Stéphane VIX, EDHEC Master 91, receives a gold medal at the Lépine contest for his Kiddyboost innovation
Stéphane VIX, EDHEC Master 91, received a gold medal at the Lépine innovation contest held in Paris from April the 27th to May the 8th.
The project
Kiddyboost is the first removable motorised kit for prams. It can be mounted in less than a minute on most existing prams and provides assistance of up to 4 km/h for as many as 4 children and on slopes of up to 10%. It is aimed at parents with young children and child minders. It will go on sale during the year directly online at www.kiddyboost.com.
What was the path that led you to this idea?
Although I’m not an engineer, I’ve always had an appetite for working on technical projects, even at EDHEC where I was in charge of “Ingécom Nord”, a technical and commercial junior enterprise jointly run with the HEI. A few years ago, as a parent of 3 young children, I was very surprised that at a time when electric micro-mobility had seen significant developments (Segways, electric scooters and bikes, motorised wheelchairs and golf carts, etc.) there were no satisfactory products offering motorised assistance for prams. After 20 years working in sales and marketing in the automobile sector, one exploratory study and a flight of fancy, I decided to tackle the design of a product that didn’t yet exist.
What does this award mean for you?
A great sense of pride as it represents recognition of the capacity to invent and above all to make technical projects a possibility and a reality even though I’m neither an engineer nor a technician (although the training offered by EDHEC leaves you with many engineering reflexes thanks to the analytical methods and the complexity of the subjects they teach there).
What's next?
First, complete the industrialisation process and oversee the commercial launch of Kiddyboost in France and if possible in other countries quite quickly. In the longer term, this is the very first product made by Mobinov, a company I founded in 2016 with the aim of designing and assembling other systems offering easy-to-use motorised assistance for other carts or vehicles with at least three wheels that are pushed by the user. The search for financing is currently being prepared.
Any advice for our young EDHEC entrepreneurs?
If you take pleasure from coming up with innovative technical objects but are afraid to take the plunge because you lack the technical skills, don’t worry, you have what it takes to succeed. Indeed, it is precisely because you are unaware of some technical impossibility that you can make the product feasible where other, more qualified and “conventional” inventors would be discouraged or lack imagination. But you need to have the right people around you to get off the ground. Ideally, you should team up with an engineer who has a good understanding of the sector you’re taking on.
Have you ever benefited from the EDHEC network?
Yes of course, especially since you have to if you are as crazy as I was to take on an industrial project alone with no experience and after so many years on a salary; I went looking for information from other EDHEC entrepreneurs or employees working in the sectors that interested me. Indeed I would like to thank the EDHEC resources, who form a network of real expertise available to graduates.
What are your expectations from the network?
I’m very interested in gaining contacts and market feedback from EDHEC graduates overseas or who might be interested in my project, especially those with knowledge of the pram, childcare or electric micro-mobility markets where they live so I can get an idea of the potential for Kiddyboost or find partners for export.
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