Hector de Bartillat, who graduated from EDHEC in 2017, recently launched La Chaise Française, which sets out to reinvent the milking stool with a more modern touch! Which is why he and his partners assure us: “things were better now”!
Tell us about your project. How did it come about?
One evening in 2017, my partners, Bartolomé and Jean-Baptiste, and I came up with an idea to return manufacturing furniture and decor objects here in France with environmentally friendly raw materials.
We decided to reinvent the milking stool and La Chaise Française was born!
The brand has teamed up with 10 businesses throughout France and also works with a company that carefully packages customer orders.
La Chaise Française has more than 60 retail partners, including two stores in New York and prestigious clients like Le Bon Marché. Recently, you may have seen our little beach chair in collaboration with our friends at Le Slip Français!
In September we launched a new range of lamps and chairs.
Our slogan is: Things were better now.
How has your experience at EDHEC OR with the network of graduates helped you achieve this project?
I found my first job in a start-up thanks to the EDHEC network, which gave me the opportunity to develop my skills during an intense 2-year period before launching my own project.
And while completing my Master’s degree at EDHEC, I also teamed up with two friends to launch a mini start-up known as "le comptoir des épiciers" which delivered fresh produce from local businesses to residents in Lille. That for me was a highly enriching first experience in entrepreneurship.
What is your initial assessment of this entrepreneurial adventure? What advice do you have for others from EDHEC looking to become entrepreneurs?
I appreciated the opportunity to gain some initial experience in a strong-growth business so I could later adapt what I had learned to my new company and move forward quickly without having too many questions to answer.
There is also a certain amount of complementarity between me and the other two co-founders, which ensures that we can work effectively together. One with knowledge of marketing and finance, one with commercial expertise and the third in design.
What’s NeXT for your business? What are your expectations from the community of EDHEC graduates?
We will undoubtedly be launching a fundraising campaign in the near future, so having contacts to support us would be a real bonus. We are highly ambitious about our growth going forward as the volume of our business is increasing twofold each year.
More info about your business:
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