Eight project leaders from Reunion benefited, from January to April, for ten weeks of an incubation program led by Seeds in partnership with the Aquitaine region incubator Unitec. Differentiating from classic incubation, this program allowed project leaders to connect to the metropolitan ecosystem and exchange with other project leaders. The formula will be renewed, announced Rémi Voluer, founder of Seeds.
Between training, practical exercises, put in touch with resource people, the eleven sessions of the first Seeds-Unitec support program, from January 6 to April 5, showed in a concrete way the different facets of support. Business design to define the value proposition, present the project, design and evaluate the product with its end users. The fundamentals of intellectual property. Commercial strategy based on market research. Mastery of legal, essential for launching a company. The basics of business finance and fundraising. Communication and its strategy, his targets, ses messages, his tools. Up to coaching, the aim of which is to get the project leader to consider themselves and act as a leader. Pooling skills and resources, the Seeds-Unitec program involved local experts and metropolitan experts working in Aquitaine with Unitec, like the intellectual property consultancy Aquinov, the advertising agency Advizor or the accounting firm TGS. This program also allowed Reunion project leaders to benefit from exchanges with project leaders from France..
Three project leaders testify
Jonathan Dewaele presented his innovative idea of delivery by relay point, called Swig. The incubation program allowed it to make significant progress on the first version of its platform, which should be launched by the end of the year. It has also identified key partners on the ground for the implementation of its solution. Jonathan also retains the deepening of his legal knowledge in matters of intellectual property, crucial for his project. Finally, he met a potential investor who could help him accelerate the development of his business. Sylvain Courdil, president of the Man and the Environment association, unveiled its Eco-Centre Réunion project, a mixed place intended, through the provision of land, to projects related to agriculture, the environment and sustainable development. Thanks to the program, he was able to structure his project and find a patron who made eight hectares available to him for the development of this eco-place. Loic Manglou presented Studio Pitaya, first video game design and production studio in Reunion. The program allowed the studio to evolve its business model and find prospects locally.
Four incubation programs per year
Seeds' mission is, thanks to support and advice, to maximize the assets of the projects submitted to it in order to improve their viability. A role all the more useful that despite obvious and recognized creativity, the socio-economic environment of Reunion is less favorable to the emergence of innovative projects than the mainland. Hence the relevance of “cross incubation”, to use Rémi Voluer’s expression, with a metropolitan incubator such as Unitec, resource center of the seventeen technopoles of the Aquitaine region, based in Bordeaux. The formula of incubation programs in sessions can also promote interactions between project leaders.. Seeds plans to now organize four per year, including one in partnership with Unitec.
