Discover the testimonial of Maxime Butin, a 2nd-year student in the Mastère Expert en Stratégie Digitale at Digital Campus Lyon. He tells us about his project.
What was the trigger for your project? Did the idea come from a personal experience?,, The trigger was certainly the rise of the sharing economy. The arrival of major players like Airbnb, Uber, etc., and the enormous business tied to this economy. As is often the case, the idea came from a personal experience — in this case, a ski trip., In short, it all started from a ski trip to a world-renowned French resort: Courchevel. For the duration of the stay, the programme was: snow, skiing, and mulled wine. All in a wonderful chalet. First day, first run: my friends and I didn't have any ski equipment, so it was time to rent boots, poles, and skis. We headed to the nearest resort shop. When we arrived, we were hit with a cold shower. A queue of over an hour greeted us. Once equipped, and before we could ski, we had to buy and collect our ski passes. Once again, the wait was endless. Two hours later, we were finally able to ski., It took us an entire morning to get set up and ready to enjoy the snow. After a tiring day — between the waiting and the joys of skiing — it was time to head back to the chalet. But first, a stop at the resort's convenience store was necessary to buy food for the evening. For a few frozen steaks, bolognese pasta, some yoghurts, a bottle of spirits, and soft drinks, the bill was steep: 65 euros for one evening…, As you can imagine, the trip's budget was already well depleted. After a discussion with my friends, we came up with the idea of developing a service offering to avoid wasting time at winter sports resorts and to improve the quality of the stay while saving money.
What were the first steps?, The first steps are often simple but critically decisive for the rest of the project. Right away, we wanted to test our offering with friends, acquaintances, family, etc. We therefore carried out several surveys with fairly open-ended questions. Once these surveys had been analysed, we conducted several telephone interviews. The real objective was to discuss our project with a representative audience in order to find the unique value of our project., How long have you been working on it? What are the stages of reflection and work to find the idea?, The idea doesn't necessarily take long to find — everyone has about ten startup ideas a day. The longest and most complex part is finding the unique value and managing to generate a profitable business. In fact, the initial idea often evolves through the different stages of a startup creation. That was the case for us. I have been working seriously on the project since around the end of November, at a rate of 2–3 evenings per week. I am working as a duo with a friend from my cohort.
What are the different production stages to reach the presentation for the qualification?, Obviously, the first is the project idea. Then comes the market research phase. The objective is to back our idea with concrete figures to reassure investors during pitch presentations of the project, for example. Next come the survey, interview, and research phases. These actions must be analysed in order to find the unique value of the project. Finally, we focused on the business section, which includes the business model (monetisation) and the business plan. In parallel, a marketing communication plan was drawn up. We are now entering the mockup phase, which precedes building a presentation for a solid pitch., How do you feel today?, Honestly, I feel fairly calm. We have a solid, robust business plan that holds up — we've shared it with friends who work in finance. We're about to enter the prototyping and mockup phase; the project is becoming more and more concrete. After my work-study placement, I plan to dedicate a great deal of time to it. It's been quite a busy year, all things considered!, Do you plan to continue this project after school?, For now, I don't know. I tend to say no, because I work at a communications agency and I love it there. I don't have an overwhelming desire to throw myself into entrepreneurship right now. Maybe later, who knows…