Adrien Vansteelant (SKEMA 2022), SKEMA Entrepreneurs Manager: “Innovation is a team sport”

From SKEMA to heading the school’s incubator - tell us about this inspiring journey. 

After graduating in 2022, two experiences had a profound impact on my career path. The first was at Investir&+, an impact investing fund, where my job was to identify innovative solutions to invest in. Over the course of 7 months, I met over 600 impact startups. This gave me a good insight into the impact startup ecosystem in Paris and the surrounding region. I then joined Microsoft as Program Manager for their environmental startup accelerator at Station F. I worked there for two years and discovered the richness of the ecosystem, the mutual support, the encounters and the importance of networking.

For two years, I was immersed in a bubbling ecosystem of 1,000 startups and incubators from other top French schools like HEC and EDHEC. That’s when I asked myself: why isn't SKEMA in this space yet? 

A lot of SKEMA entrepreneurs were being incubated elsewhere, which made me want to return and create something similar within our school. I've always maintained strong ties with SKEMA, for example through rugby as president of the Tontons d'Ovalie network of rugby-loving SKEMA alumni. And of course, the Microsoft programme we were running at Station F was one of the impact entrepreneurship programmes in Jean-Philippe Courtois’ plan (SKEMA 1983), and the director of Microsoft for Startups France, Florent Pélissié, was also an alumnus of the school (SKEMA 2010). The world is small and rather well designed. So, I wanted to combine this passion for teamwork and entrepreneurship by giving the incubator a new impetus. 

What major changes have you made to SKEMA's incubator? 

The first major change was to open up the incubator to a wider public, by making its workings transparent and accessible. We introduced three new programmes, Start, Launch and Build, which are available on our three French campuses and have also been rolled out overseas (Belo Horizonte, Raleigh and Suzhou). These programmes are built around no-code tools used by most entrepreneurs, such as Airtable and Notion. Like them, our aim is to have control over our tools, real-time data, and to be able to modify them quickly and adapt them to the different types of entrepreneurs we meet. 

The initial results are promising. The call for applications for the 3 programmes we launched - Start, Launch & Build - has gone well: we received over 110 projects in 12 days. We already have 70 experts and mentors in our collective and our goal is to double that in the coming weeks. 

We have entered into partnerships and negotiated preferential rates for our startups, giving them access to over 50 ecosystem tools and services. This is a testament to the entrepreneurial spirit of the SKEMA community, which was only too eager to claim its place in this space.

I often compare this structuring work to the world of rugby, because it’s similar in some ways. 

In both, it is important to clarify the rules of the game, to create exercises that are adapted to the maturity of the project, and to rub shoulders with peers who are in the same situation as we are.

Hence this three-part model:
1️⃣ 𝗦𝗧𝗔𝗥𝗧 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 - the rugby school
2️⃣ 𝗟𝗔𝗨𝗡𝗖𝗛 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 - the training centre
3️⃣ 𝗕𝗨𝗜𝗟𝗗 𝗣𝗿𝗼𝗴𝗿𝗮𝗺𝗺𝗲 - the premier team

Because it’s important to give everyone the opportunity to express themselves and to have a place in the entrepreneurial arena, we have created three collectives:

1️⃣ Entrepreneurs collective (110+ applicants to date)
2️⃣ Experts & Mentors collective (50+ individuals to date)
3️⃣ Investors collective (20+ VCs & BAs to date)

Your vision of leadership and innovation seems to have a strong influence on the way you run the incubator. How does this vision influence the way you support young entrepreneurs?

Entrepreneurship can learn a lot from the world of sport in general and rugby in particular. I see three important parallels between rugby and entrepreneurship when it comes to leadership:

• Players cannot play the game of entrepreneurship alone. They need to surround themselves with game leaders. It’s usually me in this situation, and my aim is to put the people on my team in the best possible position to express their talents, so that their efforts are rewarded.
• The best team is not made up of the best individuals, it is the sum of complementary individuals. This is the case with the SKEMA Entrepreneurs team, which includes people from different professional backgrounds, with different areas of expertise and from different generations. This diversity is an asset in providing the best possible support to our student entrepreneurs and alumni.
• On the pitch I'm not the player who scores the tries, I’m the one who shows the way. My role is to support those who are breaking through and initiating actions, to prevent them from falling or stumbling, or to help them get back on their feet. On and off the pitch, I’m all about mutual help and communication.
  
  As you can see, I look to this sport for inspiration on how to structure the incubator, how to run it and how to develop it, by focusing on the idea of teamwork, which I'm very attached to. 

You offer several types of programmes for different project stages. What role can the school’s alumni play in this new approach? 

We want the incubator to be a place of exchange and collaboration, open to students and alumni alike. Our Start, Launch and Build programmes are open to all stages of entrepreneurial projects, whether startups, solopreneurs or existing businesses changing hands. Today, 55% of incubated projects are from alumni, a testament to our community's appetite for entrepreneurship. 

So we encourage all our alumni to come home, whether it’s to be incubated or to share their expertise as mentors. There's a place for everyone. The SKEMA network is a strength that we can build on together. 

What about the SKEMA faculty? 

The faculty members also have a key role to play. We want to get them more involved in supporting entrepreneurs. They can contribute in a number of ways: by identifying entrepreneurs among their students, by incorporating concrete cases of incubated businesses into their courses, or even by becoming advisors to support our entrepreneurs. 

What are the next steps for the SKEMA Entrepreneurs incubator? 

We’ve already identified three main themes to structure our offering: artificial intelligence, the environmental transition and international business. We’ll be developing “tracks” around these topics with some high-profile partners, to offer even more resources for those who want to get involved in these areas.

The incubator is entering a new phase, and my message is simple: come and meet us. Whether you’re an alum, student, faculty member or investor, there’s a place for you in this entrepreneurial adventure. Together, we’ll continue to write SKEMA's story as a school for entrepreneurs.

Interview by SKEMA Alumni. Thanks to Adrien Vansteelant, whose energy and vision are transforming SKEMA Entrepreneurs into a space where the collective is the strength. To find out more about the incubator's programmes and apply, click below.