After slaying the Minotaur, Theseus returned triumphant to Athens with the youth of the city.
To honour his successes, Athenians decided to preserve his ship, keeping her seaworthy for the decades to come.
Old planks that would rot and decay were changed for new and stronger timber, and sails and ropes would be replaced as they frayed.
And so the Ship of Theseus endured, and lasted longer than any man who sailed her.
But, after all these years, was it still the same ship?
If you ask entrepreneurs what lies at the heart of their ventures, most would tell you that it is their team.
Markets, solutions, products are transient, but challenges can be endured through the quality of the people surrounding you.
But teams change, so how can one keep its identity through the substitution of its parts?
Incubateur HEC Paris celebrated its 15th birthday this year.
Obviously, no-one is left from that time.
Even in the past five years, since our true growth started, many joined and left.
Parts were replaced, and completely new parts were added, so is Incubateur HEC Paris the same ship it was?
After two years of being part of Incubateur HEC Paris, the time has come for me to leave the team… (although I still remain within the school for new adventures)
And as this newsletter is a dinghy aboard our ship, new timber will replace me as well.
Which is why I could not be happier to bequeath this medium to Orhiane & Tristan, to let them shape it as freely as I was able to.
Our ship is getting new oars and sails, but the course is still set.
Goodspeed, Aymeric.
TL;DR: Forget metaphysics, embrace empiricism.
✨ Today’s highlight ✨
Entrepreneurs,
No more wandering.
Overcome your fears.
Silence doubts.
👇 This is your shortcut. Apply for the January 2023 Batch
You have 10 days left.
You came here to learn something 📚
Our open-source series 🎥
Two of the most recognizable faces on Social Media share how they do business
Nothing better than the comfort of a couch to let go of your deepest secrets. Friends and entrepreneurs, Guillaume Moubeche from Lemlist and Denis Cohen from Dropcontact reminisce old times in a powerful series offering a unique insight into how they make their business grow.
👉 The 6-minute episode on how to tell yourself apart from the mass when selling
👉 The 10-minute episode on which no-code gems made their success
👉 Follow Denis Cohen and Guillaume Moubeche for more
A Doers to Doers a day keeps ignorance away 📺
⚡️ Doers to Doers: The audience gets to squeeze the brain juice of seasoned entrepreneurs and experts, who share their best strategies and actionnable tips.
👇 Content creation saved the companies of David Bitton, who today coaches Privateaser, Malt, Booksy (ex-Kiute) and many others as a Serena Operating Partner and of Victor Linder from Behind The Skills.
👇 3 other burning subjects have been submitted to the sharp questions of our audience lately
⚡️ Don’t have a politic strategy? You should. Justine Ba from Public Studio (ex-Roomba) and Baptiste Fournier, a Political influence expert from Virtus Influence will tell you why and how.
⚡️ Don’t let the crisis kill your startup, by Bruno Peyroles, who founded Bureau Vallée in 1991 and has been through a couple already.
⚡️Who best than Erwan Kezzar, ex-cofounder of Simplon and founder of Contournement.io can help you decipher how to - and not to - use no-code ops to save dozens of hours each month?
🔥🔥 Upcoming events
You’ve done everything right.
Customers love your product, and they have tons of suggestions to make you grow.
But you’re reaching the limits of your execution skills.
How to chose the functionalities that will make you win ?
How to know what your clients need better than themselves ?
How to identify, prioritize and scale your differentiating factors?
Nicolas has been testing and refining the best product development techniques for 12 years in his own startups and in those he has coached at The Tribe.
⚡️ It’s a Doers to Doers: come with your questions, Wednesday, October 19th, 11h.
Our professors bring all the brains to the yard 🧠
Were you born creative? Or can you learn how to master CEO's and organizations' most important skill in today's turbulent business environment? Anne Laure Sellier is a researcher in cognitive and social psychology and a Cartier-Chaired Professor of Marketing and Creativity. She will explore with you how to develop a more creative way of thinking on Tuesday, October 20th.
An article from our professeur emeritus Jean-Paul Michel Larçon explains how the war forced companies to rethink their supply chains.
A little spotlight never hurt anyone ✨
Our community recent achievements 🏆
19 entrepreneurs from the first Challenge+ Africa promotion celebrated the achievement of the program in Abidjan.
Forbes explains how Smartback revolutionize the second-hand furniture market.
Le Parisien makes us dream about the future of work, thanks to Outwork allowing productive and relaxing sessions 1h30 away from Paris.
Artpoint makes NFTs get out of people’s wallets.
Zeplug raises 240M€ and buys its competitor to recharge electric cars.
This summer, Hors Normes raised 7M€ to avoid food waste everywhere in Europe, Traace has raised 2.5M€ to track companies’ carbon footprint on top of developing an interesting open source tool you should use to if you have an electric car, Goodvest has raised 2M€ to make sustainable investing accessible to anyone, Granular raised 2M€ to facilitate the transition to 24/7 clean energy, Campsider raised 2M€ to become the Backmarket of outsoor sports equipment.
More recently, Julaya raised 5M€ to become the banking partner of businesses in Francophone Africa, Phagos has raised 2.4M€ to replace antibiotics in animal farms, MyEasyFarm raised 1M€ for a sustainable low-carbon agriculture and Lola Health 800K€ for a more inclusive health insurance.
Program focus 🔋
9 new ambitious ventures joined the Hectar program in 🚜 Smart Farming 💻 Agribusiness 🌱 Novel Food 📦 Logistic & storage: welcome to the new cohort!
We also received the visit of a delegation led by Choi Sangdae, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Economy and Finance of South Korea, to support the 21 South-Korean startups of the KSC program. The KSC program was created to improve the market fit of South Korean startups in France and in Europe, and to accelerate their business development.
Our community is nothing if you don’t join it 💪
Where is your dream job? 🎯
Want to help Sales people find meaning in their job?
DropContact is looking for a full-time Junior Customer Success Manager.
Interested in enabling circular economy for furnitures?
SmartBack needs some help on the Operations side.Want to help one of the most promising beauty startups grow?
Salwa Petersen is hiring a CEO right hand as an intern.Lawyers need to know how to build a business too.
Be part of Anomia’s consulting team to make them grow.Feel like unleashing the potential of forests?
The founders of Kloros need a right hand intern.Companies need you to reclaim control over their online sales.
Join Ayolab’s team as a Business Analyst.Want to power Sales on LinkedIn by working in a fast-growing startup?
LeadJet has 10 open positions in Development, Marketing, Business Strategy & Operations.
Calls for applications 📢
Entrepreneurs,
No more wandering.
Overcome your fears.
Silence doubts.
👇 This is your shortcut. Apply for the January 2023 Batch
You have 10 days left.
What can you expect you when you join the Incubateur HEC Paris?
Not only will you join the ones that came right before you, but you are going to join a much bigger family.
Let’s talk numbers: Eloic Peyrache, General Director of HEC Paris, presents the summary of what the Innovation & Entrepreneurship at HEC Paris has achieved.
👉 Whatever you do, make it happen, make it big.
Nostalgia Zone
🔗 Top clicked links of our last newsletter
Doers to Doers: Gather the team that will make my company succeed - with Serena & GarantMe