App'ero, the first steps.
- 4 oct 2017
- 7 Min. de lectura
It's almost been a year...yes, one whole year since we started this journey. Time has come to take a look back on what we accomplished till today, share with you some good memories from this amazing project and some tough moments aswell
It's been 2 months since school started in Paris. We are 6, in total, in our international master programme. We ultimately got along with each other, as it was difficult at the beginning, since we all were coming from different countries, cultures and backgrounds...2 months of endless theoretical computer science lectures. And what's better than midterm exams to break this humdrum.
The day App'ero was born
Like most of the students, we weren't ready for this, it hit us like a wrecking ball. After a disastrous exam week, we were relieved, "At least it's over", we were saying. Time for a heartwarming meal to forget about this.
That's when it hit us. We need to come up with a start-up idea for another course of the program, asap, as the course starts right after the midterm week. We, then, decided to have a brainstorming session in a bar, Rue Mouffetard. The empty glasses were slowly piling up but the ideas were far from it. We were trying hard to find an idea that'd be as challenging as innovative and most importantly that we were passionate about. We were stuck...We decided to break up the session and enjoy the night out.
The bar was getting more and more crowded as all of the students were over with their exams. As time was going by, it was harder to order our drinks due to the crowd surrounding the bar counter. We were bragging about the situation when it hit us, this is the idea we nedded, this is it, Eurêka!
The day we participated in the Startup Days
One week later we had our first meeting with the coaching team. We were supposed to brainstrom all together but we pitched our idea straight away. They were sceptical about it but we held on to it.
First struggle was to come up with a name for the App. App'ero wasn't its first name as it had various peculiar namings.
Late november we heard that our master programme was organising a start-up event in Paris. We decided, right away, to take part in it. We wanted to, most of all, get some feedback from our fellow startuppers. We were 5 teams to compete and we ended up winning the contest. It was great. We had some constructive feedback, good reviews and important knowledge on how to work as a team. This experience only gave us more willpower to keep up the good work and go further in the developping process.
The day we did the first Poc
We then divided into two teams, a technical team taking care of the app development and a business team working on communication, marketing, financing. Even though that the requirements to pass the course were met 3 months ahead of schedule, we decided to continue working on App'ero as it became part of our daily life.
By may we presented in front of the jury to pass the course but all we had in mind was the first proof of concept (PoC), that was taking place afterwards. We wanted to run the app in a real environment to see how all of this would work out in real conditions. Everything was setup.
Bar? Check. Tablet? Check. Decoration? Check. Guests? All ready to party. Only one thing was missing; the app wasn't on point. This was, I can say, the most stressful 2 hours of the App'ero project. How are we going to explain this to the bar, that trusted us, to the people, that were already coming in and to our coaches, that were so pround of us 1 hour ago I decided to go to the bar to welcome the people, while the tech team was trying to solve the issue. I was talking with the barmaid when I received a call; "It's solved, the app works". These were the most satisfying words I could hear by that time.
The night went unexpectedly well, people were having fun with the app and the barmaid was enjoying it.
The day we took part in the national competition
After the Poc, we only had more willingness to go further. Jeremy and Clelila, our coaches, were the most enthusiastic people. They gave us a lot of their time and pushed us forward. Jeremy, who was working at EPA by that time, wanted us to participate to the National championship of the student startuppers. We needed to meet a lot of requirements to be able to take part in the competition. We didn't have a proper business plan, executive summary or even a complete, professional presentation. Nevertheless, we decided to participate after days of hesitation. I must say that the winning prize was a good leitmotiv, as the winner startup goes to the european contest. Participating in the contest means 2 weeks of intensiv work to prepare everything needed. I have to say that after a long year we all wanted to rest in june. We took one week off, then went back to Paris. We eventually sent everything 1 hour after the deadline but fortunately our application was accepted.
D-day, we were the first ones to go in front of the jury. 9am, here we are at BRED, a huge building by the Seine. No hesitation, we went in and pitched our idea within the 4-minute allowed time. We couldn't decrypt the jury's reaction but we were satisfied with the presentation we gave. Second round was the booth. The jury would come across to ask us some questions. It was, let's say, sweaty; 35 degrees without AC.
The day was over. It's time for the results. There were 3 prizes. We were confident to win the "Prix du commerce connecté VISA" as we had some promising feedback from the VISA team, part of the jury. We were right, the VISA prize was ours. It was bittersweet, as if we win the VISA prize we wouldn't be able to win the first place. At least that's what we thought. We've never been so wrong.
"Et le champion est...App'ero". We couldn't believe it...It was incredible. 2 prizes...waw. We celebrated hard that night.
The day we went to Helsinki
Winning the french prize led us to Helsinki and the European championship. Now, we are with the big fishes. We were competing with the best young startups of Europe. We went to Helsinki without expectations. We were happy with what we accomplished until now. We were aware that the competition is going to be tough. Unlike the french championship, we were far from being ready. We thought we could prepare our presentation the night before in the hotel in Helsinki. We've never been so wrong.
During the rehearsal with Jeremy and Marion, none of us was good enough. We were tired, tense and not far from breaking apart. We kept trying but it wasn't working. We decided to stop it there, have a good night of sleep and try again in the morning.
I can say that we were much more enthusiastic, the next day, even though it wasn't perfect, yet. The pitch was lacking of "happiness" but, at least, we got something. It's time for the on-stage-rehearsal. We went on and smashed it. We, finally, had it. The last version of the pitch was there.
At 4 p.m, it was time for the big presentation. Every team had 4 minutes to convince the audiance. 300 people were gathered in the theatre. We were one of the last ones to go on stage. So, we had to watch most of the other teams before pitching our idea. I must say that we were impressed by the level of the other teams.
At almost 6 p.m, we were called on stage. It's showtime..
We did it in exactly 3"58, perfect. We were satisfied knowing that we went to Helsinki without a prepared pitch.
Next day was the 2-minute-investor-pitch. We also prepared it the night before. We didn't sleep much but we had to cope with the situation as it was entirely our fault.
On our way to meet the investors, we met the previous team. They were disappointed, which put more pressure on us. After 1 minute of pitching they stopped us. Bad sign? We couldn't say. We sat with them and had a chat. It was like they were trying to put us under pressure by asking lots of questions without expecting any answer. We didn't know how to react to this, so we kept our calm and just tried to answer as much as possible. We, then, understood the reaction of the team before us.
The last stage was the booth. It was more casual as we provided drinks ordered through our app to everyone visiting. At least, pressure was down and we could enjoy the afternoon.
On the evening, we had the gala dinner where the winners are set to be announced. We went there without any expectation. We lost all hopes, when the VISA prize was given to another team. Yes, we couldn't win it every single time.
We were surprised to hear "App'erooooo" being shouted out when the 2nd runner-up prize was given. We had to ask the people sitting next to us for confirmation before going on stage. We didn't expect this at all. It was the best moment of the journey, so far. We didn't know how we made it and we still don't but we did it.
It was incredible...We went back to France with eyes full of stars but exhausted after a 3-day-competition. We then decided to take a well deserved summer break.
After all this fuss, App'ero only has more to achieve. We want to provide our future users with the best experience in bars. We want to continue working hard on the development of the startup. You won't be disappointed with what's coming up next...
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