This KEDGE Alumnus raised 250K€ to expand Wecasa, a start-up specialised in at home services!

I pursed an ESC degree at KEDGE Business School (which was called ESC Bordeaux at the time) between 2000 and 2004, with a specialisation in "e-business", which sounds very vintage today, but was already reflective of my interest in new technologies. The Internet was in its early stages at the time. Facebook didn't exist yet, neither did the iPhone! 

 

After obtaining my degree, I worked for eight years in the field of digital distribution. At the beginning, I learned how to manage a network of professionals, and I haven't stopped doing so ever since! Then, I worked for five years as Director of Operations at Quelle Energie, a leading startup in Energy Conservation Consulting. I started out when the company was expanding, and left it after it was sold. In five years we grew tremendously, we multiplied our revenues by five. My entire career was marked by innovation, new technologies, and developing new activities. 

 

Today, I am the Co-Founder of Wecasa.fr, a website that allows you to reserve all of you at home services in a few simple clicks (hair stylist, beautician, private classes...). The idea came from my impatience: when I was working (a lot) in my former company, I only had Saturday afternoon to go get a haircut. Having to wait in line 30 minutes, while reading Voici and listening to Skyrock, was more thatn I could bear. So I came up with the idea to create a platforme where you could easily book a hairdresser to come to your home when it was most convenient for you. I wanted to website to be for people that like to go to the hair salon, but also those who (like me) don't enjoy it all. As such, the service need to be, above all, simple and easy to use! After talking about my idea with the founders of my former company, we realised that we shared many of the same ideas and wanted to start a new adventure together. So we joined forces to create Wecasa and expanded our idea to include all at home services. 

 

A little less than a year after launching the project, we noticed that our activity was developing nicely. With several thousand clients, and more than 300 professional partners, the service was working, and clients liked it. As a result, our business was increasing from 20 to 30% per month. To accelerate our growth, we just raised 250,000€ from business angels. This investment will enable us to pursue the expansion of the platform by strengthening our team and investing more strongly in communications. For 2018, we are studying the possibility of opening up in a foreign city. Wecasa also won a prize with the Entreprendre 93 Network and is part of "Le Comptoir" an accelerator in  Montreuil.

 

My time at Kedge taught me how to work as part of a groupe, which is a novetly when you join a business school. It is something that is essential to succeed in the business work. My education also enabled to me to have global view of everything involved in running a company. That is a precious tool for an entrepreneur, who has to be involved in everything, even things that have nothing to do with our professional experience. Sometimes, it makes me emtional to think back on my accounting classes in the 404 amphitheatre... 

 

We are living in a good time for startups. It is much easier to start a company today than it was 10 years ago, there is a lot of support and help available. It is a fascinating aventure, rich in learning, even if you fail. So forget that you don't stand a chance, and go for it.