Entrepreneurship: ESSEC Ventures incubator: testimonies

Discover the testimonies of entrepreneurs who have had atypical adventures in the ESSEC Ventures Incubator.

A passion that gives birth to a company passion

When the students of the Shamrock association spoke to ESSEC Ventures, they had already distributed three issues of the cultural magazine Sofa free of charge. Many of them have participated, and still participate, in an adventure that lets them pursue their careers while still managing the Culture et Grands Coussins. Nicolas discusses their adventure.

“The cultural magazine Sofa was created by students in the Shamrock association. After the first three issues, distributed free of charge, the desire to move to kiosk sales made the transition to a more professional organization essential. Its integration in the ESSEC Ventures Incubator helped us create the Culture et grands coussins company and prepare the national launch in March 2000 with 60,000 copies. Today, the magazine is still managed by its creators. Some have taken advantage of this first experience to participate in other publishing ventures such as So Foot and Bag magazines."

Nicolas Urbain

Website:

www.sofa.fr

Unbelievable but true: the example of a student who created and then sold his company in 6 months!

Thanks to the support of ESSEC Ventures, Mathias Deray was able to take a pragmatic approach to the problems inherent in creating and selling a company. He reflects on his experience:

“I created Amagora Communications in June, 2003. The company is based on a simple concept: offering a want-ad turnkey service to small and medium-size websites.

During this period, another company, Mixad, was offering a similar product, but their target was major websites like Lycos or M6. The idea was to offer the same solution but to smaller customers. I decided to contact Mixad, and they were willing to negotiate and sign a sales agreement. .

Although the agreement was economically profitable, the director of Mixad announced one day that they planned to terminate the contract and offer their own solution to my customers. When the breach of contract occurred, I thought I would be unable to continue, that the Mixad product would be of much better quality compared to mine, and that my customers would leave very quickly.

But contrary to all expectations, I was able to keep all my customers. Although more credible than Amagora Communications, Mixad had never worked with small and medium-sized websites. After 4 years of work, Mixad had about forty large customers, while Amagora Communications had 1,500 after 4 months. By mid-October 2003, Amagora Communications had become the internet gold standard in its field.

However, ideas for product improvement and partnership possibilities began to run out of steam. Amagora Communications had always been self-financed, and I had been working alone. I needed a breath of fresh air to continue to grow.

I thought of two possibilities: organize a fund-raising campaign, or offer my company to Mixad.

Selling to my direct competitor seemed to be the most logical option, since we had a number of synergies in common and had already worked together. I thought that a fund-raising campaign would lead to open war with Mixad although another alternative existed – merging the two companies.

Thus this solution seemed the most intelligent one, and having reached an agreement that was good for me financially, I decided to sell Amagora Communications to Mixad December 11, 2003." Mathias Deray