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 transcript of his passage, and you have the possibility to follow the video replay with the link available at the bottom of the page.

La Ruche qui dit oui

La Ruche qui dit Oui is a platform where consumers can buy local products from local producers. The mission is to allow everyone to create a fair food system. They provide a platform for three types of actors to make this exchange and consume locally. They are: producers, hive managers and consumer members.

The producers put on the platform, the products to sell. Then the consumers buy the product. Then, they will meet together at a meeting point fixed by the manager. The manager of the hive will prepare this small improvised market, on which the members will come to get their product.

For producers, the platform consists of two interfaces. One to set up their product catalog. A second one allows putting forward their stock and their sales to better manage the stock. The most important thing is that this platform allows producers to sell. They can also freely set their selling price.

The beehive managers take care of the logistic part and ensure all the communication with the members who are the last major actors. They buy the products every week from the producers.

Progression

In order to provide this platform, it has been necessary to grow this network over the past few years. The curve above shows this.

Anita thinks that within the startup, they’ve had some big increments to reach maturity in 2018. The number of hives has stabilized quite a bit in some countries.

The hives are opened by different types of people. Some have their own business and the hive is only a complement to their activity. But there are also people who work for the hive that says Yes full time. They want to make it their job.

The importance of local consumption

At the beginning of the launch of La Ruche qui dit Oui, it was not easy. At that time, the fact of consuming locally was not too well known or too widespread. People at the beginning were very militant. But over the years, things have evolved. In the meantime, La Ruche qui dit Oui has worked on the professionalization of its platforms. It wanted to meet the expectations of the hive managers because there were many requests for professionalization in Germany.

Coping with growth

The second big challenge that La Ruche qui dit Oui has had is the growth in the number of project holders. At the beginning, they were welcomed in a very personalized way. But as soon as a large number of them started to apply, the requests became more and more numerous. It was therefore difficult to follow them all in a personalized way, especially since they were a small team working for La Ruche qui dit Oui. The solution was to set up processes to make sure we could respond to everyone. At the same time, we have to qualify the requests we receive to make sure that people are motivated and can follow through on their project.

Among the challenges they faced was the creation of common rules for the networks. This was done by focusing mainly on two points: buying directly from the producers’ farm, or buying from the registered producers.

Build your network

The last big challenge was to grow the network. La Ruche qui dit Oui already had local teams across Europe. They allowed them to accompany the hive managers, but also the producers’ networks.

They also favored the ambassador system, which consists in giving responsibilities to some hive managers. These people will accompany and develop the network in their areas. They can set up operations for producers who are a little far away to promote communication between hive managers, etc.

An international startup

As La Ruche qui dit Oui has grown, it has had a challenge in creating its brand. The company has a local identity, so it’s a bit difficult to stay with the same identity internationally. We had to adapt to different countries, so that the message was clear. We even had to adapt certain means of payment in the countries where it has developed.

Follow the link to watch the video.

L’article Discovery of the starup La Ruche qui dit Oui est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

Kiss Kiss Bank Bank is a platform for participatory financing to enable projects to develop. The company does not support BtoB projects, but rather BtoC projects.

Kiss Kiss Bank Bank

This platform was created 12 years ago. The company continues to evolve in its field, and in fact, today they have developed other platforms besides KKBB. For example, Lendopolis which is a platform of remunerated loans for renewable energy development projects. There is also Goodeed which is a solidarity advertising application that allows you to make donations through advertising, i.e. to support social projects by simply watching an ad. The last platform is MicroDon, which is also a startup that does rounding on salary, i.e. rounding in cash.

The crowdfunding

Participative financing, or also crowdfunding, is the fact of having one’s project or part of one’s project financed by the general public. This is done through an investment that consists in taking shares in the capital of the startup. It can also be done by a loan (crowdlading), by a pre-sale especially for entrepreneurial projects or even by a donation.

The objectives of a crowdfunding campaign are:

• Diversify its sources of financing
• To have cash before launching the production
• Communicate about your project
• Strengthen your community and involve it in your project
• Test your project / product with the public
• Make sales and go to scale

On crowdfunding platforms, today the mode of operation is the so-called “All or Nothing” mode. If the project owner does not reach his desired sales in the time he has set, everyone will be refunded. There is no commission on the sales made, as the goal of the sales is not reached, and the project owner does not receive any funding. Adrien thinks that this is both a failure and a way to understand the cause of the failure.

KKBB has a dedicated coach for each project. He accompanies the project holders in a personalized way. The company also has a whole business model for crowdfunding. Statistically, KKBB has a success rate of 75%, which means that three out of four projects succeed in being funded and are 100% successful.

How to take the next step with crowdfunding?

The first step is to succeed in your storytelling before you even start. You have to tell the beautiful story behind the project. This is an effective communication tool in a content marketing strategy. Above all, you need to have communication skills to make the story as beautiful as possible to encourage people to get out their credit cards!

Then the second step, which is also important, is to have a community that is ready to support you. It is obvious that before launching your campaign, you need to have a community of subscribers. People who are interested in the project or people who have left their email to be contacted. They will be there when the project starts, ready to launch the project with you.

Don’t forget that crowdfunding is played out in the first 48 hours, which is why it is important to have a community that is interested. You should not hesitate to grow your social networks, or to address influencers who can help you.

Finally, the last step to a successful crowdfunding campaign is to master social networks and web marketing to capture an audience and convert it. This starts with the entourage, passing through what is called the relay of influence, reaching the general public.

L’article Participatory financing by Kiss Kiss Bank Bank est apparu en premier sur Start in France.

It turns out that the fear of public speaking is the second human fear after the fear of death. Let’s find out together what it is!

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

What is fear of public speaking?

This fear can be summed up in one simple phrase: IT IS THE FEAR OF FAILING. It is a fear not to be taken lightly. Sometimes people who have this fear, may just miss an opportunity, and not seize it because of this urge to stay hidden, to stay in their comfort zones, to run away to feel safe.

They may miss great opportunities that can help them evolve and push them forward, without even knowing it.

This desire to stay away from the gaze of others, this desire not to attract attention, not to feel like the center of interest for fear that people in front of them will judge them on their behavior, their way of thinking and expressing themselves, their gesticulation, their way of seeing things… All these fears are summarized in the desire to stay in their comfort zone by preferring not to take the initiative to speak in public.

The causes

What we say is us, and what we don’t say is us too! When we tell ourselves that it is difficult to speak in public, our brain picks up the information and convinces itself that it is really difficult.

All the words we say are part of our personality. They affect our brain and they also shape the way we live. It is not related to intellectual abilities or to being rather sociable, as some people think. You can be sociable and you can enjoy contact with people.

But, when we have to speak in public, our brain says no. It is mostly related to the experience of the person in question, his failures and successes, his childhood, his self-confidence and his vision of things.

It’s a whole bunch of emotions

There is not necessarily a method to remedy it. It’s a whole bunch of emotions, and obviously you have to believe in your emotions, because they’re what lead us to understand our inner state. So it’s the emotions that matter the most.

Let’s go back a year or two. If you ask yourself what you remembered from the last conference you attended more than a year ago, you may not remember what was said, the words that were used and the phrases that were said.

However, what we can keep in mind is the emotions we had during this conference.

Faiza Chaarani calls people back one year after the coaching sessions to see what they remember and what they keep in mind. 83% of people remember non-verbal and vocal communication when speaking in public. It is therefore the tone, the voice, the body, the eyes and the look that will be remembered, as opposed to 17% of the content transmitted by verbal communication.

Who says fear, says danger.

Humans are only afraid when they feel in danger, when they feel that something can make them upset, can hurt them physically or emotionally. Scientifically, this is a biological reaction. Our body is programmed and made to react when it is in danger. Our brain receives signals, and all this can be reflected on the outside.

Signs that a person is afraid of public speaking

• Reddening
• Dry throat
• Trembling
• Stammering
• Loss of words
• Sweating
• Difficulty breathing
• Looking at the sky for fear of forgetting the words
• Looking at the ground instead of the audience
• Putting your hands behind your back or behind your pockets

Tips for successful public speaking

• Being aligned : Alignment is done in 4 stages : the fact of thinking, the feelings related to those thoughts; what we can say and what we can do (our actions). A human being is most aligned when these four areas are as close together as possible.
• Interact with those present through eye contact, with gesture, tone of voice.
• Getting into the habit of daring, of carrying out that challenge, of challenging yourself and not missing an opportunity that allows you to move forward.
• Be yourself, don’t try to be like someone else.
• Work on yourself, have your way of getting attention and catching glances.
• Respect in return the way of thinking different than one’s own.
• Getting the message across in a simple, effective, clear and unambiguous way but above all being convinced of the message you are putting across.

Follow the link to watch the video.

L’article Get rid of the fear of public speaking est apparu en premier sur Start in France.