If you visit us regularly on Business Cool, it means that you have a minimum of interest in entrepreneurship. This subject, which is close to our hearts, also largely occupies the daily life of business schools. We’ll take you with us for a pitch session within the KEDGE BS incubator.
In March 2022, there are 26 candidates trying to join KEDGE’s Business Nursery, the name the school gave to its incubator. Five of them are pitching the day we are on the heights of Marseille, in the heart of the new spaces inaugurated in Luminy by KEDGE BS last summer. In total, 20 places are available on the school’s three main campuses (Marseille, as well as Bordeaux and Paris) to join the incubation program intended to support projects in conquering their market.
Pitch jury: the criteria for being incubated by KEDGE Business Nursery
Before you can claim to pitch before the selection jury for projects incubated by KEDGE, the latter must meet certain criteria: the need must have been validated, that is to say, the available market for this service or product must have been tried or tested. “ We are beyond the idea or pre-incubation stageconfirms Caroline Cheraud Vey, one of the managers of the Business Nursery. We are not checking whether the project can work, but we are preparing to launch it ! »
Other prerequisites: candidates must present a prototype or have advanced in the prototyping phase and present innovative projects. “ We are not necessarily looking for disruptive innovations, but at least a business model or an innovative product. »
Finally, the pitch exercise is THE moment when the project leader must show his motivation. You have to pitchith passion, panache, showing that we are supporting a project that is close to your heart. “ You are going to create your first job of tomorrow and you will have to support partners, teams, you need a good dose of motivation », insists Caroline Cheraud Vey.
Let us emphasize that 53% of KEDGE Business Nursery incubates are womenwhen entrepreneurial projects, on a national scale, are carried out on average at 20% by female teams. The business school incubator has notably established a partnership with The Wonders to encourage female entrepreneurship and is committed to parity among its incubates: 10 of the 20 projects which will be welcomed for a “back to school” on March 28 in order to be supported for 6 months must be carried out by female entrepreneurs or mixed teams .
The progress of a pitch session at the KEDGE Business Nursery
That afternoon, 5 candidates will face the ten members of the jury brought together by KEDGE to assess the relevance of integration into the incubator. Lawyers, jurists, communications professionals, former incubates, etc.: they are partners of the Business Nursery with whom they provide skills sponsorship. That is to say, they come regularly to offer their expertise for free by answering questions from incubates concerning issues of all kinds (legal, commercial, etc.). “ Sometimes we help them with their fundraising, sometimes, at the beginning, with the structuring or legal format of their activity or even contact with suppliers”explains Élodie Césaro.
Interest in EY Ventury, the law firm where she practices? “ We are committed to the region’s ‘innovation’ ecosystem and this approach to the KEDGE Business Nursery allows us to be very connected to all the projects developing in the region.. »
Facing the jury, each candidate pitches for 5 minutes. They are then given a 10-minute question-and-answer period. Here are the kinds of questions that can be asked:
- How do you position yourself compared to the competition?
- What actions do you plan to take to make yourself known?
- Which statuses do you plan to opt for?
- How did you know your partner?
It is an essential moment to remove doubts, to finish convincing, to emphasize that there may remain uncertainties… In this time of exchange there are more transparencymore “truth” than during the pitch itself, which must have been worked to the maximum to show the full potential of the project. It’s time to show a little “behind the scenes” and also to reveal questions, to reaffirm how incubation would be useful.
After that, the candidate can have and the jury debriefs, shares its impressions and immediate comments while completing the evaluation form. A new global debriefing time takes place at the end of the session to help with the decision. Objective: find the two projects that the jury absolutely does not want to miss!
CURSO and MEBL, two examples of projects pitched by KEDGE students
The presentation on which the pitch of each candidate for integration into the KEDGE BS incubator is based is very elaborate. The jury must in particular be able to find the following information: the state of the targeted market, the field studies carried out, the details of the products/services offered, the envisaged turnover, etc.
To talk about CURSOhis project, Jean-Baptiste surveyed 1,300 people about their cycling. This cycling enthusiast travels between 4,000 and 5,000 km/year. The enthusiastic feedback he received following his trip from Aix-en-Provence to Croatia pushed him to develop a concept of turnkey themed trips by bike. Décathlon Travel or Terres d’aventure are competitors from which it intends to differentiate itself in particular by offering installment payment, an independent trip with a road book as well as 24-hour assistance, but also upstream coaching for those who wish to regain confidence in their abilities…
“ My goal is zero hassle, you benefit, we take care of everything! » For the moment alone on this project that he imagined a year ago, he remains open to associations. “ I knew I wanted to be an entrepreneur. A career in finance or auditing, no thanks, not for me! “. Invested inAccède Provence Entrepreneurs, the KEDGE entrepreneurial association, he will create his company “anyway”. What if the Business Nursery opens its doors to him? “ I’ll take whatever there is to take! Advice from the pool of experts brought together by KEDGE, lawyers in particular, training on Hubspot-type software, etc. »
Mathis, for his part, comes to defend MEBLa project that he created with 4 other partners who are also business school students. Currently in M1, this work-study student within the IBM France commercial entity did his preparation at Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, in Montpellier, before joining KEDGE for its entrepreneurial systems. The idea of this platform mixing traditional commerce and e-commerce has been around since high school.
“ In final year, we learned about the business world, we did a market study, a business plan… » but it was only once in business school after his two years of prep that Mathis and his associates looked into the development of MEBL. “ We are in the final stages of preparing for the launch and the experience of the first pitches that I had for the Business Nursery allowed us to take a step back and gain maturity. I am very interested in monitoring and exchanging with mentors. It would be valuable to be able to benefit from their advice, to have their feedback, to hear them tell us what is going well, but above all, to point out what is not going well! »
Mathis is taking advantage of his work-study program to gain business experience in parallel with the launch of his project. He is giving himself a full year to build “ something solid » before deciding definitively on entrepreneurship after leaving school.
