This Kedger is having great success with his leisure activities booking software

INTERVIEW 💬

1️⃣To begin, tell us about your educational background. What did you study, both before and at KEDGE?

I was immersed in a Franco-German environment from an early age. I took bilingual classes at the Lycée Kléber in Strasbourg then, after prep classes, I decided to attend KEDGE in Bordeaux to study financial engineering. After doing a gap year in Luxembourg, I had the chance to do university exchanges first in Budapest, then at WHU Koblenz, and so I got a double degree (Diplom-Kaufmann).

KEDGE BUSINESS SCHOOL

2️⃣Tell us what you did after your studies were finished. What positions have you held? What did you learn in those positions?

After doing several internships in finance at private equity funds in Luxembourg and Frankfurt, I went to work for a strategy consulting firm. I went to work for L.E.K. Consulting when I got out of school and was given many assignments in Munich, Paris, and Los Angeles. It was a very practical experience which allowed me to work on about fifty M&A transactions.

LINKEDIN

3️⃣What are you doing/what is your situation today? What gave you the idea and desire to do what are you doing today?

In 2011, I left everything behind to found Regiondo, an SaaS booking software for leisure professionals. We have two types of clients: activity providers (guided tours, attractions, cooking classes, etc.) and tours (Tourist offices, Capital Region Tourism). Our software allows providers to easily sell their activities either online and offline on their websites, or by using major e-commerce platforms such as TripAdvisor Experiences, Expedia, and GetYourGuide, amongst others. We’ve recently launched "Reserve with Google", an innovative partnership that lets us sell our clients' activities through Google search results. The company is based in Munich and has some 100 employees with 14 different nationalities. We also have offices in Ukraine and Romania, where some of our R&D teams are located.

EGIONDO

4️⃣What are your development plans for the future?

Regiondo was purchased in 2019 by the capital market company NuCom Group, a majority-owned subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE. ProSiebenSat.1 Media SE is one of Europe's leading mass media companies and is partnered with the General Atlantic Group, an American investment company that has stakes in DoctoLib, Uber, Airbnb, Flixbus, etc. Since then, we’ve taken off in various European markets. This year we’ll focus more on France and Italy. After we opened an office in Nice, we convinced Bordeaux Tourisme, ADT Gironde Tourisme, and the Tourist Office and Convention Bureau of Marseille to use our software to sell the region's leisure activities. KEDGE students are quickly going to become indirect users of Regiondo.

Our solution has proven itself and is now used by nearly 7,000 leisure activity providers. Major providers have trusted us for the sale and distribution of their online services. In France alone, we count The Aquarium de Paris, Fragonard Le Musée du Parfum, MK2, PSG, Galeries Lafayette, and others amongst our users. We’re also seeing good growth in other destinations. For example, the new e-commerce website “visit-bordeaux.com” has seen a 27% increase in revenues with more than 200,000 unique visitors since using Regiondo.

5️⃣How did your education at KEDGE Business School help you become who you are today, and which of its courses helped you develop your project?

I came up with the idea during my exchange at WHU, where I discovered a very entrepreneurial and pioneering universe. Inspired by the success stories of former graduates like Oliver Samwer (who created Rocket Internet), 50% of my graduating class launched their own start-ups right out of school. In fact, the founders of Zalando were also in my graduating class. It's very important to believe in your projects and not be afraid of failure.

6️⃣If you had to give advice to any KEDGE Alumnus or Alumna who would like to do something similar, what would it be?

"Trust firmly in your luck, embrace happiness, and dare to take risks. By looking at you, they'll get used to you." It is much easier to embark on an entrepreneurial experience while at school or after graduation than it is after a 10-year career. When you are still at school you have the unique opportunity to be in contact with other schools with profiles that complement yours. Take advantage of this time to try out and create low-cost and ambitious projects. You’ll grow as a result and can decide your own future. If you fail, you’ll still have the major consulting firms to fall back on as a safety net.

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