We used to talk a lot about the great ideas created in the Silicon Valley. For sure, those ideas are very inspiring. Do you know that we also have great innovation and great entrepreneurs in France?
Entrepreneurship in France is taking a bigger and bigger place, especially in Paris where well ranked business schools, incubators and ventures attract and give dynamism to an increasing number of entrepreneurs. Among those french entrepreneurs, François, launched with with his co-founder, the mobile application Swingli.
François accepted to share a bit of his adventure with us here. I hope it will inspire some other french entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs to be.
Some little words about François
I’m François. I’m 25. I have always lived in Paris except six months in Singapore. I love startups, wine, travel and westerns. I am graduated from ESSEC Business School and I have several experiences in the new tech and new media industries. I have founded Swingli with one childhood friend and an experienced programmer.
What motivated you to be an entrepreneur?
I have always discussed with my friends about new business ideas but it is easier to talk about it than to decide to create a company. Last summer, I discussed with my friend Theo and we had many ideas in a wide range of industries (including wine and travel!). We didn’t want to work for a big company and we knew we will regret not to have tried something. Finally, we took the decision to create Swingli and we found our last founder Charlu! With Charlu in our team, we were convinced that we had a good team and a good idea, so it was time to start the journey! Hopefully, we still believe in our team and product six months later!
Tell us a bit more about Swingli
With Swingli, our goal is to reinvent the way people can share and discover movies, TV shows, books and songs with their friends. On Swingli you can share your latest finds with your friends and wait for their feedbacks. For us, privacy is very important. So for each recommendation, you can select the friends who will receive it and add a short message. Swingli also enables you to ask a friend for a recommendation, to build your own wishlist, to discover the trends of the weeks and to compare your stats with those of your friends. We have many ideas for the future but for the moment we are trying to create the best app by listening to the users’ feedbacks.
How did you find that innovative idea of application?
Since I have always relied on my friends to find a movie or a TV show to watch, a book to read or new songs to discover, I had the idea to create a practical and fun way to do it : Swingli. There was no satisfying solution to share and discover movies, TV shows, books and songs within the same app! And without publishing everything on Facebook or Twitter! Since then we had a lot of discussions on how to create this app and I think that we have now a good product.
Some people say that it is difficult to be an entrepreneur in France. What do you think?
France is a wonderful place to innovate. There are a lot of startups, accelerators, investors and events. Of course, everything is not perfect. For instance, to create a company could be easier. Students in business, programming and design should talk more together. It is very difficult today to find the right partners (hopefully there are more and more initiatives in this way!).
Any advise you would give to a new entrepreneur?
Listen to what experienced people and the users say. However you should have a clear vision about what you want to achieve and keep it in mind each time you take a decision.
Many thanks to François and I hope this interview will give some answers to all the entrepreneurs to be.
If you want to download the Swingli app, this is the link on Apple Store.
Wrote by Anonymous
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