My Way to Eutopia
If you’re an entrepreneur, work in a startup or keep track of the ecosystem surrounding such businesses, you’ll be aware that it is quite rare to know anything of the people investing in startups and helping them to succeed. Save for some famous entrepreneurs who have become business angels, we know little of the lives and experiences that led them to where they are today. What are their personal drivers, motivations, and history?
This remains the case even though, if you’re reading this as an entrepreneur, it would be of great benefit to know more about the background of those who may accompany you in your business journey for several years. With that in mind, as a team we decided that each of us would write about our personal journey to Eutopia. As the first member and founding partner, I have the duty (or misfortune?) to go first!
As transparency, alongside ambition and benevolence, is one of the Eutopia values, I have no qualms in starting with the fact that my own story is not linear or straightforward, and is as much the result of classical education and learning from experience as it is soul-searching and contemplation.
I come from a large Marseille family which traditionally holds the view that meaning and altruism are more important than ambition and financial success. I moved, nonetheless, at 18 years old to ‘Ginette’ in Versailles, to attend ‘classes préparatoires aux grandes écoles’ (CPGE), the preparatory system in France for our highest education institutions. The very specific approach of this particular prep school made me realize that education and career success could co-exist alongside a positive world and humanistic outlook. These dual drivers are fundamental for me, but their application was not always obvious in my career… at least, not until recently.
I gratuated from HEC in 2003, the same year that the dot com bubble burst quite suddenly. In this period, there were few careers for young graduates outside of consulting or finance, and in this environment I chose the latter. The next seven years were spent in private equity within Lazard funds, ‘beautiful years’ on paper, or rather, in the middle of what turned out to be a bubble as the global financial crisis hit in 2008. On a personal level, during this phase there were some fantastic ventures and exciting relations with great leaders facing numerous challenges as radical market forces led us all to completely rethink the existing business models. What we may call a ‘pivot’ in startup circles, as you can probably appreciate, is less frequent in private equity. Ultimately, on balance these years were unsatisfying for me, as I walked with one foot towards my ambitions, whilst the other dragged behind me with my values in tow.
In the Autumn of 2008, several painful personal events at the same time as the aforementioned GFC gave me the courage, good fortune and opportunity to jump out of this life with both feet, and I took a sabbatical to consider my next move and how to rebalance my professional life. My adventure did not leave me unscathed, spending an entire year on my Vespa traveling the entire Mediterranean coast, the land of my roots. From Marseille to Marseille I rode, via Tipaza, Carthage, Bir-Hakeim, Alexandria, Jerusalem, Beirut , Foça, Ithaca, Kosovo and Elba Island amongst many other spectacular and meaningful locations.
On my return to Paris, the emptiness that was there needed a means to fill itself. In this period, one of self-exploration, I decided I needed outside help and so took some personality tests and coaching sessions. As you can imagine, it isn’t easy to know voluntarily what you are looking for, and wouldn’t you know it… these tests showed that most with my profile become priests, imams or rabbis! Perhaps this is a surprise to some of my business associates, but to no-one in my family or in our Eutopia team, as my personal drivers are known to be helping others express their talent and taking care of them.
The next few years involved many and various attempts to convert this ethos into professional projects, including as an entrepreneur alongside my sister in a smartfood business in 2010 that we sold to NA! group in 2011 and the launch of an impact investing project in education in Libya in 2012 sold to Camas Training Group in 2015. These first attempts were not fully satisfying but paved additional miles towards Eutopia.
In 2015 I serendipitously met Pierre-Edouard Stérin, the founder of Smartbox and the sole shareholder of Otium Capital, and he suggested I join Otium. The idea was that I would return to the investment world, but this time with an entrepreneurial bent, a big change from my previous period in private equity. This is probably the best opportunity to offer a sincere thanks to Pierre-Edouard for his confidence in me. At the time I was just back from Libya and not necessarily an obvious choice although my working and life experiences, time away from the city and contemplation had all served to prepare me well for the next venture.
The start of anything new is never simple, and for me this was the case with Otium after several years on an alternative path. Within a few months Camille Kriebitzsch joined from Birchbox, and our mutual respect and teamwork was immediate. What we learned in those early days before Otium Brands became Eutopia could fill a book!
At the end of 2015, we took a meeting with Juliette and Judith, the founders of Même Cosmetics, a meeting that changed everything and set us on the journey to build what today is Eutopia. At this meeting we collectively realised that a tremendous market opportunity existed which would give rise to our investment thesis: New consumer brands are emerging. Strong brands driven by inspiring entrepreneurs in tune with the changing consumer expectations of transparency, meaning, fair distribution of value and impact and they are perfectly mastering the technological tools that have removed the barriers to communication and mass distribution. These new types of entrepreneurs struggle to find finance in a VC market that is ‘tech’ focussed and reluctant to look at business models exposed to traditional business constraints. We wanted to work ONLY with them. In this realisation, our investment strategy was born and Même Cosmetics was the first investment in the adventure that would become Eutopia.
Since that time we’ve invested in 13 additional promising companies, worked with 21 inspiring founders and added 4 more great members to the team to work on the adventure, all of us driven by the same desire to do things that do good on a large scale. This is Eutopia. I’m happy and proud each and every day to evolve within our ecosystem. After 15 years of professional life, having searched and explored many different environments, for the first time ever, I personally feel that I’ve ‘connected the dots’ from my past experiences to find my way to Eutopia!
At Eutopia, our stories are not necessarily linear. Our team have all followed their own path to reach this place and this post from Antoine is the first in a series where we tell you more about ourselves. So, if like us you’re a trailblazer. Rethinking the way we live; Helping make everyone’s everyday better; Healthier, Smarter, Happier… then follow the directions and get in touch with us. Like you, we don’t believe in the status quo. We’re here to guide you on your path to shake things up and would love to work with you.
