Piquoti, an app for immortalising and sharing stories

Our alumna Tifanny Moret (SK 2018) has launched a new mobile application for those who love stories. The concept? “Capture your stories, share them and keep them forever”. Learn more about Tifanny Moret, the founder of Piquoti, in this interview.

Tell us about your education: what did you study at SKEMA and what has that brought you?

In September 2015, I joined the Grande Ecole programme at SKEMA. I chose the Master’s in Entrepreneurship and Innovation in my final year, because I knew I wanted to start my own business. My studies at SKEMA have especially given me open-mindedness, a taste for challenge, and I learnt English and Spain thanks to my two experiences abroad. I got the chance to spend 6 months in London and then in Mexico, for two internships with local startups.

What have you been up to since graduating from SKEMA?

I worked for 6 months as a business set-up consultant. This experience “in the field” really enabled me to round off my training and learn to manage complex situations as well as solve concrete problems. After those 6 months, I immediately set up Piquoti and started to develop our application with two freelance developers. I felt ready and I was dying to get started on this adventure!

You have created/launched the Piquoti app. Where did you get the idea to do what you’re doing now?

The idea came to me during my 6-month internship in Mexico. I was experiencing culture shock and my family and friends were far away, so I decided to share my everyday life with them on social media. I was publishing stories every day to show the places I was visiting, my culinary discoveries, the friends I was making, my outings, what I was doing at work, etc.: it was so simple!

But my friends, family and I very quickly became frustrated by the temporary nature of the stories. Because they self-destruct after 24 hours, it was impossible, for example, to watch my story about my 3rd of February visit to Cancun again. Worse still: several times a week some people were missing the story I’d published the day before and would then send me a message asking for news and a recap of what they’d missed.

I became consumed with the idea of a social network that would allow people to share stories daily that would all be saved in their user profile day after day so that they and their community could watch them over and over at their convenience.

Further down the track we added the shared stories feature, which allows all the participants in a same event to contribute by adding their own photos and videos. It’s a great way to centralise all the memories and immortalise the moment as a group.

What plans do you have to develop this application?

Our app has been ready since January 2020. Our challenge now is to let everyone know about our concept. We are also contacting event organisers to bring new and rich content to the application. Right now, we are raising seed money. We’re looking for investors so that we can continue the adventure, put together a solid team, and promote the app massively across France and Europe.

How have your studies at SKEMA helped you to become what you are today, and in what ways has what you learnt at the school helped you to develop your venture?

Setting off overseas on my own and learning to figure things out for myself once over there helped me to understand that I was capable of doing this and of finding the courage I needed.

Any final words for SKEMA students/alumni wanting to get started in mobile applications?

Don’t start on your own; surround yourself with experienced and skilled people so you don’t waste time. Test your concept on a small group of friends or acquaintances to make sure that it genuinely has legs. And finally, have a blast!

Download the app here. Contact Tifanny Moret.