Guillaume Morin, EDHEC 2008, presents Tolktoo

• What’s the pitch for your start-up?
  

Tolktoo is your correspondent version 2.0, a solution for practising foreign languages!

• Can you explain briefly how your company came about?

Learning a foreign language is one thing, knowing how to speak it is another! To help users practice with foreign languages, tolktoo has reinvented the concept of the correspondent for the digital era: it draws on the new practices of students (mobile, social, collaborative) to make it easier, accessible and fun to practice foreign languages. On our platform, students can practice their chosen languages with their correspondent by talking about their shared interests, thereby making the most of the huge diversity of nationalities and languages present on our campuses to improve their oral language skills.
The EdTech sector is booming and institutions have a growing interest in digital tools to shape the schools of the future. In France, EdTech is an emerging market with a blank slate. We are at the very beginning of this revolution. The market is currently very fragmented, but the potential going forward is huge for anyone proposing the right solutions!

• What is your initial assessment of this entrepreneurial adventure? What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?
  

Entrepreneurship is a real rollercoaster ride: every day there’s good and bad news! You have to hang on tight!

3 pieces of advice for young entrepreneurs:

- Get stuck in quickly! It’s important to confront the reality on the ground and test your idea on users as early as possible. It’s the famous MVP! Your Minimum Viable Product is what will give you your first concrete feedback, invaluable indications with which to improve your product. We are often surprised by the gap between theory and reality. By analysing what does and does not work with a cool head and by forgetting your predetermined certainties, you can refine your value proposition and your business model. Nowadays, modifying your business model – known as “pivoting” – is no longer seen as a failure but as proof of flexibility and the path to longevity for your business.

- Develop your network: compare your experience with other entrepreneurs and ask experts for advice. You can gain a huge amount of time by chatting for a few minutes with another entrepreneur who has faced the same challenges as you. It is especially important to seek out the right expertise wherever you can and not waste any time reinventing the wheel! It is also useful to participate in professional networks. tolktoo is a member of EdTech France and a signatory of the "Faisons de la France la EdTech Nation" manifesto.

- Find “sponsors”, people who believe in your project and will help you to get it up and running. In our case, that person was Claire Bourgeois, the director of ILERI (Institut d'Etude des Relations Internationales) which trains diplomats among other professionals and whose students must speak 3 foreign languages. She was the first one to have confidence in our project. In the EdTech sector, innovation requires the involvement of these visionaries looking for new teaching solutions.

• Have you ever been in contact with EDHEC Young Entrepreneurs?
  We benefited from the support of the EYE incubator. And it is thanks to that facility and 12 alumni donors that we were able to join Station F this summer, the world’s largest incubator, set up by Xavier Niel. For us, this has been an adventure within the wider entrepreneurial adventure and a tremendous boost to our business.
  EYE has also just launched a mentoring programme and we are delighted to be able to benefit from the experience and advice of our mentor, Romain Dutour (EDHEC 1998). Being able to talk to a mentor in complete confidence allows you to take a step back and find solutions you never would have thought of.
  
  

• What are your expectations from the community of EDHEC graduates?
  We are looking for Business Angels who share our belief in our potential and would like to join us on this fantastic adventure.
  
  
• What’s next for your company?
  Fundraising to continue to improve the product and pursue our development in France and Europe!
   

• More information:
  

Check out our website: www.tolktoo-edu.com
Contact me at guillaume@tolktoo.com   
Follow us on Twitter: @Tolktoo_FR
Connect to our tolktoo LinkedIn profile:(https://www.linkedin.com/company/tolktoo/)