Meet Romain Rebour, The Official Representative Of French Tech Community In Poland

Romain is the founder and CEO of FRENCH4DEV, a fastgrowing software house in krakow
http://french4dev.com

Hello Romain, thank you so much for agreeing to meet me and do this interview.

- Johnny: why did you decide to become entrepreneur?

 - Romain: Since the end of my studies I wanted to become an entrepreneur. I've studied international Management and during my studies, I had the chance to have an internship for two years in Siemens and I was in direct contact with the main manager of Simmons in France and I liked the way he was managing, I liked what he was doing, so I was thinking 'why not me one day?'.

And to be an entrepreneur I had to gain knowledge and be sure of where I go. So why to be an entrepreneur?! Because to get out of big corporations and be my own boss and make my own decisions and have the impact I want. So that was the goal.

 - Johnny: Are you planning to become a big corporation?

 - Romain: Well, we will see but for now I don't know, I can't answer.

- Johnny: Some people rather have a small business, because it's easier to manage.

- Romain: Yes but you know, we need to grow to have credibility and gain people's trust. We need to think more about the number of guys. The number of employees means credibility in France. But we need to reach a level of 100 people. That’s why I don't know! It depends on contracts and businesses.

 - Johnny: Has someone helped you to start your business in the beginning?

 - Romain: Yes and I love to be advised. I started with one partner who already had an IT company and for me, that wasn't enough! I was also in touch with a lawyer, who helped me to establish the company and the Polish laws I needed to know. From the beginning, I had clients which was good but I also needed an accountant. So everything about laws and taxes was managed by my accountant.

 And also, I had mentorship from France and Poland. My mentorship from France is provided by Lyon University.

- Johnny: Could you explain about this mentorship?

- Romain: It's a group of students who have studied at the university, helping each other. So this is one part. I'm also teaching international management for central Europe there. So I have the opportunity to meet everyone.

And my second mentorship is Tech Leaders Poland. It's very close cycle and you need to pass a lot of steps to be a member and after that, you can choose a mentor and meet him every two weeks and you need to have some progress and follow the stuff he's proposing. And then at the end, you have some conferences. So I'm very satisfied with that although I'm working only with France, I can find out about what's going on in Poland and what are the trends.

- Johnny: And how much your studies helped you?  Has studying in university helped you?

 - Romain: The thing that helped me the most was my Erasmus studies in Czech Republic.

- Johnny: Oh really? Why?

 - Romain: Because I discovered central Europe. I found the possibilities the opportunities in there. And then when I finished my studies, I went directly to central Europe, to Prague. So my studies helped me to be aware and understand how International trades work, about the cultural differences but still with The French point of view. To be in contact directly with the culture and business was what I really needed the most. So studying alone was not just enough.

- Johnny: What did you study at university?

I've studied Marketing Techniques. Then I finished my Erasmus Studies in international management and then I got my second master degree at Lyon University for international management, European perspectives.

- Johnny: Okay so you didn't study IT?

- Romain: Not at all

- Johnny: So you are not a programmer?

- Romain: not at all and I don’t know how to build a website but I know what are the steps I know what are the technologies but I'm not able to build a website.

- Johnny: That’s really cool!
 May I ask how much money did you need to start your business?

- Romain: zero

- Johnny: zero?

 - Romain: I did this with zero euro and zero zloty.

 - Johnny: Wow! And how much your company worth now?

- Romain: Our revenue is around 10 000€ per month. The profit is not high because all I invested was zero EUR for starting the company. I partnered with my friend who had a small company with 6 developers specialized in boat industries CRM. Together we won some clients and we decided to start a company so we had to establish a software house which can develop software not only for boat industries but for all.

So the deal is I don't have any employee I'm renting the employee of my partner whenever I want. With no profit for my partner because he has some shares in my own company. The more business we have the more employees I can rent from him.

- Johnny: So you're paying him or you're paying the employee?

- Romain: I'm paying him for the employees. But that's the problem! Because when you have clients, you compose a price and you have a margin, in Poland, you have to pay VAT when you buy a service. So I'm buying a service of my partner. So I have to pay the price of service plus the tax. And VAT is 23% which means 23 percent of my margin! 23% of margin is a lot!  So it's not very profitable but now we are increasing technology and increasing in the number of people with my partner so we can increase productivity itself.

So I'm planning to increase the number of my clients and have my own developers.

- Johnny: So can you tell me about your lifestyle? Has becoming an entrepreneur affected your lifestyle? How many hours you sleep, when you wake up, and when you go to sleep?

 - Romain: For me, it's important to keep a personal lifestyle and have a balance in my life. I'm starting at 9 am and I'm finishing at 8 pm. I try to see my family in France when I’m traveling for business.

 - Johnny: So it hasn't changed your lifestyle?

- Romain: I'm working much more but I'm trying to keep some aspects unchanged.

- Johnny: So how many hours in a day you sleep?

 - Romain: 7 hours. If I'm tired I can't do anything.

- Johnny: Could you tell me about your title here in Poland? You're now the ambassador of the French tech community in Poland, could you explain it?

 - Romain: So a few days ago I got a certification from the ministry of economy and finance and secretary of innovation and the French Tech central. It means we are leading a French tech community in Krakow.  It’s a Community Focus on France but also internationally, gathering entrepreneurs. So the goal is to promote French technologies and the French innovation all around the world and help innovators.

 For example when you try to get a visa and come to France to establish a company, they help. So it's government certified it has a budget to do some promotions and we can do a partnership with other organizations. Now we are planning to become partner with OMG Krakow, TEDx and do some events for startups for example give them consultation about French market. We have many ways to help startups related to France. 2000 people are doing that in the world, there are 7 people in Krakow and we have a mission for 3 years.

- Johnny: So you are the head of this organization in Krakow, Poland?

 - Romain: Yes

- Johnny: And could you tell me about your competition?  Do you have any competitors?

- Romain: NO! That was the goal, to start a company without competitors.

- Johnny: But aren't you afraid that some a French guy come to Krakow and start a company next to you?

 - Romain: Well they can try but there is nobody in central Europe focused on the French market as a software house.

- Johnny: Yeah but don't you think if you become very successful and you build a brand for yourself, some people might think "yeah that's a profitable market maybe I should enter"

 - Romain: The model of my company is to be local. To be local and global. So you need to know the culture, with whom you're working at a global level. So for me, it's France and Poland. So you need to have these ingredients you need to be French and know the French culture, to have a French project manager to talk with the clients. You need to have experience in IT you need to have experience in business development. So you need to have these ingredients to be successful and even then it won't be easy. I studied the competition for one year before I started the business. I was a business developer for an IT consultancy company, working in Slovakia and Poland, Romania Bulgaria and I've never seen a French software house. There are Capgemini and big companies like that but they only work with huge corporations but I'm helping SMEs, small medium-sized enterprises. Nobody is helping them, in these companies, they don’t know how to speak English. They want to lower the costs, they want to go internationally but they don't know how to communicate in English or they’re afraid. So I'm providing the service for them. So no computation for now.

- Johnny: So what's your plan for the future?

- Romain: Plan for Future? In 6 months I want to have at least 3 internal employees. No renting from my partner but my own employees. And lunch our own products we need some generic products. And generate 100 000 EUR till the end of the year.

 - Johnny: How do you find your customers even from the beginning?

- Romain: At the beginning when I started the company I already had customers. That's why I started the company.

 - Johnny: How did you find them?

 - Romain: networking and through friends. One of my friends was a web designer and he came to me said Hey I know you're in Poland can we do business together? “Can you find me guys because I need a team?” And I said “ok, let's build a company.” You need to have a strategy and focus on which customer can be better for your future. And I tried different things as a business developers and it worked. But I had a lot of requests for very small projects and I need big projects to be able to think Further. One project a month doesn't make sense. So I need to have a big project that lasts longer for example for one year; to have my own employee.

 - Johnny: How about right now? People are coming to you or you are going to the customers?

- Romain: Networking! I'm working on 3 projects now and it was through friends and Facebook groups. There is a need in every company in France for IT and we're offering low costs, good quality and French management. That’s all they need.

- Johnny: Have you received criticism?

 - Romain: Criticism? No! The only thing is I criticize myself about project management. About not saying no to customers at the beginning. Because there were a lot of demands from the customer’s side and I was saying yes to everything but not everything is actually possible. For example, a customer asked me at the beginning for a demo version so it took us 3 weeks to do a demo version but the demo version is a website which is not working! Then you need to start again from scratch!  So I lost time and it is my fault because it's project manager’s responsibility. If we lose time it means less money and less profitability.

 But by making mistakes you learn. When you start a business you make a lot of mistakes.

- Johnny: Have you had any unhappy customer?

- Romain: Not yet. All of our customers are happy because we work fast and our software have good quality, and we deliver within the timelines.

- Johnny: Have you had nagging customers who ask for changes all the time?

- Romain: No. In the beginning, I was saying yes to the changes. But after a while, I said to customers okay we'll scope the work and then don’t call me anymore. We will deliver what we said and we agreed. We establish a budget and you pay the price and we deliver the solution within the timeline but if you change anything, the timeline and the budget will change also.

- Johnny: So you create a detailed contract and you sign and stick to it, is that correct?

- Romain: Yes. If they ask for more stuff we have a catalog of functionality with the price and the time needed to be implemented into the software for example 5 days. And they can buy it like in the supermarket. Yes, we can do changes but you have to pay for them.

- Johnny: Thank you so much for the interview, it was such a pleasure

- Romain: Thank you