#15: Eva Peris
Episode 15 - Eva Peris - Once Upon a Dating App...
Key Points:
Dating market has been around for a while, first online and then apps, but market has been evolving
Met Once founders soon after product developed
Once’s concept was based on addressing dating app inefficiencies, including wasted time wading through countless profiles & embarrassment of everyone seeing their profile
Once’s founders are French but launched in UK
Post-Brexit & following Macron’s victory, Paris became a more interesting place to relocate
Breaking into a crowded market requires something solid & a new idea
European markets more skeptical of the new and different, compared to US consumers
Breaking into a crowded market can initially sound like the worst idea in the world. You have to be crazy to even think such a thing, right? After all, there’s often a reason that a market isn’t crowded. A crowded market can actually mean that there’s a lot of attention and potentially money in addressing that particular market’s problems. Look at what our previous guest Edouard Aligand has managed to achieve with QuasarDB.
Eva Peris had already worked for happn, another dating app, so she had some experience in the market. While many of the online sites were past their prime and Tinder was the market leader, users were looking for something different. Swiping through so many profiles wasn’t for everyone and for many, the thought of exposing your profile to thousands of people didn’t sound like a great idea either.
The big question then was how to succeed in such a crowded market, where the competition has both market share as well as very deep pockets. Eva was hired as the Deputy CMO at Once to build out their marketing plan, and they’ve enjoyed considerable success both with building a customer base as well as raising multiple rounds of funds. In this episode, she explains how Once differentiated themselves from the competition and why they’re enjoying so much success.
What’s also interesting is Eva’s experience working in London both pre and post-Brexit, and Emmanuel Macron’s successful bid for the French presidency. London was once the undisputed leader in Europe for startup talent thanks to its international community, but the tide appears to be shifting and Paris is looking better than ever moving forward.
One of the perks of Paris’s fast-changing startup scene is that after three and a half years with a market-changing startup like Once, Eva was recently hired by Ironhack as the VP of Marketing. In her new role she will be overseeing the global marketing for the top coding bootcamp. This says a lot about the dynamics of the fast-changing Paris startup scene, where opportunities for internationally experienced professionals are increasing by the month.
#3 (fr): Leo Vesperini
Écoutez Leo partager avec Eric Lebigot son expérience dans le milieu du jeu de société, la réussite de son kickstarter récent et la préparation du suivant. En français.
#3: Leo Vesperini
Episode 3- Leo Vesperini- Beyond Mythical success
Pour la version française, cliquez ici
One argument that we hear in France a lot is that France builds many great things but they’re terrible with marketing and companies often struggle to promote their great offerings around the world. What we learn today with Mythic Games founder Léonidas Versperini is that bien sûr, tout est possible.
Following a successful publishing career writing about board and tabletop games, Leo saw the increasing difficulties of being in the print industry and shifted gears into the game market itself. Thanks to his broad network of fellow game enthusiasts and craftspeople around the world, Leo put together a truly global team to build an enormously successful Kickstarter campaign, with more to follow.
Anyone who listens to Leo will quickly hear his passion for what he does. He’s also a naturally gifted salesperson. Leo listens to his customers, embraces their feedback, and then exceeds expectations. This is the way business should be done.
Following a successful partnership for the creation of Mythic Battles: Pantheon, Mythic Games learned many helpful lessons and is moving forward with a second Kickstarter campaign for their new game, Time of Legends: Joan of Arc. (SPOILER ALERT: France still defeats England in the Hundred Years’ War.)
It’s hard to listen to Leo talk about his company and not get excited. And for good reason! They’re doing exciting things and marketing in exciting ways! For those unsure of what a startup founder - regardless of industry - sounds like, this is it.
You can follow Leo's Kickstarter campaign here.