Episode 13 - Damien Courbon - Swapcard: Bringing efficiency & engagement to events

Key Points:

The event market was ripe for disruption & innovation
If you wait until you arrive at an event to organize, it’s already too late
Attendees seek more efficiency, so planning ahead makes more sense
Events are very expensive and there’s a lot of competition, so organizers need to show better metrics to win business
Swapcard sends team members to events to listen and learn, so they can improve
Seeking to build an international team, so hiring more foreigners
Focused on team happiness and engagement
Moving forward, exploring predictive analysis & more international expansion

f you have ever attended a trade show, you’re familiar with the challenges: You want to go to important sessions but it’s also a great time to meet in person with others in your business.

If you’re a vendor, you spend countless weeks trying to figure out who will be there for networking, since your company has invested a significant amount of money to be there. If you’re an attendee, your company has sent you there at great cost as well. And if you’re an event organizer, you need to show metrics of success to keep and grow your user base.

Swapcard saw the inefficiencies of the market and built an app that brings more value for vendors, attendees, and organizers alike. You can plan your event in advance, including important networking meetings, without scrambling during the event to find people who you need to meet. Swapcard lets you plan and prepare for the event, including scheduling your meetings. The end result is a much more productive event and metrics that show the benefits of attending.

Damien and Swapcard are focused on satisfaction and improving the overall experience. To do this, they make sure their app is easy and quick to use so that their users actually use it! As obvious as that sounds, it’s astonishing how many businesses seem to forget about this.

In this episode, Damien explains how the company is growing, including hiring more people from abroad and expanding their market reach. The tricky balance moving forward is maintaining the company culture during this growth, so they’ve been focused on finding new team members who will be able to come in, work hard and keep the same team spirit.

Because Swapcard has plans to grow internationally, the culturally diverse team will be its strength for building into new markets as well as new ideas. This diversity is a positive trend we’re seeing increasingly these days in French startups, and we expect to see a lot more of it moving forward.

Episode 6 - Cassandra Delage - Changing recycling behavior in France, office by office

After completing her Bachelor’s at McGill University in Canada, Cassandra moved to France to pursue her Master’s degree in entrepreneurship at HEC. During her internships there, something jumped out to Cassandra: Compared to her experience in Canada, French offices were very far behind in terms of recycling behavior and technology. The waste and attitudes had to change, for the sake of the environment.

Instead of accepting this recycle-free zone, she decided to do something about it. In addition to her degrees from impressive schools, Cassandra also has the drive to get things done; after creating her first company as a teenager, she knew she’d found her calling as an entrepreneur.

Her latest business is Plast’if, a hyper-local recycling machine that addresses the problem of recycling in offices. For starters, it collects and separates plastic in the office - water bottles, dishes, bottle caps, you name it - and then melts and transforms that plastic, which is then used to print 3D objects of your choice. Definitely a cool idea.

While sorting, melting, and printing are at the core of Plast’if’s functionalities, what makes their technology special is that it encourages responsible behavior. Office teams can compete and win rewards for recycling more. Rewarding people reinforces the good behavior, which in turn encourages and builds the habit of recycling. So far, the response with Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) teams has been very positive in the Île-de-France region.

The key to Cassandra’s success? Networking, followed by more networking, served with a topping of extra networking. Having the support and mentoring assistance from Microsoft Ventures and others is great, but there’s no replacement for pounding the pavement and meeting people. As she tells us, each new conversation gives her new ideas that help Plast’if move forward, so there’s a lot more networking ahead.

Cassandra also shares about the friendliness and camaraderie she’s come across that are prevalent in the French startup ecosystem. It’s something we at OuiStart Media have experienced ourselves and most people we meet say the same thing. While the French sometimes have a reputation for being standoffish, our guests’ experiences tell a different story.

Maybe it’s because the startup world here is still early and growing, but people here are willing to help. Don’t be afraid to ask for help - including asking us! - and if you can, be generous with others who need it. That kind of community building is just what’s helped Cassandra to forge Plast’fi in a new-to-her environment!