Romain Sion

Entrepreneur · Impact investor

FR

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Tag: Entrepreneur

  • Loubna is Fighting for Inclusion by Enabling Every Woman to Live from Her Cooking Talents

    Loubna is Fighting for Inclusion by Enabling Every Woman to Live from Her Cooking Talents

    ✋Nowadays, inclusion is one of the main challenges in France🇨🇵. Many people from different social backgrounds, countries 🌍and religions do not know 🗣️each other, which often leads to misunderstandings. Back in 2017, Loubna and her two co-founders found an impactful solution💡 that could be turned into a business🚀: Meet My Mama. It is an online catering platform💻 offering cuisines from around the world.

    Loubna met Donia during her time at PwC. They got along instantly 👍 and started to get involved in social activities with refugees. Moreover, Loubna’s grandmother arrived in France more than 50 years ago and was still not able to speak, read or write French. Integration was much easier for men, who received training 👩‍🏫 and learned the language at work… But for women staying at home, integration was a different story. 🌟 However, they had one talent that had never been questioned: their ability to cook incredible dishes 🙂.

    On one side, there are thousands of Mamas 👧with incredible cooking🍽️ talents from all over the world🌍 who struggle to integrate. On the other side, thousands of corporate👔 customers are looking for 🙂👍outstanding catering services. Connecting these two worlds was the perfect opportunity to change people’s minds and prejudices🌟.

    Step by step, Meet My Mama removed every barrier🚧 that could prevent great Mamas from living off their cooking🍴 talents. They match🔗 companies looking for catering services with Mamas, train the Mamas to get their food certifications📜, have developed beautiful packaging, handle the logistics, partner with butlers and manage customer service. From time to time, the Mamas are even invited to corporate events to speak in public📣!

    The business side of Meet My Mama could not perform well without its NGO 🌟arm, called Empower My Mama. The “Inspire My Mama” groups are support groups where Mamas can gather, talk about their challenges and encourage 🙂each other. At the Mama Academy👩‍🏫, Mamas can earn their certificates🎓, improve their soft skills and receive practical training.

    Today, Meet My Mama is a team of 16 full-time employees👨‍💼👩‍💼 and 250 Mamas from all over the world🌍. They are close to €1M🌍 in revenue and are planning to scale🕸️ the service to other cities very soon! The mission will remain the same: enable every woman to live from her cooking talents & make catering more sustainable🌟, inclusive🌟 and responsible🌟.

    🌟🌟🌟At Our Own Pace and Scale Everyone Can Aspire To Change The World!🌟🌟🌟

  • Hubert, The Mission Driven Man Who Recycles Bicycle Tires With Disabled Persons

    Hubert, The Mission Driven Man Who Recycles Bicycle Tires With Disabled Persons

    👋Two years ago, Hubert identified🎯 a major pain point. In France🇨🇵, more than 400,000 disabled♿ people were looking for a job and 10M old bicycle 🚲tires were burned every year. Can we combine social & environmental impact in a single company? YES! In 2017, La Vie Est Belt was born as a socially and environmentally friendly brand producing made-in-France fashion accessories.

    Hubert is an engineer with a passion for product development. He started his career at Decathlon as a textile product engineer in France 🇨🇵and China🇨🇳. He loved♥️ the adventure, but he noticed that he was working in the 2nd most polluting industry in the world🌍. To finish his studies👩‍🎓, he spent a few months in Bogotá, where he discovered another face of the country. Every Wednesday, he organized activities 🏃‍♂️for young disadvantaged children in the middle of a slum.

    When he came back to France with the desire to launch a business🚀, he knew one thing: the mission of his company could not only be money💰. It would have to be aligned with his values and his quest for purpose. To identify the products he would focus on, he did his research, which led him to two discoveries🔭: more than 320 tons of tires⚙️ were burned every year, and thousands of motivated disabled people were struggling to find a job. That was the beginning of La Vie Est Belt!

    Hubert spent the first 5 months of the adventure in his garage trying to design✍️ the first prototypes with a shoemaker 👞as his mentor. Belts were a good choice for a first product. The first 2 objectives were: developing a belt combining functionality, style & price, and selling 100 belts to customers 👨to validate their interest. He partnered with 3 concept stores and sold out everything in 3 days.

    Now, Hubert employs 🚀6 people, 50% of whom are disabled. They all share the same passion and vision, and wear the same belt. 🙂So far, they have produced thousands of products and generated hundreds of thousands of euros in revenue💰. Next year, Hubert plans to double revenue and grow the team! Combining impact and business is possible! At La Vie Est Belt, one motto: all actors of a better world! 🌟

    🌟 🌟 🌟 At Our Own Pace And Scale, Everyone Can Aspire To Change The World 🌟 🌟 🌟

    • La Vie Est Belt -
      La Vie Est Belt –
  • Darong Transferred 5 schools for Deaf and Blind Children to the Ministry of Education in Cambodia

    Darong Transferred 5 schools for Deaf and Blind Children to the Ministry of Education in Cambodia

    ✌️We met Darong Chour, director of the 🚀NGO☀️ Krousar Thmey, a leading NGO based in Cambodia 🇰🇭supporting blind and deaf children👨👧. The adventure started because, in the 1990s, there was no infrastructure🏗️ to support blind and deaf children.

    Education 👨‍🏫was the key🗝️ priority. To make sure children got a proper education👨‍🎓, the team developed a Khmer version of Braille📒, started teaching sign☦️ language and translated the entire Cambodian curriculum. And it worked really well!💪🙂

    We met Darong a few weeks after a major announcement📣. After 30 years of co-development with the Cambodian government, the government approved✔️ the transfer 🤗of their 5 schools👨‍🎓 for blind and deaf children, including more than 200 teachers👨‍🏫👩‍🏫, to the Ministry of Education. This year, more than 300 blind and 750 deaf children 😀🏆🚀are supported by Krousar Thmey.

    🌟🌟🌟At Our Own Pace And Scale, Everyone Can Aspire To Change The World🌟🌟🌟

  • Moussa Trains the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs To Fight For Social Integration

    Moussa Trains the Next Generation of Entrepreneurs To Fight For Social Integration

    ✌️In sensitive 💥urban areas in France🇨🇵, the unemployment rate is twice📈 the national average. For Moussa, economic integration is the cornerstone of social success🚀. In 2015, Moussa launched Les Déterminés, a mission-driven🌠 NGO🌠 that supports entrepreneurs from sensitive💥 urban and rural areas.

    Self-taught👨‍🏫 and resolutely audacious, Moussa started his career as an entrepreneur in the telecom ☎️industry at 21. Without support 💁or a network🕸️, he discovered how hard⛰️ it was to create a company. At the same time, he saw countless young talents👦 full of ambition and energy 💪but lacking the skills, knowledge and network to launch a successful business.

    To fight for a brighter☀️ future in sensitive 💥areas, Moussa sees entrepreneurship as a powerful weapon. Les Déterminés is a free 🆓program for young entrepreneurs, with an application process 100% based on determination💪😀. It provides personalized training around 2 main pillars: knowledge and network.

    Within 4 years, Les Déterminés has trained 10 cohorts of entrepreneurs across 5 French départements✌️😀. After this successful milestone, Moussa now aims to scale🚀 the program nationally. Do you know why none of the 144 participants dropped out before completion? Because they are Determined🌠!

    🌠🌠🌠At our own pace and scale, everyone can aspire to change the world.🌠🌠🌠

    Moussa Camara Les Déterminés 3
    Moussa Camara Les Déterminés 2
    Moussa Camara Les Déterminés 6
    Moussa Camara Les Déterminés 5
    Moussa Camara Les Déterminés 4
    Moussa Camara Romain Sion Les Déterminés

  • Bulgarian Immigrant and Entrepreneur, Plamen Wants to Change Perceptions About His Country

    Bulgarian Immigrant and Entrepreneur, Plamen Wants to Change Perceptions About His Country

    👉Plamen is a Bulgarian immigrant & entrepreneur 👔who moved back to Bulgaria🇧🇬 with a bold, purpose-driven🚀 project in mind. Born👶 & raised in Bulgaria, he immigrated to Spain 🇪🇸when he turned 16 for family reasons. After his bachelor’s degree, he spent a few years climbing the corporate ladder, where he discovered that he was moving away from his values & from finding a purpose through work.

    After an adverse event in the company, he decided to get a fresh start with a one-year journey in Australia🇦🇺. It was a journey ✈️of self-discovery, about what he wanted to achieve in life. This was one of the toughest periods he had ever experienced, when he felt more alone than ever. However, it made him change his mindset: the fear of failure was replaced by 🌠the drive to contribute🌠.
    He also realized that Bulgaria has beautiful nature⛰️, a rich culture 📚& history, excellent food🍎, long-preserved traditions 🤼and great, hospitable people 💁. Very few of the people he met abroad were aware of this, and he wanted to help change perceptions about his country.

    👉 It became his🌠 mission 🌠and that is how Insaiders was born: an online travel marketplace connecting travelers seeking authentic experiences in Bulgaria with passionate, knowledgeable locals. https://www.insaiders.com/

     

    Plamen Ivanov Insaiders Sofia Romain Sion Bulgaria
    Plamen Ivanov Insaiders Sofia Romain Sion Bulgaria
    Plamen Ivanov Insaiders Sofia Romain Sion Bulgaria

  • Aleksandar Co-Founded the Largest Bulgarian Media For Positive and Inspiring News

    Aleksandar Co-Founded the Largest Bulgarian Media For Positive and Inspiring News

    👉Who is fed up with reading news🗞️ every morning 🥐about violence💥, sex 🔞 and drugs 💊across the world🌍?

    Personally, I am!😐

    Especially when I know that so many inspiring known & unknown leaders are fighting⚔️ to make the world🌐 a better place! In Bulgaria 🇧🇬, I spent an evening🍺 with Aleksandar, the 🚀co-founder of Uspelite🚀, the largest media outlet 🗞️in Bulgaria for positive😎 & inspiring✌️ news. He is trying to reverse the trend & it is working💪! 👉Their mission is to share the inspiring stories of 🌠successful people🌠 in Bulgaria 🇧🇬 and deliver good news every day. While informing 📬their growing audience👂, they also advocate 📢& challenge national channels 📻 to include more positive news in their programming. Launching an independent media outlet is not only ambitious 💪but also challenging. If you are not a top-tier media outlet, you do not attract large advertising campaigns. Then came a brilliant idea😀: Aleksandar & his team created 🚀Nosia, a direct-to-consumer👚 fashion brand inspired by Bulgarian folklore, to finance💰 their media activities. Smart, right? 😎✌️Moreover, to spot the latest scoops across the country every day, they have built⛏️ an efficient network of freelancers & partners who share the same values🔜.

    👉Mission-driven people are everywhere, even in the media! http://uspelite.bg/ 💪😀

    🌠🌠🌠“At our own pace and scale, everyone can aspire to change the world”🌠🌠🌠

  • Paul Duan — Data Science Genius Fighting against unemployment

    Paul Duan — Data Science Genius Fighting against unemployment

    Hi Everyone👋,

    I had the chance to meet with Paul Duan👨, the inspiring founder of Bayes Impact, the Y Combinator-backed NGO which builds citizen-led public services to create a fairer and inclusive future for our societies. By leveraging data science 💻, they achieved outstanding impacts: 800 police agencies 👮use their tool to reduce violence 💥 in the US 🇺🇲, 150 000 people helped to return to work ⚒️ in France 🇨🇵, -30% of microcredit 💰 fraud to Ghanaian 🇬🇭 entrepreneurs… From the city of Trappes in France where he was born to the University of Berkeley 🎓 in California, he started his career at the well know startup 🚀 Eventbrite as Data Scientist. In the Silicon Valley, he discovered that most of the world brightest data scientists were developing algorithms #️⃣ for privileged people. But what about technology 👨‍💻 at the service of the society for a fairer and more inclusive future? Paul got the courage to quit his job 5 years ago to create a non-profit startup 🚀. Paul is now leading a mission driven team 💪 of 8 people fully dedicated to build Citizen-led Public Services.

    They have one motto: 🌠🌠👉”Empowering people at scale” ! 🌠🌠🤩

    Any thoughts?

  • Andi Develops 3.0 coding classes to train people for the new economy

    Andi Develops 3.0 coding classes to train people for the new economy

    Hi Everyone,

    Most developers and tech guys in Romania live in Cluj-Napoca, which is also called the Silicon Valley of Romania. Willing to better understand the ecosystem, I met Andi, a young and ambitious full stack developer 💻. A few months before, he had quit his well-paid job to join Carmel as a co-founder 🚀. Carmel is not a random startup looking for a quick exit in cash 💰. At the crossroads between Edtech 👩‍🏫and Blockchain 🖥️, they aim at providing best-in-class 3.0 coding #️⃣sessions for people looking to train for the new economy! A recent study in Le Figaro 📰 predicts 85% of the existing jobs will disappear within the next 30 years and it has already started. Their target customers are 50-year-old people who want to learn coding #️⃣ because they know their jobs are going to disappear. After a successful $200k ICO that has been fully invested into product development, the crypto market crashed and they had to look for other financing options. When I met Andi, he was working hard ⚒️💪 and he had just spent his last €500 of personal reserve. Giving up, never! 😎💪 Why? He is passionate 🤩 and he has a true mission 🚀with Carmel!

    PASSION AND A TRUE MISSION ARE THE BEST MOTIVATION DRIVERS 👍

  • Civil War Refugee at 14 to Entrepreneur

    Civil War Refugee at 14 to Entrepreneur

    Hi everyone,

    This week-end, I decided to stop by Cluj-Napoca in Transylvania 🇷🇴. City well known as the economic heart of Romania. Exhausted due to my flight delay ✈️, I arrived very early in the morning at my hotel. After a 15-minute nap, I was awake by Bala, my roommate. A 50 year old man with a large smile 😀 on the face. We sympathized instantly and we decided to spend the next evening together. After two beers 🍺, I discovered that this man had a truly inspirational story. He is now living a peaceful life in Germany 🇩🇪 with his wife and two kids but before reaching that point, he had to go through a lifetime challenge. Bala was born in Sri Lanka 🇱🇰 and he was living a happy life. When he turned 14 years old, the civil war broke out between the government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam. To protect children rights and abuse, Germany set up a policy for every child under 16 years old 👦 by granting them a visa and a flight to Germany. At 14 years old, he has been sent to Germany without any friends or family. He was alone! He explained that: “For a month, I was crying every day”. He also said that he was lucky because many people supported him along the way. Those people were in vast majority elder people surprised seeing every day the same young boy in the streets. One day, one old man invited him to spend every week-end at his place with his two daughters for dinners and accommodation. Starting from that, he regained confidence and he found his first job as a street cleaner. Today, he is running an importation business with 9 employees. He travels the world 🌍 and imports thousands of different products. He told me: “I am not a businessman but I am working hard to succeed”. Today, most of his family lives across Europe! Truly amazing entrepreneur! 😉

    We should never forget the chance we had to be born in Europe! 👍