Bastien Goullard and Romain Delaume (SK 2011), two Skeman musketeers rescuing France’s heritage

Two of our alumni, Bastien Goullard and Romain Delaume (SK 2011), have created Dartagnans, the first crowdfunding platform devoted to promoting and preserving cultural heritage.

When Bastien and Romain met at SKEMA, they very quickly became friends thanks to the travels and charity work they had in common, but it’s their shared passion for heritage and history that binds them.

Since they have complementary skills and each felt a pull towards entrepreneurship, they decided to give it a go together. But in what field? What future issue should they address? Where might there be a need for them? After careful consideration, they finally agreed on the sharing economy. But there are already a lot of players in this niche, many of them now well-known. It was crucial to specialise.

“We are both passionate about sport and heritage. We conducted some market research to look more closely at these two sectors.  Heritage very quickly became the focus of our attention. Everything still needed inventing and we were determined to be a trustworthy player in that sector.” - Romain Delaume 

In September 2015, just four years after graduating from SKEMA and after holding different jobs, Bastien and Romain founded Dartagnans, a startup devoted to preserving heritage, first in France and eventually around the world. In the n°1 most visited country in the world, with 90 million foreign tourists each year, heritage and cultural tourism is a market worth tapping!

Bastien and Romain wanted to create a real economy around history and heritage. The two Skemans developed three ideas:

• crowdfunding via the Dartagnans platform ─ the two history buffs felt that a hat tip to Charles de Baz de Castelmore, better known as D’Artagnan, was in order,
• promoting cultural tourism by offering cultural experiences, somewhat like an AirBnB for heritage, with DartNGo,
• and finally, buying and managing chateaux.

“What motivates us is the economic ecosystem our services fall into. Studies have shown that investing in heritage boosts the local economy. Every euro invested in local heritage brings 50 euros to the local economy through accommodation, shops, etc. So the positive impact of visits to these places is twofold.” - Romain Delaume

Although Dartagnans reaches a wide audience, the two co-founders are especially targeting connected people who have a passion for history. It’s actually foreigners who derive the most pleasure from investing in France’s heritage. The 150,000-strong Dartagnans community comprises 160 different nationalities. Through short fundraising campaigns, Bastien, Romain and their team also know how to target a younger audience that expects fast results.

Four years after launching their startup, Bastien and Romain have 13 people on their team and they will be increasing their headcount over the coming months. From communication to project management, IT and more, a few different profiles will be recruited.

To find out more, visit Dartagnans or contact Bastien Goullard and Romain Delaume (SK 2011)