Unicorn Path #2 From School to Unicorn 1/3 🦄
In studying French unicorns, I decided to dive into something that shapes every person: school. We all went to school and the founders of French Unicorn too! Let's see which school they attended!
Introduction
Analyzing why a business succeeds or fails is incredibly fascinating, going back to the startup's inception, understanding who the founders are, what makes them unique, and why they were the right team to build the startup. I love it.
As I enjoy diving into this, I will dedicate the first 10 articles of this newsletter to uncovering why French unicorns became unicorns. In the previous article, we explored the importance of location and noted that being in Paris can offer some advantages for becoming a unicorn with the “hyper-centralization” of the French startup ecosystem (almost confirmed by this report of the Banque de France).
Now, let’s move on to another crucial factor to consider when assessing a business: the educational background of the founders. I will break this analysis into three parts:
Analysis of the founding teams and their schools (From Aircall to Lydia)
Analysis of the founding teams and their schools (From ManoMano to Younited)
Statistics and debrief on what we observed
Given the length and complexity of these articles, due to the impressive number of French unicorns (congrats to our ecosystem!), I'll focus on presenting the data in the first two posts and highlighting the key insights in the final article.
This time, I’ve also decided to include Front in the analysis. While it’s a US unicorn, founders are French!
Understanding the study
To better understand the graphs below, here are some key points on how I built them:
Schools are based on information from LinkedIn and various website searches.
The main school of the founders is the one where they spent most of their time. You can identify it by the color of their name, which corresponds to their main school.
If I couldn't find any educational background information, I did not include that founder in the global study.
I focused on assessing key statistics in percentages to better understand the composition of founding teams. You’ll find percentages for:
Engineering studies (including Computer Science, IT, Maths, PhD, Physics, Robotics, Agronomic, Informatics, Aeronotics)
Business studies (including Commercial, Finance, Economics, Management, Entrepreneurship, MBA studies)
Communication studies (including Digital Media, Communication)
Medicine studies
Fashion studies
Law studies
Philosophy studies
History/Art/Music studies
Parisian schools
More than 5 years of studies
Foreign studies
No School
The goal is to analyze each startup individually and then provide insights for the overall French unicorn ecosystem. Let’s go!
Founders School background of the French unicorns (Aircall to Lydia)
Aircall
Number of founders: 4
Jonathan Anguelov
ESCP Master in Management
Xavier Durand
EPITA Master in Computer Science / 1 year Exchange in Griffith College Dublin
Olivier Pailhes
HEC Master in Management
Pierre-Baptiste Béchu
Master of Engineering & Computer Engineering at École Centrale de Lyon / Master's Degree in Work and Social Psychology at Université Lumière Lyon 2
Alan
Number of founders: 2
Charles Gorintin
Engineering Master at École des Ponts ParisTech / Master in Machine Learning & Computer Vision at École Normale Supérieure / 1 year in Financial Engineering at University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business
Jean-Charles Samuelian
Engineering Master at École des Ponts ParisTech
Algolia
Number of founders: 2
Nicolas Dessaigne
Engineering Master in Computer Sciences at ESIEA & PhD in Computer Sciences at Nantes Université
Julien Lemoine
EPITA Bachelor's degree, Computer Engineering, Specialization in Cognitive Science and Advanced Algorithms
Ankorstore
Number of founders: 4
Nicolas d'Audiffret
ESCP Master in Management / exchange at Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad
Pierre Louis Lacoste
Master in Communication at EFAP
Mathieu Alengrin
Engineering Master at SUPINFO
Nicolas Cohen
Engineering Master at Arts et Métiers ParisTech / Entrepreneurship Master at HEC Paris
Back Market
Number of founders: 3
Vianney Vaute
Digital Media Master at CELSA Sorbonne University
Thibaud Hug de Larauze
IESEG Master in Management / International Management Institute - IMI & Universidad de Monterrey exchanges
Quentin Le Brouster
Undergraduate Degree in IT at Université de Caen Normandie / Master in network and internet systems at Université Paris Cité
Believe
Number of founders: 3
Denis Ladegaillerie
Université Paris Panthéon-Sorbonne Master of Laws / ESCP x Sciences Po Double Degree / Duke University Master of Laws
Arnaud Chiaramonti
Engineering Master at École Normale Supérieure
Nicolas Laclias
Undergraduate law degree at Côte d'Azur University
Blablacar
Number of founders: 3
Francis Nappez
Undergraduate Degree in Communication Networks and Services at Université Joseph Fourier (Grenoble I)
Nicolas Brusson
Master in Engineering and Optics at Ecole Superieure d'Optique (SupOptique) / PhD in Optoelectronics at Université Paris-Sud / Project Management Certificate at University of California, Berkeley / MBA in Finance and Entrepreneurship at INSEAD
Frédéric Mazzella
INSEAD MBA in Business & Entrepreneurship / Stanford University
Master in Computer Science / École Normale Supérieure
Master in Physics / (preparatory class at Henri IV High School)
Contentsquare
Number of founders: 1
Jonathan Cherki
ESSEC Master in Management & Marketing / (preparatory class at Thiers High School)
Critéo
Number of founders: 3
Franck Le Ouay
Mines Paris - PSL: Master in Maths, Physics / (preparatory class at Hoche High School)
Romain Niccoli
Mines Paris - PSL: Master in computer science, maths, physics
Jean-Baptiste Rudelle
Engineering Master Degree from Centrale Supélec / Master at Imperial College London II in telecommunications sciences
Dataiku
Number of founders: 4
Thomas Cabrol
Master in Analytical CRM at Université de Montpellier
Clément Stenac
CentraleSupélec: Master in IT
Florian Douetteau
Engineering Master at École Normale Supérieure
Marc Batty
AgroParisTech INA P-G Agronomic Engineer, specializing in animal science and the animal products industry
Deezer
Number of founders: 2
Jonathan Benassaya
ESSEC Business School MBA in Finance / Arts et Métiers ParisTech: Master in Mechanical Engineering
Daniel Marhely
No School
Dental Monitoring
Number of founders: 3
Philippe Salah
Engineering Master at École Polytechnique (X)
William Ayache
No data
Emmanuel Salah
No data
Doctolib
Number of founders: 4
Ivan Schneider
EPITA Master in Computer Science
Stanislas Niox-Chateau
HEC Master in Management
Steve Abou Rjeily
Master’s Degree in Corporate Finance & Risk Management at EMLV / 1 year Exchange at 건국대학교
Jessy Bernal
EPITA Master in Computer Science
EcoVadis
Number of founders: 2
Pierre-Francois Thaler
Master at CentraleSupélec in Electrical and Electronics Engineering / INSEAD MBA / (preparatory class at Collège Stanislas Paris)
Frederic Trinel
Degree in International business at ICAD Paris
Exotec
Number of founders: 2
Renaud Heitz
Master in Engineering and robotics at Mines Paris - PSL / Massachusetts Institute of Technology 1 year exchange in Fluid dynamics & Robotics / (preparatory class at Lycée du Parc Paris)
Romain Moulin
Master in Engineering and robotics at ISAE SUPAERO
Front
Number of founders: 2
Laurent Perrin
Engineering & Computer Science Master at École Polytechnique (X) / Engineering & Computer Science Master at Télécom-Paris
Mathilde Collin
HEC Master in Management
iAD
Number of founders: 3
Sebastien Caille
No data
Jérôme CHABIN
No data
Malik Benrejdal
No data
Ivalua
Number of founders: 1
David Khuat-Duy
Engineering Master at École Polytechnique (X) / PhD, Physics & Mathematics at Université Paris Dauphine- PSL / Master's degree in Mathematics at Université Paris-Sud / Late 1 year studies at HEC Paris
Kyriba
Number of founders: 1
Jean-Luc Robert
ESCP Master in Management / LL.M International Business Law from the Université de Paris II - Assas
Ledger
Number of founders: 8
David Balland
SUPINFO Master in Computer Science / (Undergraduate degree in Computer Management at Lycée Marguerite Bahuet)
Nicolas Bacca
ENSICAEN Master in Computer Science & Monetics / (preparatory class at Lycée Lavoisier)
Vanessa Fara Rabesandratana
Master in Art History and Contemporary History at Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne / (Professional Training in Live Performance Organization, IRMA & Sciences Po degree in change management + Lycée Corot Preparatory class in Hypokhâgne, modern literature and political science)
Éric Larchevêque
Master at ESIEE Paris in Electronic and Computer Science
Olivier Tomaz
UVSQ - Paris Saclay: Master in Cryptography / ISTY - Paris Saclay Master's Degree in Engineering / BTEC degree Informatics
Thomas France
Master in Industrial Engineering at École des Ponts ParisTech /
Stanford University ME310, Industrial and Product Design
Joel Pobeda
Université Paris-Sorbonne: Musicology degree
Cedric Mesnil
EPITA: Engineering degree, Computer Science / University of Paris Dauphine- PSL degree in multi-agent and database systems
Lydia
Number of founders: 2
Antoine Porte
Côte d'Azur University Bachelor of corporate information and communication / Panthéon-Assas university Master in Management of New Information and Communication Technologies
Cyril Chiche
Master, International Sales and Marketing at Institut Supérieur de Gestion
Sorry for this long and endless article, don’t unsubscribe please.
First conclusions
Well, many disparities, many schools, different background.
On my side and thanks to the first 21 unicorns, I think that: No matter the school you come from.
From musicology to engineering studies, we can observe that school doesn’t define your future. It can steer you towards certain career paths, and in the third article, we will see that some schools are well-represented among unicorns. However, even if your studies are not related to business or engineering, or if you are not in a top school, you can still become an entrepreneur if you have the drive.
That’s my conclusion for this first overview. I will let you digest this long article.
Next week, let’s see the other 21 french unicorns (From Mirakl to Younited), and we will have a broad and better view on if school matter. In 2 weeks, in the 3rd article about this study, we will summarize everything and answer the question:
How important is the educational background of founders in determining the success of a startup?
Every week (15 days), I will publish insights on the startup and VC ecosystem, with a focus on France and Europe.
Thanks for reading me, feel free to subscribe ❤️
Best,
Erwan