thank you for having me. I'm very excited to be able to share with the students a little bit about my my background theme. The interesting part of that question is that where I am today is absolutely nowhere near what I was expecting to achieve when I was a student. But I did go through a regular process with a goal in mind, which was to work in, um, in something, um, technical or scientific. So my studies were and majored in mathematics and physics and then engineering civil engineering. So my initial goal from my college and engineering school was to get an engineering degree. But towards my education, I realized that I could apply my engineering knowledge to other jobs that potentially work, For example, um, higher paid jobs at the time. We're talking, you know, 20 years ago and banking seems seemed at the time, like a really great opportunity. Um, Teoh have a great career and a great life. So I've decided to do a second master's degree following the engineering graduation, and Onda applied it to finance spares finance specifically. And so I have a different background because I studied until I was maybe 25 years old. As a result, uh, I already made a switch during my studies, but then I was able to get a great job in my first year working at age 25 in a bank. So at that point, I was convinced I was going to do a whole career in finance and on, and I was going to start as analysts and then associate and then potentially VP director, etcetera. So that was my mind. E could have done that. So, um, I was, um, given a job as an analyst trader in a derivatives trading floor. And so my career started as a as an analyst trader on Ben. I went on and on and got a bit of luck with some of my superiors that either went to other companies or got fired. Different differences. But every time you get to accelerate your carrier that way. So I I got two of these opportunities in, like, less than three years. So I went from analyst to associate in one year and then from associate to VP in two years. So, um, it's not something that's very usual, but I was following my career path and I was in London at the time, aged 28. Vice President, um, and I was running a commodity desk, so it was a specifically energy crude oil, refined products, natural gas. Um, at that moment in my life, everything's fine. I'm gonna continue to work, become a director, maybe a managing director. In 5 10 years. Everything is still on track. I moved to New York City a promotion because the New York desk does not exist with the activities were doing in London. And my boss likes what I'm doing. He says, Would you go to New York and open that activity? So I go to New York and I open that desk and everything is still great. I'm continue to perform. I get to director level H 33. Everything's fine. However, at that time it's, Ah, 20 around 2012 especially in the U. S. It's a new country for me, and I'm from France originally, and I meet a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of people that are doing their own thing, and it's not. It was not developed that much just 10 years ago in Europe, and I mean now exposed to a new world where you can actually do something else then consulting and banking and medicine and and legal. You can actually do thousands of other things. Um, they might not give you 100 k job the first year, but they can provide you millions of dollars if you're into something like that. You know, with your own equity and building something also, it allows you flexibility and build your own company with your own values. So there's just a lot of things I didn't even think about. And so it starts growing on me. And for about two years, I'm surrounded with new friends in New York that are in that in that world, and I'm almost envious of them. Maybe I'm making more money today, but do I have the Am I happy? Do I have the flexibility of my hours? And I you know, So it really grown me so much that in 2014 I decided to take a year off, um, and decide if I wanted to continue in finance, which in another bank or in a hedge fund, continue to continue to grow my career there or explore something completely different and maybe more entrepreneurial and you know where this is going. I I chose that second, more risky route, and I didn't actually choose what I was going to do. I choose to be open to it. So it means I started talking to my friends a bit more about what they're doing instead of just high level dinner conversation. But what exactly are you doing? How is it going? Do you have employees? What are you selling? What are you So eventually those conversations lead to one that became a bit more rich, and mine had started a beverage company, and that beverage company was growing quite fast. They didn't have any partner. That was business or finance oriented. We had a chef, a creative. We had a marketing person, and that's that, Was it so it was working. But they lacked that business finance portion. Eventually, I started getting more involved in helping them During my Gap year and about 34 months into conversations and emails and meetings, they offered me to become a partner. I didn't have any other thoughts of what I would do, but I knew that. Why not starting food and beverage in the CPG consumer package. World entrepreneurial. Only 34 people. And the company had already some legs. It was It was Yeah, it was doing maybe half a million dollars in sales in, like, less than two years. So something there and I jumped into that. And that was in 2014. I became, therefore, now participant of the CPG world of the food and beverage industry. And I had to learn everything from scratch from 00 knowledge. How does the distribution work? Who are the retailers? What are the margins that are applied in the supply chain? How do you market a product? How do you sell online? How do you sell wholesale? Um, how do you manufacturer product? How do you just like the freight? All of that. How do you run a company of do you hire people that I had a little bit because I was hiring people in the bank. But that's really it. And the rest was and ease with numbers. But none of my engineering degree Or, you know, knowing models and financial models was not that helpful. So excuse me, eso I just I just went straight and just doing common sense things learn a lot work, you know, 12 14 hour days to get to the level of my new business partners. And two years later, we had tripled our revenue and we were in 1000 doors, Whole Foods, which is usually a holy Grail for natural products. And we were making a lot of product. Everything was great exception of one thing. We need to grow a company. We need money. And when you become big, quite fat, not even big. But when you grow fast, even if you small to twice a small, uh, you're going to start look needing capital. And even though I was the finance person, I just never knew how to apply finance to real life. What is working capital? I remember this from the books in finance class, but I never really applied it cash flow projections, all that stuff. And so we were a bit in a bad situation where we had a big, bigger business. But we realize we need $500,000 tomorrow or we can't continue to produce and fulfill the order. Something a little drastic. So when something drastic happens, you have to also make quick decisions and we made the following decision, one of my business partner said that he could put a bit more money in the business, but not so much to just burn it into marketing or report a store with, you know, demonstrations and things like that. We decided to scale back from our $1000 retail progressive because that's expensive to maintain. And since we were making the juices ourselves, we decided to open our production to other companies that would want to make juice but don't have the equipment. So we went from pure brand in retail to a brand in retail polar level. But with manufacturing at that point, I decided that I would way. Obviously, when you're an entrepreneur, you the first few years you don't pay yourself at all or very little it has. It has been two years, and now we had to really focus every dollar we had into that new turnaround situation. So my partners and I decided that only two of us would stay in the business to try to pivot with rejection of one of them, and another one would try to continue to find other sources of income, become a stay a partner, but not as active. That was me because I was the last one to join. I was the first one to to step out from the active role, and in 2016 I found it Steptoe advisers as a way to continue to be in that industry. Now I wasn't for I fell in love with the industry, so that's a given. I was just figuring out How can I bring value? What should I do? Should I create a new brand that's not smart, because I have my partners with the beverage. I don't wanna compete. I want to still help. But what did I learn in two years that could be helpful for other brands? And the answer was a ton of things. So instead of writing a book, I decided to create a consulting firm but focused on the early stage startups. And I realized that there was no one doing that because usually, consulting groups are looking for business from companies that are a bit more mature and they yes, and they can pay bigger. It's for services. And of course there's a degree of consultants. You can't hire McKinsey right away. But at the early early stage when you are doing a few 100,000 in revenue, you also have very, very humble budgets. And there's no one who wants to take your money to do a good job because it's not a lot. It's not enough. So I tried to crack that code and, um, created a company with affordable pricing toe help. Companies, even pre revenue, get the right things. The right ducks in a row. I launched their product in the food and beverage industry in parallel. I was still partner in the business, but as passive I was maybe, And I'm still That's the That's the kind of the conclusion on that story. Um, I became, uh, you know, passive partner and still this finance person, and I call and we call each other every week to see how things are going, and I still provide my advice. But I am now a silent partner since 2016 and in and since 2016 now I'm going to enter my fifth year as the founder of Steptoe Adviser, and I have about two people working for me and worked with over 40 companies. Oh, it's a quite a journey and the beverage company has gone from that turnaround pivot to become one of the leading co manufacturers in the Northeast for average is that we do on DSO we are maybe five times bigger than we were five years ago, thanks to that pivot and the credit goes all entirely to my two other partners that took on them to do that. Turnover turnover.

question. I immediately became from extremely busy with the beverage company working, you know, seven days a week, seven days a week, every day, obviously making products, selling it, talking to my partners. Suddenly it all stops one day, and I have nothing to do. And so I accept the idea of building this company. So really, I can walk you through the first few weeks I sat down in front of my computer. Actually, that's not correct. Instead of using the computer, I decided to use a piece of paper. It's a It's a very different exercise. When you're on a computer and you're you're distracted, you're doing research. It's not how you should start thinking about a business. You really need a piece of paper, and you have to really draw a line in the middle and look at pros and cons of your ideas. Or, if you're if you don't have an idea yet, start putting ideas on paper E don't know scientifically, but it certainly creates a different mechanism in the brain rather than just being on a screen, trying to look for things. It's totally different. You're by yourself, so you really go deep and searching to your intellect to get answers. So I remember very well this exercise. And then I started scratching out ideas, pros and cons and how I want to structure. Then I went to friends and I presented informally in 10 minutes to, ah, 10 people. What? I was thinking of doing no clue. And they say, Oh, yeah, that's great. Okay, you take it with a grain of salt and others that are reading that space might be more critical. And then you also take their advice. So I think that most probably the 1st 23 weeks then I had to find a lawyer and understand how to set up. But I had one from the beverage company, so I used the same uh, and that's where you start realizing, Okay, there's gonna be a cost to this. There is a minimum cost that you have to be ready to put to start any anything. It could be $250,000 if you want to create a product and go into manufacturing. But it could also be $10,000 if you want to do something more online, where you don't have as much inventory or maybe no inventory at all, like me. So I think I decided to invest $100,000 just for one year to figure out where I can take this. Um, and also I learned in my previous years and in school that you have to set goals and and some sort of expectation, and it can be financial. It can also be a timeline. Because if you start and things don't happen, you need to also say I failed. It's okay to feel I can do something else, but you have to set those goals. Otherwise you can you can go too deep. And what if I put another 100,000 and then you know you can Really? Yeah. So I had two goals. One was to, um generate a certain amount of revenue that could pay pay out what I'm spending. So maybe that $100,000 budget for one year or maybe two years. Can I get to the same amount of profits into in some way in some capacity? And the second one was in one year, 12 months. If I don't have clients, if I don't have some momentum, this I'm not going to continue. So 12 months and some sort of monetary goal. Okay, then I build my business plan. Okay. Where is the gap that I found in the market? Who are the companies that I know? I went after two years. I knew 50 or 60 brands that were my friends. Other entrepreneurs, they are bigger. Smaller. So what do they need that I can provide? And so I started writing a business plan. What services? Um I didn't even think about how much I can charge for them. I just wanted to see what is the scope. Okay. Yeah. And then the last piece was a website. It's the It's the only way. Still today, 10 years later, five years later, it's the best way to communicate before social media linked in Instagram etcetera. But how do I do? A website that's nice, clean. And so what I decided to do because I had time on my hands. I learned how to code instead of using squarespace, which was not as big as it is today, even though it only five years ago it was there. But it was not like the goat I went on. Go, Daddy, create the domain and then started doing some WordPress a za result. The website was not great. I learned how to do, you know, wordpress custom things. And so I at least I got an extra learning out of it. Uh, yeah, with YouTube, you had a lot of tutorials. Was great. The looking back. Very bad idea. Uh, squarespace templates. Keep it simple at the beginning. If you need a more developed website in the future, you can always hire developers for that. But, um, so instead of paying, you know, 34 $5000 for someone independent to help me out with graphic design. I just did it myself for $500 but the result was not great. Okay? I had my first website. I was playing with it. I was changing the colors, etcetera, and business cards. $100 or $200 of business cards. And then I was ready to go. So that took me maybe a month, month and a half to get all that. And then I started emailing all of my entrepreneurial friends and said, Do you need some help in finance in strategy? Um, and then eventually one said, Yes. I also went to trade shows, which were really big at the time. Now, obviously with Cove it all the trade shows across every industry have been canceled. But trade shows remained one of the main source of business development in a lot of industries. So at that time I went to one of the largest trade shows. I used to go there with the juice to represent the Juice Company. But now I went, and for the first time I went as as a consultant, which is not fun because you're the last person they want to see. They're doing a trade show for all the other reasons except meeting people. Tell them a service. But it's OK because I knew if I knew 50 companies well, I also knew 300 companies not so well. But like facetime. And so I was in the show, How you doing? And then eventually the conversation. My approach was not Hey, I'm a consultant was, Hey, I'm an entrepreneur. I have a brand, by the way, I can help you if you want, because I am. I am available And one show one hit. One person said. I actually need someone like you. Uh, but I would need you full time. Are you available? Full time now? Here's the problem. You have an opportunity. That is a full time job. But you already put your mind to something you're 23 month in for your baby. What do you do? So I found a way to do a hybrid. I was not gonna let go of something even if it was zero. It was still the boy I had to go through those 12 months. So I told I told this brand I will help you as a full time person, but as a consult. So we will figure out the numbers. The dog work for you, and I will charge you that. But I will remain a W nine if we have to be 10 99. If you have to be precise, but not on your payroll, and I will consider you as my first client. And if I have to take another client, it would be during weekends. It won't be during several hours. Do you have a deal? Deal. And I became, like the business development and finance person for an ice cream company. Uh, and I didn't have to look for any other jobs because I was going to. I was fairly compensated. That was the revenue for my startup, and I was learning from a new category. So getting knowledge on the frozen 10 degrees? Yeah, which is very important for for just as a consultant, you need more knowledge where you are the knowledge with clients. It's kind of interesting and long story short. This lasted a year and a half, after which the relationship ended. The brand was looking for someone else or for a different direction. I was back at Squirt is zero or one? Probably minus one. I just I just have income I have. I have revenue for a Steptoe Advisors. It's great. Now I have zero clients instantly. But I had more knowledge, and I went back this time on the path of business development, trade shows, emails talking to my colleagues. And then I got a first client for a short period of time. Another one, another one and after the second year. So my 1st 12 month was validated, right? I had money and a client east month, and I lost the client and then, after six months more. I was in my second year, and I did start getting clients by pushing and selling myself, even Mawr. Now I have frozen experience, beverage experience, and I think the third year was the one that really pivoted, and I suddenly about five clients one month and then in five and then just went snowball from there.

so it's gonna It's going to stay pretty simple in terms of technical technique city because, um, understanding how to do a good website is nice, but you can easily outsource for fairly affordable consultant to help you with you ex U Y. If you want to do a nice squarespace, it's really like you can have people from, you know, $30 an hour. They work for 10 20 hours. Cost you $500. You get a beautiful website. You didn't do anything but what is still kind of that Number one portal, and it needs to be nice and neat. Andi. It requires a little bit of health if you want to make sure everything is in the right place. But that's fairly expensive for communication. The Gmail Sweet works great. I currently have seven or eight emails because my clients give give me emails of their company and it's all under Gmail. I find it more user friendly than Microsoft Office 3 65. But that's kind of the environment is female, and then Google drive for storage is not bad. The dropbox as kind of better features eso dropbox, where you can share with your clients secured folders and they sync with your own laptop. That seems to be kind of the go to, um, and then in terms of, um, communication. I would also add that everybody knows this now. Zoom versus Google meet Zuma is probably a bit more professional, but this is becoming the norm. I have about five or six zooms a day until we can finally go back into meeting rooms. But that's really the extent of the technology I use. Uh, and the rest is Excel spreadsheets and word documents and pdf's and and having a doctor a software to sign documents because you do a lot of contracts with a lot of signature, pretty much my world right now.