PageYourself by Nicolas Fayon (Msc 2007) targets companies in need of greater visibility

Nicolas Fayon (Msc 2007), co-founder of PageYourself, has already acquired 80,000 clients worldwide thanks to his applications for social media and websites. This entrepreneur was trained and incubated here at EDHEC.

EDHEC Alumni: Can you explain briefly how PageYourself came about?
Nicolas Fayon: The PageYourself project came about as part of an experiment in another start-up where we created web-based tools to help artists promote their work. We came up with the idea of doing something with a much more global, mass-market reach, and we eventually came up with PageYourself, a new type of tool for creating websites and social platforms for small and medium enterprises. 
Our first success came when we were accepted on to the EDHEC Young Entrepreneurs incubation programme. We then joined Paris Incubateurs and received an award at Scientipôles. We launched V1 in San Francisco, where we received positive press coverage. That’s when our metrics started to shoot up. We now have 80,000 users without spending a cent on acquisitions.

EA: What is your initial assessment of this entrepreneurial adventure?
NF: Starting your own company is like buying a desert island to create a new paradise, you can make your own rules and customs, invite whomever you want to live there, and efficiently divide up the tasks to survive. And then you head off to conquer another island ;)

For me, entrepreneurial adventures are like a journey from A to B. The difficulty arises when B is a moving target, you have to be able to recalculate your itinerary at the right time, and avoid the obstacles to get there on time.

EA: Have you ever benefited from the network of EDHEC graduates? 
NF: I’ve met with many people from the EDHEC network who helped me with particular problems, or vice versa. The network is well structured and its members are loyal and accessible.
PageYourself is also a member of the EYE incubator, which is monitoring the project with the invaluable advice of Jean-Michel Ledru.

EA: What advice do you have for young entrepreneurs?
NF: The advice I would give depends on the maturity of the project, but I would say that if someone has an idea they must take the plunge rather than waiting for the perfect idea, because it doesn’t happen at the start but much later, after hundreds of revisions and dozens of changes in direction.
To those who have already taken the plunge, I would say hang in there, persevere and pay attention to what needs to be changed so that things will work better. With these two qualities and a bit of imagination, you can perform miracles.

EA: What’s next for PageYourself?
NF: We have just finished quite a large fundraising operation, which will allow us to complete our recruitment drive and establish a solid team in the long term. Our next objective is to launch V2 within the next few weeks and see our metrics skyrocket in the first quarter of 2016.

Contact
Website : pageyourself.com
PageYourself on Facebook
PageYourself on Twitter