Summer at the Incubateur HEC Paris
Hi! Welcome to the Incubateur HEC Paris’s newsletter! We hope you are enjoying your summer, be it on vacation or at work. Amidst these uncertain times, we are committed to continue sharing inspiring entrepreneur interviews, advice for blooming startups, as well as all of our startups’ latest news. Stay tuned and check out these past weeks’ recap!
Startup News 🐣
Entrepreneur closeup: Driss Hafid, CEO of Bunji
Success is all about using the right tools for the job at hand. And the right software for a real estate professional can make a world of difference. This is where Bunji comes in, a new software specifically engineered for realtors. Bunji coalesces a meeting generator, which identifies home sellers by leveraging property managers’ networks, and a monitoring software, which ensures the realtor convinces the seller of its expertise from the very first meeting, into one seamless software.
Bunji was created from scratch by Driss Hafid and Christopher Bagard at the HEC Incubator at Station F. Today we are meeting with Driss Hafid.
How did the idea to create Bunji come about?
“The idea of Bunji came when we realized that most of our friends who bought/sold a house, had a bad user experience. Most of the methods currently used by realtors are outdated. But we cannot blame them because they just do not have the right tools to help them in their day-to-day business.” […]
What are some difficulties you’ve faced while building your company?
“We faced a few difficulties while building Bunji: the first one is to be able to launch a product that you’re not entirely satisfied with. The “quick-and-dirty” / ”lean” state of mind that you need to have when launching a new product is not something we were familiar with.” […]
8 interesting e-commerce shipping statistics
62% of consumers consider delivery as the first selection criterion when making an online purchase.
84% of internet users say they are ready to change their site if they don't find a delivery option that suits their needs.
28% of internet users who have suffered inconvenience following the delivery of a product talk about it around them.
98% of internet users want to reorder from a site if the delivery went well!
58% of orders placed on the internet recommend home delivery which is particularly popular with online shoppers.
Read the guide to excelling in e-commerce shipping and learn more about Bigblue, a next-gen logistics provider and customer-experience toolkit for your e-commerce!
7 tips to go from $1m to $2m ARR in 6 months with no fundings
Guillaume Moubeche is CEO of Lemlist and a former HEC incubee. Here are the main things his company implemented in order to keep an exponential growth and go from $1m to $2m ARR in 5 months in a time of global crisis and without spending any money on paid channels.
Adapt quickly, write valuable content, solve new problems
Focus on your users
Keep prospecting
Leverage the biggest community around sales automation
Use LinkedIn to distribute and promote content
Together we’re stronger
Together we go further
Read the full article for in-depth advice
Velyvelo is entering the moroccan market!
After pursuing studies in France, Othman, Jamil and Asmaa entered the innovation and entrepreneurship sector by conceiving an electric bike targeted towards delivery professionals. Asmaa Chakir Alaoui, cofounder of Velyvelo, shared her story with Le360 and announced the startup will soon enter the Moroccan market.
“Morocco is a pioneer in the fields of sustainable development, sustainable cities and it seems absolutely natural to bring our innovation to Morocco.”
- Asmaa Chakir Alaoui, cofounder of Velyvelo
Fintecture Pay by Bank now has a partnership with Prestashop
Fintecture, cofounded by Tatiana Rozoum, Faysal Oudmine, Reda Charai and Anjan Som, is an authorized Payment Institution and the first bank to bank instant payment solution in France, implanted in the HEC Incubator at Station F. Thanks to its partnership with Prestashop, Fintecture Pay by Bank is now available directly in the backoffice of 60 000 Prestashop e-merchants in France. Fintecture Pay by Bank enables merchants to instantly increase their conversion rates while simultaneously reducing their transaction costs significantly.
Discover Fintecture Pay by Bank
Our startups are hiring!
Bigblue - next-gen logistics provider and customer-experience toolkit for your e-commerce
Datasoluce - cloud-based platform which transforms buildings into predictable assets
Dropcontact - solution which corrects, normalizes, deduplicates and unifies the information of all your contacts in 1 click
Ekestrian - 1st auction platform for exceptional horses
Garantme- French rent guarantor for your housing in France
Joinbrief - platform which organizes personalized photo or video B2B shootings
Justice.cool- digital mediation solution assisted by AI for small lawsuits
Lemlist - cold email tool powering sales teams, agencies and B2B businesses to personalize and automate outreach campaigns
Mercateam - platform which optimizes staff management
Myjobglasses - innovative recruitment platform
Okarito - free professional travel management platform
Simundia - the digital coaching platform for a personalized development experience
Incubator News 🚀
HEC Incubator x Humind School Batch #8 Online Demo Day
Humind School is a 9 week bootcamp. For the 8th edition, each student group, as part of their final project, was assigned to an HEC Incubator startup, namely Dropcontact.io, FASTROAD, Kraaft.co and Mercateam, and was able to help on their business development during the past 2 weeks.
They were able to:
gain knowledge on business solutions, sales tools and the business process of their respective startup
contact and qualify targeted leads (outbound & inbound)
book demo meeting with qualified leads
animate/participate during the demo meetings when possible
evaluate and follow business performance
suggest ideas and tools to improve the business process
Romain Hévin supported the students daily during these 2 weeks and closely monitored their goals.
Interested in learning more about Humind School and their students’ collaboration with the HEC Incubator?
The whole Humind School team invites you to their Batch #8 Demo Day, Friday the 14th at 5pm!
Register here for the online Demo Day
How long can you stay at the HEC Incubator?
The concept of time can set apart success from failure. Every offer revolves around around 2 different value propositions: enjoying time or saving time. Time is the currency of our century and how you spend it is what matters.
Unlimited
As an incubator helping startups grow, our inherent but complex duty is to help entrepreneurs save time on building four blocks: product, sales, finance and recruitment, by multiplying quality interactions within our network. Our promise is to enable you to reach in 3 months goals you will not have reached in 1 year on your own.
As an incubator conducting research we aim to match quantity and quality by analyzing how much time is spent at the incubator and how this time is beneficial for startups. How much time each startup will spend with us is then something to be determined jointly.
3 months, but renewable
Since 2007 we have tried incubation terms of 9 months, 12 months, 6 months and since 2018 we have settled for terms of 3 months, but renewable. Our oldest startups are currently on their 12th renewal of the 3-month incubation term.
Renewable as we believe in a lifelong program for each member of our collective following 3 pillars : tailor made, à la carte, participative. Your startup’s improvement is directly linked to your commitment.
Ready to join us?
Join as a startup to experience our 3 months and renewable program.
That’s it for today. See you in two weeks for the next one.