Pygmento: Badges whenever and wherever you want them!
What a time to be in late!
Your seminar is rapidly approaching… it’s in a week. The caterer is ready, the invitations were sent out upstream. Everything (or almost everything) is going well until you realise you’ve forgotten the badges… So of course you scratch your head and wonder how you’re going to get out of this worrying logistical mess… No need to panic!
A startup may have found the solution to your problem. Pygmento is taking a fresh look at the traditional and complicated name badge ordering model in order to help event organisers (and forgetful people) save time. We take a look…
(Sooner or later) Paths cross
The Pygmento story began in the entrepreneurial attempts of its two cofounders — Thomas Recouvreux and Ryzwan Taheraly — who are the subject of today’s portrait.
Thomas launched his own startup, called Nemopay, well before he got to know Ryzwan, although they were in the same engineering school (confirming that however suited you are, you don’t always run into people who are right there). Specialising in events, his little startup was a significant success. So much so that it was bought up by Weezevent, the online ticketing solution. This was a real springboard that enabled his project to truly take off and Thomas to get a foothold in the events sector.
However, a few years at Weezevent were sufficient for this entrepreneur to grasp the organisational limits and cumbersomeness inherent to traditional online ticketing services: excessive number of badges to process, innumerable discussions and file exchanges that are constraints that significantly slow the process down!
So, as well as his project, Thomas thought about his future. He dreamt up an automatic badge system via an online platform enabling anyone to create badges and rapidly order them. Pygmento was just around the corner…
At the same time, for Ryzwan, an engineer, (almost) everything started in Mexico. It was in Aztec territory that he decided to become an entrepreneur rather than an engineer. After getting his diploma, the young man began creating his first entrepreneurial project in electronics and then shifted his focus to events. At the same time, he met Thomas through mutual friends and joined him in his entrepreneurial project, which at that time had been underway since October 2017.
Innovate by simplifying
What is Pygmento’s value proposition?
The startup sells a physical product, i.e. badges. But, on top of that, it provides a genuine service consisting in simplifying the ordering of badges and their online customisation.
More specifically, the innovation provided by Pygmento lies in the simplification of the customisation and ordering process with two main elements: an online publisher and a connection with a number of ticket outlets.
Whilst the online publisher offers a broad range of design options, the connections with the biggest European ticketing companies like Weezevent, Eventbrite and Universe allows the information relative to registered participants to be directly gathered. Pygmento’s business model is thus based on the sale of the range of products provided, i.e. badges, accessories for badges, digital check-in solutions at events and onsite printing for people who register at the last minute.
Currently opting for lean management, the cofounders share the startup’s key tasks, i.e. the business strategy and the search for funding. Beyond these fundamental pillars, internal duties are allocated in accordance with each entrepreneur’s specialisations. Whilst Thomas works on development tasks and creating digital tools, Ryzwan is responsible for the sales and marketing side. Having said that, the startup is currently looking to recruit an SEO and Community Management intern because of the business’ current growth phase.
New projects?
Pygmento wants to increase its market by targeted the whole of France and then Europe! At the moment, the main challenge for the startup concerns deadline management, the finding of local players and/or the creation of branch offices in order to have competitive delivery times. They are also looking at routes providing better media visibility. The long-term sales target is 30,000 badges a month!
Today, their financial model is based on their own resources. Whilst this is sustainable for now, the two entrepreneurs are thinking about seeking external investment to purchase their own equipment (printers, tablet, etc.)
At the same time, the 2 cofounders are working on an innovative project applicable to trade fairs. Still in the embryonic phase, this future project will no doubt require external funding for it to become a reality. A word to the wise!
The Pygmento startup has been in residence on Le Plateau since 22 June, 2018.#LePlateau is a 1,000m² space that accommodates, under one roof and for periods of up to 6 months, Societe Generale teams and ecosystem startups. Each resident works on their own project, either disruptive or innovative, in open spaces where teams commingle. The Plateau provides an environment that enables this work to be undertaken in a single place, but also and more importantly methodological support to accelerate projects, the organising of the residents and premises to enable them to swap and share their expertise and experience.
