Robin Lietar creates the first digital coach expert in plant nutrition. This former student of MINES ParisTech founded in 2017, with his friend Salomé Tenenbaum, the company VEGG'UP an application with customized vegetarian and vegan recipes, including content certified by health professionals. While he was still a student and wishing to reduce his meat consumption, Robin and his future partner realized that there is a growing desire in today's society but that it is sometimes difficult to take action. They then imagine this original application. With a message: "Accept failures and persevere".
MINES ParisTech is a major player in innovation. Support for entrepreneurship and commitment to open innovation are strategic subjects for MINES ParisTech.
Support for business creation, coordinated by the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Cluster (POLLEN), coupled with the training of engineering students via the "innovation and entrepreneurship" option, has led to the creation of some forty companies in 20 years, including about twenty in the last five years. In its desire to bring innovations and inventions to life, MINES ParisTech also encourages the creation of "spin-offs".
To reflect this dynamic, MINES ParisTech introduces you to its talented entrepreneurs. Today, meeting with Robin Lietar, co-founder of VEGG'UP.
Three questions to Robin Lietar, Alumni MINES ParisTech Class of 2017
What has the MINES ParisTech training brought to you in your adventure as an entrepreneur?
Robin Lietar: It has opened many doors and provided me with solid skills for my entrepreneurial adventure. The Civil Engineering cycle has enabled me to understand the challenges of a company as a whole and my Innovation-Entrepreneurship speciality has given me the opportunity to discover the ecosystem of start-ups and to appropriate the methodologies specific to the creation of a young company: definition of the problem, business model...
What are the prospects for the development of VEGG'UP ?
RL: The company launched an iOS application in February 2018 and we already have over 7,000 users. We will launch an Android version in June 2018 to accelerate our growth. We are also working with organic retailers to offer them digital solutions to strengthen their positioning and enhance the user experience in stores. We are also initiating a first pre-fund raising with Business Angels for September to help strengthen our team and develop the marketing part.
What would be your advice for a young entrepreneur?
RL : In my opinion, the best advice is to surround yourself well and find a team that is invested; the subject is often taken lightly. There must be real affinities from a human point of view but also at the level of skills, so that there is complementarity and a real adhesion to the project.
It also requires resilience and flexibility, accepting failures and persevering until you find the right product for the intended use. The entrepreneurial experience is a real marathon and you have to learn to identify priorities, to have a clear head when you're underwater!
Biography:
- 1994 : Birth in Gassin (83)
- 2010-2017 : Civil Engineering Cycle, option Innovation and Entrepreneurship at MINES ParisTech
- 2016-2017 : Master Machine Learning and Big Data at the Pierre and Marie Curie University (Paris VI)
- 2017 : Co-founding VEGG'UP for its graduation project
- July 2017: Integrate the start-up campus Station Fin Paris (the largest start-up campus in the world created by Xavier Niel)
- November 2017: Winner of the 4e National PEPITE Award - Springboard for Student Entrepreneurship.
