UPFEEL.IO

JOnathan Ferrebeuf

Listen to Jonathan, a serial entrepreneur, talk about his epic journey from founding a movie producing company with his brother to building a company in the gaming industry. After having successfully sold his last venture to Ogury, and having taken some time off, Jonathan is on to the next one with Upfeel.io, a platform dedicated to the well-being of employees at work. He leverages the experience he acquired until now to create a project with a massive impact in a rising market, a project that makes sense for him and for society. An interesting testimony on the "what's next?" that pops up in the life of an entrepreneur that sold his venture. 

Exploring different careers

Jonathan Ferrebeuf, the founder of Upfeel, explains to us his journey at ESSEC and his interests in the cinema through his brother's lens. After different internships in the high-end cinema industry, he recognizes the struggles of trying to do a film from A to Z. This triggered many avenues for his venture evolution. 

From pivot to pivot, to venture to venture

After discussing with a friend, the founder joined a market study on gaming startups. As he got the chance to increase his network, Jonathan was invited to work in the video game industry as the head of development of the business. During his experience, he identified a market need. The idea was to create a community of gamers. A colleague joined his venture. Meanwhile, they pivoted again to a certain publicity's network within the gaming area. After bootstrapping and not raising money, they exitthe venture. This allowed Jonathan to take some time to himself and create his new entrepreneurship adventure. 

Help from ESSEC

The founder tells us that being trained by ESSEC helped him to be effective in his work and also provided him a network of people that supported him all along the venture creative process. 

The origin

The founder explains the origins of each idea. A récap of the first part focuses on the customers' perspective and listening to the market. He explains how he studied different markets before launching the last venture idea. 

Solo-Entrepreneur

After different experiences with coworkers, he wanted to launch a business alone considering that when a venture gets structured people come to you. 

Why raise money? 

The founder shared with us that the market that your business is inserted in makes you reflect on fundraising. For him, the notion of fundraising always depends on the needs of the venture and the convenience of the investment. 

Why pivoting that much? 

The founder describes the pivoting process. Most of the pivots were born from a cold call and made them reflect and research the limits of their product. 

The future of Upfeel.io

The founder tells us how all these past experiences helped him to understand who he is today. For Jonathan, the quest for meaning came after the first outing. Envisioning a bigger impact by working with experts, he says that after previous experiences, he wants to play "high". 

Be entrepreneurial

The founder talks about the different forms of entrepreneurship. For him, It's important to be entrepreneurial and keep the flame burning, no matter what form of entrepreneurship it takes.