Vincent Janti: Why should large companies be friends with startups

This fall, the Leroy Merlin teams together with #tceh conducted a business hackathon - project teams gathered to change the repair market. Why this is needed and what impact it will have on the market - in an interview with the organizers and Vincent Genti, the head of the Russian division of Leroy Merlin.


Video report:

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"Leroy Merlin" - a company that is not associated with technology, how do you plan to change the image? Why do companies start-ups direction and how did they come to this?

For Leroy Merlin, participation in such an event as “Startup: nails and electrical tape” is not only a matter of reputation, it is much deeper. We strive to reveal new facets of our business and our culture in the direction of technology, and there are requirements that we must meet. Such events move business towards innovation, help improve efficiency and look for new talents. Of course, “Startup: nails and electrical tape” is only one of many areas for the development of the company and the integration of new technologies.

Why was it decided to conduct a hackathon to search for new channels? Why didn't you choose any ready-made working startups, why exactly the hackathon format?

Let's clarify that this was rather a business hackathon, where the emphasis was placed on business areas - technology that is outside the plane of market needs has very little chance of success. We wanted to focus on the event about the collision of technology with the reality of the market. We are fortunate that in Russia there is the #tceh team, which shares these values ​​and has experience in holding such events. As a result of the joint work, we got such a startup weekend, which was called “Startup: Nails and Electrical Tape”. Such a name, because the first prototypes should be made as simple and clear as possible.

In the variety of platforms for the development of projects you can get confused: hakatons, accelerators, incubators. However, we purposefully chose the format of the collaboration, since it is an opportunity to team up with young talented specialists from different areas to solve problems: build hypotheses together, exchange ideas and watch how business projects crystallize. I am sure that we made the right choice, because these two days were very strong in energy. 150 talented and inquisitive minds, who eagerly absorb knowledge and experience, created and transformed their ideas with cosmic speed and the teams went to the result.

But this does not mean that we do not want to be friends with startups outside of events. We continue to improve the technological approach and work on the development of other progressive formats of cooperation. We analyzed already existing startups, in the future we will also get acquainted with the most important incubators in Russia, in order to understand how we can jointly organize effective cooperation. As part of the development strategy of Leroy Merlin, we strive to gain successful experience in different directions and formats. For Leroy Merlin, “Startup: Nails and Electrical Tape” was a successful beginning of the journey in order to meet and discover the wonderful world of ideas, the world where young technological projects live.

And before the hackathon, what were the channels, how did they work?

There are many channels, but the question is not in their quantity and quality, but in the need to look to the future. The world is becoming deeper connected with the world of technology, you need to keep up with the times. And of course the collaboration helps to get a fresh look at the existing course of things.

It is important that our experience with channels helped the young teams who chose the scope of repair as a direction. We conduct high-quality customer research in order to get feedback from our stores; we are interested in customer comments in social networks. All this is a huge array of data.

In the future, the interaction will be based on the same - attracting customers - or are there any other plans or aspects of the business, for which startups can also be attracted? What kind?

This is our first experience with startups, but not the last. I think that the format can be applied in other aspects of our business. For example, this is a great training option for both employees and customers. Ideas to implement a lot.

Does the company plan to hold any events other than hakatons? Maybe accelerators? Incubators?

Above, I have already opened this question a little. It only remains to add that in making a choice in favor of a particular format in cooperation with young teams, we are guided by the long-term perspective of our future partnership. We aim to work with startups, we are ready to invest in projects, develop them. In general, I am confident that Russia possesses a huge potential, endless possibilities for development. We will work with different projects under different formats. It is a fact.

How do you look at similar events from the same IKEA, which holds hackathon?

Yes, it is obvious that now many companies are working with startups. On the one hand, this is a trend, and on the other hand, it is a new, efficient way to work to quickly launch experiments.

Is Leroy Merlin going to hold similar events in other countries? Have you already collaborated with some young startups in other markets?

Of course, in other countries where Leroy Merlin is present, there are similar projects in Italy, France, Spain. The point is that each of our business units develops its market in proportion to modern realities and following regional specificities.

On behalf of the organizers:

What tools did hackathon members have access to? Who was on the jury? What are the selection criteria for winners? What will be the cooperation with the winners (“mentoring from the tops”)? How did the jury like the winners?

Like most of the young teams that make their first startup, the participants made beautiful stories exclusively within their imagination. We have created the conditions in which their business models are faced with reality. “Repair Calculator”, “Virtual Assistant”, “Search by Photo” and “Repair Club“ Leroy Merlin ”” are the winners who proved the viability of their projects the best. There were a lot of criteria, but the main one was to confirm the usefulness and relevance of a startup for real problems that people face during repairs.

Pro tools - of course, we did not leave the participants alone with such a task: teams went through workshops for packing ideas, learned how to develop a project according to the Traction methodology, worked with Leroy's real clients who kindly agreed to come to the event.

We made prizes for the winners practically useful for the future guys. For example, the “Calculator of Repair” project, which helps to calculate the cost of all repair costs, has good prospects, but the guys need to work more focused - they got a month in #tceh coworking.

"Virtual Assistant" - an automated service for answering questions that arise during repairs. Its creators will study the repair market more thoroughly and improve their professional competencies - they received a grant of 250,000 rubles for educational courses and access for 3 months to the Leroy Merlin workspace.

"Repair Club" Leroy Merlin "" - a community of buyers, the authors of which it will be useful to live in the world of the repair market and explore it as deeply as possible. They got 3 months in the Leroy Merlin workspace.

The team “Search by photo”, which received the prize of mentoring, will be in touch with Vincent Zanti, CEO of Leroy Merlin East - his experience will help the children survive in the harsh world.

How did the participants get attracted to the hackathon and how many were willing to participate?

There were much more applications for participation than the site could accommodate, so we had to not only close the registration, but also view the lists of registered ones. At the selection stage, we were surprised at how many ideas and those wishing to tackle the pain of repair. It was cool to see how our digital community, accustomed to gadgets and simple service solutions, gathered for a brainstorm of the situation that everyone usually faces alone.

What is the difference between the Ikea hackathon and the “Startup: nails and electrical tape” event from Leroy Merlin?

In the case of IKEA, we will talk about ideas for improving the functionality of the MEGA mobile application, and with Leroy Merlin about working with the Omni-channel, combining offline and online together.

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