I’m sure you remember the last time something that was working unexpectedly stopped.
Maybe you were driving a car that died on a small country road, or you were taking a shower when the hot water suddenly disappeared, or you realised that finding a house electric panel in the dark is harder than it looks.
The silver lining of those experiences is that you learned - and immediately forgot - a valuable lesson.
Most of our civilised environment is invisible to the eye.
The cogs of the complex civilisation machine turn behind a veil, and we blissfully ignore them.
Until we cannot.
And in these moments, we receive another gift.
We - briefly - see the world like someone who has to lift that veil.
We see as a mechanic, a plumber or an electrician who sees what is invisible to us every day.
But of course, we have all acquired our own job conditioning.
We all notice things that are invisible to others.
We are all as designers who notice the font on a street sign, as chefs who nitpick on the freshness of spices, as musicians who notice the pitch and tempo of a voice.
We all carry eyes, noses, and ears that sense more, or differently.
And we all gain new abilities from each new experience, that we then carry along.
So next time you decide to go back to school, or switch to a new industry, you will not be spending money on tuition or taking a pay cut for a lack of experience.
You will simply be investing in a new pair of eyes.
You came here to learn something 📚
Our open-source series 🎥
Who cares about new ideas?
Forget innovation, and steal ideas without anyone complaining.
(Feel free to steal the idea of the latest episode of OpenSource from HEC Records!)
One masterclass a day keeps ignorance away 📺
Everyone tells you that you should recruit people who are better than you.
But it’s easier said than done.
If you want to delve into that topic, don’t miss our Doers-to-doers with Emilie from Serena and Thomas from Garantme.
Our professors bring all the brains to the yard 🧠
You might think that indulging in the purchase of luxury items is a bit egotistic, or at best, social signalling.
And therefore, you might believe that those actions are hardly correlated with altruistic behaviour.
But if you want to know how you can actually nudge luxury consumers into contributing to charity, have a look at this new study by HEC Paris Marketing Professor L. J. Shrum and PhD Sukhyun Kim, and Kiwan Park of Seoul National University, thanks to Knowledge @HEC.
Legal Corner 📖
After spending years working on the perfect design for your product, it would be a shame not to be able to protect it.
If you want to know more about design IP protection, check out this piece from Coralline Manier-Gallas from Woog & Associés.
A little spotlight never hurt anyone ✨
Our community recent achievements 🏆
Okarito, the key to hassle-free business travel, got acquired by Swile.
Pimster just raised €2M to make sure suffering from unwieldy user manuals is a thing of the past.
Reglo just raised €1.8M to keep on building insect-based alternatives to current meat-based pet food.
Goodvest just raised €2M (and is launching a crowdfunding!) to develop additional sustainable investment products.
Looking for the best way to keep your talent? Read Seedlegals piece in Maddyness.
How do you make crop fertilizing be more sustainable? Check out what Veragrow is doing in Les Échos.
Returning a couch is not as easy as returning a pair of shoes, but Smartback makes sure that they too get a second life.
The world of lawyers can be a traditional one, but Valentin from Anomia is pushing for faster change.
Asmaa from VelyVelo is the new laureate of Madame Figaro Business with Attitude award.
Campsider is extending the life to ever more outdoors items, by now adding Millet to their pool of partners.
Lakaa is spreading their user network further and further, by recently expanding to 350 new Bureau Vallée locations.
Program focus 🔋
HEC Paris Demo Day 2022 🎦
Last Tuesday was the long awaited HEC Demo Day 2022 at Station F.
With the help of HEC Seed and HEC Paris Innovation & Entrepreneurship Center, and with the support of Cédric O and Éloic Peyrache, we got a full day of discussions, keynotes and startup pitches, showcasing the diversity of our ecosystem, and getting us excited about the coming years.
Stay tuned for more replays, but you can already watch our panel on the Future of Space, thanks to the space stream of Creative Destruction Lab Paris:
TotalEnergies On💡
Station F has officially welcomed yet another partner, to help build the low-carbon energy ecosystem.
10 days ago, TotalEnergies was at Station F to officially launch the program and welcome their new cohort of mobility, renewable energy production, trading and optimisation startups.
A rare opportunity for founders to discuss directly with TotalEnergies top leadership.
Hectar Accelerator 🌱
A few weeks ago, Hectar welcomed its second startup cohort.
12 new companies joined the family, still covering the range of FoodTech, AgTech, and Regenerative Agriculture technologies.
If you want to apply, it’s never too early!
Our community is nothing if you don’t join it 💪
Where is your dream job? 🎯
Do you want to help the future of CO2 tracking?
Join Traace!
Do you believe that satisfied consumers are better than advertising?
Join Wiink!
Do you believe that we should not suffer from lacking everyday items due to shortages of electronics components?
Join Airenc!
Do you believe that women’s health is under-addressed and lacking natural alternatives?
Join Nuwa!
Do you think that images take too much of the internet footprint?
Join Twicpics!
Do you want to help with the clean energy transition?
Join Granular!
Do you think that electric vehicules adoption is limited by charging points?
Join Time2Plug!
Calls for applications 📢
Join Incubateur HEC Paris 👐
We are currently recruiting our next batch of startups, starting in Septembre 2022!
If you want to join our community of 1000 entrepreneurs, at Station F or remotely, find out everything you need to know.
The deadline for the first step is on June 13th, hurry up!
Urban Odyssey
As you may know, we operate Urban Odyssey in partnership with Icade, to build the future of urban life, and we have launched and supported together a dozen of early-stage start-up projects.
For its 4th year of existence, Urban Odyssey is calling for entrepreneurs to co-create their startup and accelerate the transition towards better cities.
5 ventures will be part of the 2022 cohort. Now, it’s your turn!
And if you need to experiment with your ideas before delving further into it, you can join the upcoming one-week Urban Sprint, and meet some like-minded people!
“I invent nothing, I rediscover”