In this podcast, Marion, co-founder of Elia, meets Justine Hutteau. They share their entrepreneurial journeys and what led them to set up Elia and Respire.
How to set up a company? Why create an affinity brand?
For both Justine and Marion, the creation of their brands began with a personal story: the diagnosis of a benign breast tumor for Justine, and the impossibility of finding non-irritating sanitary pads for Marion. So Justine found herself faced with a need in her personal life: to find a deodorant and, more broadly, beauty and hygiene products that would be healthy for her and eco-responsible.
Justine joined forces with Thomas to create her brand, and quickly became an expert in her field. Knowing your market, knowing what you're talking about and becoming an expert in your field is very important.
For the creation of Elia, Marion and Apolline surrounded themselves with professionals: researchers in bacteriology, gynecologists, midwives, to find the best composition of menstrual panties. Justine relied on laboratories and doctors of pharmacy to create her first deodorant.
In addition to surrounding themselves with industry professionals, both Respire and Elia have built a community of testers to help develop a brand. Co-creation allows us to gather the opinions of testers, and to get more people on board with the same project.
Why create a committed brand?
A brand can be committed in a number of ways: eco-responsibility, product composition, social responsibility, etc.
To create a committed brand is to have and convey strong values, which engage a large number of people throughout the product life cycle: suppliers, the brand itself, but also consumers who become ambassadors and even prescribers of the brand.
For Justine, benevolence, transparency and optimism are the key values of her brand.
What advice do you have for starting out as an entrepreneur?
Whether it's motherhood, moving house, or a whole host of other things in life, the key is to trust yourself. Your only limits are those you impose on yourself. You need to be able to let go of your limiting thoughts, to surround yourself with the right people, who can give you advice, and who can pull you up.
We often tend to believe that when we have a project, we should keep it to ourselves. But you don't have to. You can talk to others about it, get their opinions and advice, and keep the positive things that come out of it.
