install a development environment, you have to follow an installation manual. This is often where mistakes are made because we are human. Because of the complexity of the environment, developers make mistakes. And sometimes you just don’t know how to do that installation.

So to avoid these errors, it is necessary to isolate the different components from the environment.

The containers

Containers are those elements that isolate software so that they do not interfere with each other.

This technology has been around for a while having been popularized by Docker, whose role is to create these containers. This tool makes things easier. However, there are still some issues to be resolved, so it’s not used very often.

The problems

Time

Installing a development environment is a tedioubefores task that requires between 1 day and 1 week of work starting to code.

A team effort

When we code, we often do it in a team. This means that everyone must have the same software installation, which is sometimes complicated.

But also, when you code, you want to have your development environment local as well as online. This gives you more control over any problems that may arise.

But also, when you code, you want to have your development environment local as well as online. This gives you more control over any problems that may arise. Indeed, when moving from local to online, there are some bugs that come up.

Myceleum’s solution

Myceleum is a platform that allows you to install and customize your development environment in less than 10 minutes. The platform uses container technology to avoid conflicts between applications.

It also synchronizes the environments of different team members. There will be no more errors due to the different environments of the colleagues. This will save you time because you will know directly that it is a code error.

The third solution from Myceleum is a marketplace. It allows developers to buy or sell development environments. Developers can buy a custom environment with confidence, knowing that the seller is another developer who guarantees its good condition. This is to save installation time, because instead of installing a custom environment that already exists, it is better to buy it directly.

Languages and Frameworks

Myceleum has the majority of languages such as :

• PHP
• Pithon
• Java
• Node
• Golang etc

In addition it works to add several.

Myceleum for education

When you learn a new technology, you should not be focused on the programming language you are using in order to better concentrate on the subject. Let’s say a teacher gives his students an assignment and they are required to develop in a certain language. With Myceleum, they will be able to code in the language they want so they don’t have to waste time installing the teacher’s language. For both the student and the teacher, this will allow them to make rapid progress.

Also, with Myceleum, students will be exposed to container and Docker technology early on. It’s not very common and students only get exposed to it when they are in the enterprise.

Conclusion

To summarize, Myceleum is a solution for development environments. The application saves time, avoids errors and makes it easy to customize environments.

To give you a better idea of these features, Bassem has made a small demo at the end of the video. Follow the link to watch it.

L’article Save time developing with Myceleum est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Here is a brief summary of the different steps of his presentation. You can also watch the video of his presentation through the link available at the bottom of the article.

What is React

React is a Java script library that simplifies the work of developers to create a website. Before the creation of React, the sites were created in html, css and JavaScript. But the disadvantage was in the size of the files. They could exceed a thousand lines of code. The work was tedious.

React allows you to fragment your lines of code into blocks similar to Lego. These blocks are reusable so you don’t have to rewrite code that has already been written elsewhere. This simplifies the task and prevents you from making writing mistakes.

The creation of the site

Le header

Before starting to code, Thomas started by creating components. These are the famous blocks that he will have to reuse.

Once these components are ready, we have to code the header with the logo of the site embedded in a banner. I let you see all the different steps in the video from 08: 20 minute to 21:07 minute.

Presentation of the offer

On a website, there is the part where the offer is presented. Thomas has created three frames in which training courses will be presented. In these frames should be put images. In this part he used css to make the frames more pleasant. To this he added a paragraph. Follow the process from 21:21 minute to 56:23 minute.

Conclusion

The purpose of this article was to present succinctly, Thomas’ demo. The video of his run will help you to reproduce what he did. But most importantly, you can learn more from Wild Code School. They have several more detailed training and coaching courses to help you progress.

Here is the link to the video.

L’article How to create a web site with React est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

There are questions that startups would like to have answered. What is scaling? How to scale? In Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience, Romain Mazeries, CEO of Mangopay, provides us with answers to his company’s experience. He explains how his startup has scaled and presents tips you can apply to yours.

This article is a transcript of his passage, and you can follow the video replay with the link available at the bottom of the article.

What is scaling and what is Mangopay?

Mangopay

Mangopay is a payment API launched in 2013. An API is an online payment solution that allows marketplaces to collect money from customers directly on their website. So Mangopay, allows to have a payment interface on a website. It was born from Leetchi.com and has developed to the level of scale-up and helps its startup customers to reach the same level. What has made Mangopay successful is the flexibility of its solution. It has accumulated 15 billion cash flows and is experiencing great growth, especially in human resources. So don’t hesitate to send them your resume.

It is present in 7 countries and is used by more than 2500 platforms like Rakuten, La Redoute or Vinted.

Scaling

Scaling mean the idea of deploying something at a higher level. Going from a startup to a scale-up. When we scale, we try to produce more, while making savings. Scaling is growing and being able to cope with this growth.

How Mangopay helps startups scale

Mangopay was able to scale thanks to the concept of the FlyWheel. It is a mechanical part present in windmills or in tractors. It’s hard to start, but once it gains speed, it accelerates by itself. Every entrepreneur has a Flywheel. Every startup should know its own. Mangopay’s Flywheel goes through 4 stages :

• Connecting with contractors
• Knowing their needs
• Create their solution
• Industrialize the solution on a larger scale

It sounds simple, but each step takes time and internal work to make this process automatic. This principle is important to scale because it is the creation of value that is self-sustaining. There is a real notion of industrialization. You have to set up a system that generates value by itself.

As a credential, Romain takes the example of Vinted, which they have accompanied from their beginning, until their maturation. They helped them to grow their solution from being limited to Lithuania to becoming international. Crowdfunding platforms also trust them to benefit from this FlyWheel By Mangopay. This is also the case of Ulule and KissKIssBankBank.

Conslusion

The solution to scaling seems simple. It is the concept of the Flywheel. However it is not so easy to apply. It is an investment on each step and a follow-up to have. This principle was not invented by Mangopay but is something that can be found in other companies like Amazon. So get closer to Mangopay, to know all the secrets of this method.

Voici le lien de la vidéo la présentation de Romain.

L’article How to scale as a startup ? est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

This article is a summary of his appearance in startup Safari Virtual Experience. However you have the link to the video available at the bottom of the article.

The history of Confer-O-Matic

Before Confer-O-Matic, Michal and his computer friends, created Inmite. It was a startup that developed several applications for IPhone, Android and BlackBerry, at the time when smartphones were just launched. It was successful because it was the first in the Czech Republic to win the “Top Developer badge” award on Google Play. They worked for companies like Google, SKODA and many others. They were known to be a company that cared about the well-being of people at work. That was very important to them. Then they got bought out by Avast and everyone got another job, closing the first chapter of their journey.

After that, this team of friends and developers got together again to create a conference in 2010 to allow people to meet and share time together while learning a lot. Their Leitmotiv is the creation of a community to promote sharing. The conference is called mDevcamp, and it has become a big gathering of the developer community in the Czech Republic. It extends its boundaries internationally as it invites several speakers from different countries to share their experience.

During the 2019 session, Michal and his friends created an app named mDevgame, to allow people to walk through the virtual world of the conference. The idea was to create more connectivity among the guests and add a fun twist to the event. And as a joke, they said they would do the whole conference in a virtual world next year. When the virus arrived in 2020, the idea wasn’t so funny anymore. How could they create an international event online, in a virtual world in such a short time. It was complicated. But convinced by their different skills in application development, they gave it a shot. And they did; completing the development of the app on the very night of the event. That’s how Confer-O-Matic was born. And the event was a success, even though they were nervous and didn’t master all the twists and turns.

It meets the constraint of remote events. There are also ecological advantages. For years, they have been looking for a way to reduce the ecological impact of their event. Indeed, many of them have to travel to attend, so they have to take the plane. This application came at the right time. Confer-O-Matic was created to meet the needs of its creators. With the benefit of hindsight and the global pandemic, they decided that they should make their solution available to other companies.

How is Confer-O-Matic organized

It is an interactive 3D platform for large online events. Much like a video game, like Fortnite. They wanted to allow people to walk around in a world and have freedom of movement. Its features can be summarized in 6 points:

• Ability to accommodate a massive audience

As I said earlier, the virtual world is designed to accommodate crowds.

• Freedom of movement

You can walk around like in a video game, jump, run, dance and even fly!!! It provides several activities. For example, in the Startup Safari world, there was a maze to visit, a small lake and an Eiffel tower to fly over. It was freedom of movement as in the open air.

• To create a professional network

In the virtual world, you can meet people as if you were face to face thanks to chat zones. They are installed all over the world, and allow you to activate your screen and your microphone in order to see the person you are talking to. This makes it easier to talk to people.

• Partners’ stand

As with the physical events, Confer-O-Matic also provides booths for partners or any other organization that wishes to gain visibility and be known by the public.

• Diverse and fun characters

When you arrive in one of the worlds of Confer-O-Matic, you have to define an avatar with which you will interact with others. Michal and his collaborators want to make these events fun, so they allow a wide choice of avatars. You can be a fireman, a viking, a hot dog, a doctor and many other characters.

• Live presentation platforms

The highlight of the show is the presentation platform. It is often the center of the world and hosts the presenters live. You can interact with them by asking them questions. There can also be several presentation platforms. It depends on the event.

Here is a video to show you what it looks like. Follow the link.

Who should use Confer-O-Matic

Internal events

Confer-O-Matic’s world can be built at the request of companies that organize internal events for their organization. They built a world especially for SKODA who was giving a tour of one of their factories to students. This was particularly advantageous for SKODA because if this visit was organized in person, it would have been necessary to set up several safety standards, to plan a catering budget etc… With this virtual tour, they saved a lot of money.

Companies can also use this world for their recruitment, but also for their corporate parties. This was the case of Avast, who used their service. They built a world for their Christmas party. It was convenient because Avast is an international company and organizing such an event with 2000 people was impossible during the lockdown. This allowed employees to see each other and build a social bond. They also worked with Microsoft.

The Public

Events of all types can call upon Confer-O-Matic. This can be the case for conferences, cultural events, fairs etc… That’s how they created a virtual world for the first Czech music festival, Rock For Public. Here is a video clip of the event. Doing this festival during the confinement was impossible, but with this solution, rock fans could meet virtually. It was crowded and they could even dance.

Confer-O-Matic in the future

Confer-O-Matic has achieved this success through containment. Their solution makes sense in a context where it is impossible to meet. What will happen in the virtual world if people see each other again in person?Confer-O-Matic has achieved this success through containment. Their solution makes sense in a context where it is impossible to meet. What will happen in the virtual world if people see each other again in person?

Michal and his team believe that after COVID, things will not be the same. Events can be both face-to-face and remote. A mix of both to allow more people to take part.

They also figure that the events can be done in augmented reality as well. Participants will be able to connect to the virtual world via an augmented reality headset and interact with the world by holding controllers. For now, the world is only accessible with a laptop or desktop computer. They are also thinking about making it available on phones and tablets.

Conclusion

The story of Confer-O-Matic can inspire us to keep going in these difficult times. In their case, the solution was their creativity. Despite the wall of the unknown, they faced their fear. There were only two outcomes. Either it worked or it didn’t. The only way to find out was to try. Do the same and try your ideas.

Here is the link to the video of his appearance in Startup Safari Virtual Experience.

L’article Confer-O-Matic and the containment crisis est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

On the impact stage of Startup SAFARI Virtual Experience, we welcomed Gaspard Lefèvre, head of the Incubation program at La Ruche. He spoke to us about the problem of raising seed funding for Impact projects, i.e. projects with a social impact.

In his presentation Gaspard showed 3 types of financing or fundraising, by grants, debt and by increasing equity. We will summarize everything he said. You also have at the end of the article the link to the video of his presentation.

There will be specific vocabulary. A glossary is at your disposal at the bottom of the article 🙂

The grant

A grant is funding without compensation. It can be public or private. This financing is not dilutive (no opening of capital). The amounts and conditions vary from one structure to another. Moreover the constitution of the file is time-consuming, but one can be accompanied. This is exactly what The Hive does. Here’s how to get this funding, who to contact and when to do it.

Who should I contact for a grant?

There are 2 types of subsidies. The private and the public ones.

Public subsidies come mostly from BPI France, the Public Investment Bank, which financially supports innovative startups throughout France. It does so through a grant, La Bourse French Tech. It amounts to 30 000€ to finance innovation. However, the most important condition of access is to have equity to be able to co-finance the project. You can see the other conditions on La French Tech website. There are subsidies in the different territorial authorities like Les Trophées de l’ESS of the city of Paris. It finances projects that deal with social, societal or environmental issues. Public grants are diverse and varied. Get in touch with your public contacts (regions, departments or municipalities).

For private financing, there are many companies that grant them. This is part of their CSR approach. It is through the foundations of these companies that social and societal impact projects are financed. The amounts vary from a few thousand euros to hundreds of thousands of euros. Foundations such as the Google Impact Challenge or Aviva are very popular in this field. They are often specialized and support clearly defined causes. Foundations that support women, such as the Chanel Foundation or the FAMAE Foundation, which are aimed at companies with an environmental impact.

Find all the foundations in the directory of Centre Français des Fonds et des Fondations. It’s very practical!

You probably won’t get the grants because there is a lot of competition. It’s free money so there’s a lot of traffic on that road. But Gaspard advises you to keep the contacts you will have in these foundations. They will explain to you why you were not selected and you can always apply again for some of the foundations.

How to get grants ?

To get a grant, you will normally start with a research phase. Think about common law financing. These are sectorial policies in force on a given territory (Regions, Departments, Intercommunities, Municipalities). Check regularly the calls for projects on Makesense Spot or on Appel à projets Carenews. The last piece of advice is to regularly contact the funders to keep them informed of the progress of your project and the impact it is having.

Then make sure you understand what the funders want from you. To get the grant, make sure the project is to their liking. So talk to them, go to their website or contact previous winners. This will avoid wasting time responding to their call for proposals, only to have your application rejected.

The hardest part is writing your application. Present the application as clearly as possible. You need to demonstrate to funders that you understand the need of your market and that you know how to meet it. They want to see a concrete solution. Don’t think of taking elements of answers already used in other calls for proposals. Instead, tell your story and simply answer the questions. Also show that you are flexible. They need to see alternative plans as the market changes. Let them know that you are not fixated on a single idea, but on a project as a whole.

The funder’s expectations

Show what and who you are making an impact on. You will not be able to measure it as you are just starting your activity. Qualify this impact or imagine it using the need observed in the market. The need is the key.

Additionality is showing that your impact solution addresses a need or part of a need. For example, if your project is educational, you should demonstrate which part of the education issue you are addressing or which population. Additionality is showing that your solution is complementary to what already exists on the market.

Measurability is about proving your ability to measure your impact. Funders want to know the impact of your solution so they know how their funding will further leverage that impact.

Through your project, they want to communicate their commitment. Give them the opportunity to mobilize their employees and to communicate on their commitment to you.

Finally, the expectations of the funder are to have a clear project by defining indicators of evolution and evaluation of your project. Be square!

Equity

Equity fundraising is the act of opening one’s capital to investors. Unlike a grant, it is mainly to finance operations. These are for example purchases of stocks, marketing expenses, research and development or application development. They are done with private investors. This means that the investors will take part in your capital and will expect a part of the company’s profits. You lose a part of the control of your company according to the shares of the investors. So for this financing, you have to ask yourself the right questions : 

• Why do I want to raise funds?
• What issues do I need to raise money for?

Before going out and getting the funding, you have to show that you have a place in the market and that you are capable of getting clients. So first, you have to go out and find customers, demonstrate your ability to attract and generate impact and then raise the funds. You have to raise funds for the right reasons, that is, to accelerate. First, focus on your first funder, which is the customer.

Who should you contact to open your capital?

Equity investorsThere are different steps to raise equity capital. Entrepreneurs often start with Friends & Family —-> then Business Angels —-> to finish with Institutional Investors. Friends & Family are your friends and family who you can ask to participate in the capital. They are the easiest to reach.

Business Angels are individual investors and most often former entrepreneurs. They are individuals who act on their own behalf and who want to invest in high-growth or start-up companies. You can find them in investor clubs such as Les Cigales, Garrigue, ANGELSQUARE, ClUB INVEST IDF, or on participative financing platforms that mobilize citizens’ savings to finance your projects in equity. Take a look at LITA and WEDOGOOD.

For these investors, it is essential to understand that they are people like you and me. Compared to institutional investors, you can therefore convince them more easily on targets of commitments or according to their financing issues. Link up with Business Angels who know your sector, because they bring to your company skills, resources or a network. Since they take part in the capital, you will have to report to them and consult them for strategic decisions. They are close to the entrepreneurs and play a mentoring role.

For institutional investors, there are different kinds. Inco, Phitrust, Citizen Capital and Investir et plus, invest in series A and series B phases, that is to say a third or fourth round. But there are players who come in early, from the beginning of the creation of your company. They intervene in Seed or Pre-Seed. This is the case of France Active and Alliance for Impact, which is an acceleration program coupled with an impact seed fund and partner of La Ruche. With this program, La Ruche can raise seed funding ranging from €300,000 to €1,000,000.

Comment ouvrir son capital ?

As a first step, you must prepare documents bringing together the essential information for investors to understand your project. These documents are called “the Deck”. They must answer the following questions :

• Who is leading the project ?  

• What have you already achieved? 
• What will you achieve with fundraising ? 
• How much do you plan to raise ?

To this, you will add your past accounts, the Excel forecast, the financing plans and the cash flow statement. With all these documents and a well-defined upstream strategy, it will then be necessary to target the right investors, to save you time. This is a point on which La Ruche supports entrepreneurs. Make their sign!

When an investor receives you, he will go further with the Investor Due-Dil. It is a survey that he will carry out to go into the details of what makes up your company, at the level of HR, legal, accounting and commercial. The length of this survey depends on the investor or the size of the amount you are raising. It is this survey that will reassure the investor so you have to prepare and put yourself in your best light. 

Having an investor is building a long-term relationship. So don’t be too aggressive when negotiating. However, do not hesitate to put investors in competition. The same goes for bankers and all financial partners. Contact several to keep the choice on your side.

And finally, make Smart Money. It is the fact of choosing investors who are in your sector and who will be able to bring network, specific skills or knowledge about the sector. Challenge investment funds, also putting them in competition to make the best choice. But don’t expect a follow-up as close as that of the Business Angels.

The expectations of funders

You have to prove the scalability of the project. Demonstrate that the project will grow in the future. To do so, it will be necessary to present an ambitious and operational BP (Business Plan).

Show that the return on investment is in line with your investment thesis or the way you plan to invest. For this, you will have to simulate the IRR (rate of return on investment) of the investor. This will let him know when he will start making money.

Investors care about a competent team. So recruit the right profiles to attract them. Internalize the technology. It’s more reassuring than calling on service providers all the time. This is a very important point !!

You also need to have economic fundamentals to present a good business plan. And finally, cultivate a relationship of trust, partnership and transparent with the funder.

Debt

La dette est un type de financement qui ne nécessite pas l’ouverture de votre capital. Elle sert souvent à financer des investissements comme la R&D (Recherche et développent), travaux d’aménagement ou d’achats de matériels couteux. Il faudrait se rapprocher des partenaires bancaires à Impact.

Quel partenaire bancaires choisir ?

Debt is a type of financing that does not require opening your capital. It is often used to finance investments such as R&D (Research and Development), development work or the purchase of expensive equipment. We should get closer to Impact’s banking partners.

For personal loans, you have actors such as France Active, Initiative France, Réseau Entreprendre or Raise Sherpas.

Regarding business loans, you can choose, La Nef, France Active, BPI France, Groupe Crédit Coopératif and BNP Parisbas. These banks are interesting because they are committed to impact and some of them have bank advisers trained to understand new businesses with innovative business models.

How to get debt ?

As usual, you must present documents that show the financial state of your business, so your past accounts, Excel forecasts, etc…

Once you’ve met the lender, take an honor loan first. This will give you a guarantee for other bank loans. Then, you will have to put yourself in the lender’s shoes to understand on what points he needs to be reassured. Indeed, as a lender, he will like to be sure that you will be able to repay. So present him your business strategy, super mega reassuring and relevant.

During the negotiation, do not hesitate to put the lenders in competition. Of course, you are aware of the balance of power between you and the bank. You are not the best at negotiating. That’s why don’t go out and do loans or fundraising when you’re strapped for cash. You will be even more in bad shape and increase your chances of refusal. Anticipate this. Borrow, raise funds before you are in the red zone. Loaning or fundraising shouldn’t be a lifeline, but rather gasoline that will propel you further.

Conclusion

We are finally at the end of this article. Thank you for following up to this point and I hope you learned as much as I did by transcribing Gaspard’s presentation. She is rich in advice and the best advice I could give you is to have an incubator accompany you. Your project may have specific characteristics. You will need a guide. La Ruche will be delighted to welcome you, for a fundraising journey as sweet as honey!

Here is the video link of Gaspard’s presentation.

L’article Raising funds at the seed stage of a startup est apparu en premier sur Start in France.