How would you describe your company? What is the added value/specificity of your business model?

Happn is the only 100% mobile-based app, which uses precise geo-localisation in real time. It enables its users to meet with the people they bumped into and who also use the app. With Happn, everything starts in real life.

Why waste time filling out a detailed profile on online dating websites, when we cross the paths every day of dozens of people without ever really meeting them, in particular in urban areas with a high population density? Happn acts like a link, a mobile tool to put single people in touch.

Happn is based on a freemium model, i.e. downloading and using the main functions of the app are free but certain premium options are payable. The sale of in-app advertising space is a second source of income for Happn.

How did your project come into being? What main difficulties did you encounter when you set it up?

Happn came from the desire to bring together real life and an overly virtual approach to on-line or mobile dating.

The dating market is highly competitive with several hundred successful players, be they local, regional or international. The strength of our app is that it is innovative and therefore has a unique positioning.

What were the main key factors to your company’s success?

Happn meets a universal desire, i.e. meet nice people and maybe even the one person who will share our life. We have therefore developed a tool whose end purpose and technology can be transposed in any country. Our Happn model is scalable, and this has enabled us to quickly show the viability of happn, in particular to our investors who were very enthusiastic about the project from day 1.

What are your recommendations, as an entrepreneur, when raising funds?

The economic model is of paramount importance in a context where investors are fearful of startups that, despite their reputation and their impressive number of users, have not yet found how to monetise their audience and are still looking for their business model.

To convince investors and develop a project, it is therefore important to rely on a thought-through business model that is profitable in the medium term.

What did you do prior to becoming an entrepreneur?

I am an Internet pioneer! I started developing B2B service platforms at the end of the 90s and then I co-founded and led operations for the second largest video-hosting platform Dailymotion.

Would you say that deep down you have always been an entrepreneur, or did it come with time?

I am what one might call a serial entrepreneur, and entrepreneurship is in my blood. I like to be the captain of my own ship and I have a lot of energy. I also like to have an efficient, enthusiastic and audacious team around me. Above and beyond the inherent quality of the project, talent can make or break a company. The quality of the product or service can only take you so far; execution is a key factor in success.

I also like to think I have a good eye for finding new trends and I am not averse to risk. Although intuition is not enough, it remains the backbone of creation. Wanting and knowing how to listen to that intuition is above all a state of mind!

In your opinion, what are the key reasons for the success of a startup?

There is no magic recipe, but the fundamentals are undoubtedly innovation, the relevance of the solution offered to meet a need or to solve an issue identified on a market, and the quality of the implementation (which requires, among others, the talented individuals you have motivated around you, and the right economic model).

What start-up inspire you?

I am passionate about new technologies and artificial intelligence is of particular inspiration to me, regardless of the field of application.

The collaborative economy has also made it possible to challenge more traditional BtoB or BtoC models. Everything that contributes to changing the entrepreneurial field is of interest to me, as it often goes hand-in-hand with progress and innovation.

What advice would you give to young entrepreneurs?

Perseverance is an unquestionable necessity, as are the permanent search for the right balance between creativity and realism. And above all, never forget that although entrepreneurship is a personal choice, it can never come into fruition without a team.