AgenceMe is Now Bruno
AgenceMe Story: Back in 2014
If you don’t know us yet, AgenceMe is a brand and digital agency based in Paris and California. We have worked with big companies like Uber, Sanofi, Allianz, Roche, Orange, Sendinblue, Qonto, Engie… over the past 7 years in branding, marketing and web development.
But we have to tell you… we’re not a simple branding and digital agency like many others… I know, all branding and digital agencies say the same thing ;) but this time, it’s real. We are more than that… we are a family, literally.
I created this agency, 7 years ago, with Marine, my lovely wife, and Léonard, my blood, my brother. We were three during 2 years in a tiny office in Normandie. I designed, Marine took care of projects and business and Léonard developed. It was a funny period because no one went to a design and development school. We learned everything by ourselves and actually this is the best thing to do. Passion, motivation and curiosity are keys for us.
Our goal: Create a business that matters in the industry.
We started with basic skills, we met awesome people across the world, helped out some big companies and spoke with smart entrepreneurs. It’s been an incredible journey! 7 years later we can say we achieved our goal. AgenceMe is not the biggest agency in the world or even in France but in some way we feel that we’ve made an impact in our industry. We were the first agency on Dribbble France, we’ve grown to more than 100k followers across social networks, we’ve won awwwards and plenty of news talk about our work…. It’s just the beginning and Bruno will help us to do much more.
Why Change our Agency Name?
First we can say AgenceMe name is pretty bad, right? It sounds really weird in both French and English. This name doesn’t really make any sense. ME is actually contraction of “My Event”, which was the name of my first company 10 years ago. During the past 7 years we knew we had to change it at some point but you know how it goes: work, clients, side projects, family, burritos… actually everything was better than the thought of changing our agency’s name.
Now it’s time to do it and here’s the story behind this name (wooo that intro is so long… French people don’t know how to go straight to the point.)
A Family Business?
Marine is my wife and Léonard my brother. So yes it’s a family business.
I’ve heard so many stories about family companies. How bad it is. Too dangerous for family relationships. Hard to talk with co-founders. Not easy to evolve… So many people told me that it was a really bad idea to do that.
But let me say the truth and be honest. No matter what people say and think, just follow what you want to do, for the right reasons. On our side we wanted to create this company for a good reason, not just because we love each other but because we complete each other.
Ok someday it’s tough but 95% of time it’s AWESOME, literally. No allusion, no bullshit, no false pretense, no ego… Everything is clear and goes straight to the point just because we’re in the same family. We can say what we really think.
We took a risk, we knew it, but actually it has been worth it!
Creating a family business never scared me because my uncles, parents and grandparents created companies with their husbands, wives, sons and daughters. I’ve been surrounded by it for my entire life. I saw my grandfather working with my grandmother all my childhood.
Hello Bruno
Without transition. Bruno was our grandfather for my brother Léonard and I, he passed away 10 years ago.
If I am who I am today it’s thanks to him. If Léo is who he is today it’s thanks to him. I grew up with him and my grandmother until I was 10 years old. This immigrated Italian came to France lonely at 18 years old after the second world war.
He was an intense, passionate, strong and really smart person. He created big companies from the ground up, made a big extended family (we’re now more than 40 people) and spread his courage to his family.
Making business and a strong family at the same time is probably the most challenging thing to do!
He helped me my entire life even after he passed away 10 years ago. Just thinking of what he said to me when I was a kid. Helped me to be stronger and audacious. He was so present with my bro too. He’s an everyday inspiration for him.
So for Léonard, Marine and I it was obvious to take this name as agency name but not only. Many decisions in our professional and personal life were made thanks to him. His courage, perseverance and love help us. Some of our agency values came from him. But we also would like to personify the agency, because human values are really important for us. Humans are everywhere in our work, and in our life. We hire people more thanks to their personality than their knowledge and formal education.
And now?
So we rebranded our agency (probably the most challenging thing for an agency to do). We made our values reality, added new skills, and created new services for professionals. Bruno will help professionals to grow. Not only in the digital part but also in real life. We have two beautiful coworking spaces (Le Studio) to help people who are starting their business and growing up. We launched a podcast (les yeux brouillés) a few months ago to inspire people, to talk about big professional projects and highlight them.
If you need any help, Call Bruno!
