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On September 4th, the new intake of the Global Entrepreneurship Program went to visit Very Cook, a start-up company located in Lyon and founded by EMLYON graduate Alexandre Carre. 

Very Cook designs innovative, colorful and customizable outdoor planchas. Alexandre started building his company at the age of 18 by buying plancha grills in Spain and selling them to his relatives and family friends in France. “I really wanted to go quickly into details, design a brand new product and get my own plancha grills. I was directly in touch with customers who allowed me to understand the kind of innovations they were looking for” said Alexandre.

Today Very Cook has 3 main departments (marketing, design and commercial), 14 employees and sells all of its plancha grills on an e-commerce website the company developed. 

The students asked many questions regarding the distribution, marketing and communication channels used by the company to promote and sell the products as well as concerning the fierce competition. Very Cook has many competitors as it is part of the barbecue market however Alexandre explained that he wasn’t worried about it as it’s a big market. “That’s something that will be very important for you when you create your business: make sure you are in a strong, worldwide and innovative market.”  Ramon David Abadi Balid Vasquez, a current student of the Global Entrepreneurship Program from Panama conveyed that he enjoyed “the passion the founder puts in his product, regardless of the high competition in the market.”

He also talked about the importance of innovation: “Innovation is not only biotechnology. Innovation is something very simple and is about bringing something different to and new to the customers.” 

Alexandre Carre also gave the students advice for their future. “It’s really feasible to build your company, even if you don’t have a lot of money. I didn’t have any money when I started and the biggest advantage you have in that case is that you can’t lose money” shared the company founder. 

Ramon David confirmed that one of the key points he learned during this visit was that “as an entrepreneur it will always be better to control directly your sales tools (i.e.: website) rather than outsourcing them.”

Not only did this experience allow the students to understand first-hand what building their own business requires but it also helped them get a sense of the learning environment they will be immersed in during the entire program.