{"id":6059,"date":"2012-10-15T15:47:39","date_gmt":"2012-10-15T13:47:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/?p=6059"},"modified":"2019-05-03T15:16:17","modified_gmt":"2019-05-03T13:16:17","slug":"ben-fakto-failure-interview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/2012\/10\/ben-fakto-failure-interview\/","title":{"rendered":"Ben & Fakto founder Kevin Straszburger talks Startup Failure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Who are you and where are you right now?<\/strong>
\nI\u2019m Kevin Straszburger<\/a>, I just founded Ben & Fakto<\/a>, with two friends last year. We started the company just after finishing French business school EDHEC<\/a> in June 2011. Right now I\u2019m living in Singapore.
\nPrior to working in Singapore, you were the co-founder and CEO of \u00a0Ben & Fakto. What was this company about?<\/strong>
\n\"\"
\nIn one sentence, Ben & Fakto was an ethical fashion retail website. We got started right away after graduation just until 2012 in the beginning of this summer when we decided to terminate the company. The business was good just in terms of the partnership we had going and the turnover- we saw a net growth of 30% each month. In June we tried to raise the terms but we just developed a different vision so each of us decided to try a new adventure. Two of my partners are still working in Paris. I decided to go to Singapore in a search of a dynamic environment. I had already worked in southeast\u00a0Asia\u00a0for six months.<\/p>\n

How much did you invest in\u00a0micro-finance?<\/h1>\n

I don\u2019t have the exact number because I invested until this summer- it was more than a few thousand euros. I can\u2019t tell you at the moment.<\/p>\n

Should\u00a0start ups\u00a0be eco-conscious or care about social causes- are these good bottom lines to aim for?<\/h1>\n

I don\u2019t think there is a general rule. We wanted to do something new and something concrete about social causes, so we found micro-loans the best way to do it. I love this way to help, but it depends if you want to launch a\u00a0start-up\u00a0and solely focus on your product and market.<\/p>\n

Can you give advice on when an entrepreneur should pivot or decide to exit?<\/h1>\n

The thing is we\u00a0weren’t\u00a0able to stay together. It was an idea shared between the 3 of us. We had the option to continue, with just me or 2 of us. Instead what we really wanted was an all or nothing deal. Just like a marriage, Ben & Fakto was our child, and so we decided to split up and give up a child. It\u2019s not the same as a family but in this case we preferred to keep and maintain the company together or not have it at all.
\nThe differences were mainly about the vision. You can do a\u00a0start-up\u00a0in many different ways, be an entrepreneur for the rest of your life, grow slowly, try to reach the break-even point where you earnings are not more than 10%. Maybe turnover becomes satisfactory if the company is viable. Another option is that you can expect to grow as quickly as possible and want to make a huge turnover, hire some people, and raise funds. The extremes were these two different visions, so it was difficult to work together in this case. We tried to find a balance but honestly I don\u2019t think it\u2019s possible if you want to do something with someone who clearly does not share the same vision.<\/p>\n

Did you have any prospective buyers? Was there an option to sell the company instead of just letting it die?<\/h1>\n

We tried for one month to sell it when some people learned that we had closed our doors. The buyers wanted to take ownership of the brand but still wanted one of us to continue in the business for at least 6 months. My partners and I were not interested in staying in a company with no official ownership. Maybe we\u00a0wouldn’t\u00a0have decided it this way if we were able to sell the company for more than the suggested value of \u20ac 30,000. It\u2019s not an exit if it\u2019s not a six-digit profit.<\/p>\n

Do you consider this a start-up failure?<\/h1>\n

I consider it a start-up failure, because when I launched the company a year ago I\u00a0didn’t\u00a0plan to be in Singapore, but it\u2019s cool here and I really love my life. In terms of ownership this venture was a failure. Of course we succeeded in some areas and in the end it was a really great experience. I don\u2019t regret anything honestly.<\/p>\n

Are there any thrilling aspects of\u00a0start-up\u00a0failure, if you look at the media and conferences like FailCon<\/a>, do you think we can end up trivializing\u00a0start-up\u00a0failure?<\/h1>\n

I just did one venture at 23<\/a>, it\u2019s better for the next venture of course to succeed the first time and then keep trying again and again. I just learned a lot of things about myself. I tried to learn something new, what kind of person I am, what kind of people I love to work with.\u00a0I’ve\u00a0learned about my own limits, standards, and that\u2019s really invaluable. It was cool to start as soon as possible.<\/p>\n

\"\"
\nIn your opinion is France a good place for\u00a0entrepreneurship?<\/h1>\n

I think France is cool to start something because you have the infrastructure. Paris is a good place to learn with the network, media, bloggers, and learn from other entrepreneurs who have succeeded or failed. I thought it was easy to meet people. Right now Paris has some good connections with Berlin and London<\/a>, and for the future it\u2019s cool.
\nI\u00a0didn’t\u00a0think a lot about the politics- I launched a\u00a0start-up\u00a0and never thought about my exit plan. Honestly I think this may be the case for an entrepreneur who wants to learn something and get started right away. It\u2019s not a debate actually. You don\u2019t have to think about Hollande\u2019s cabinet plan– \u00a0you just have to focus on your market, and your partners. Who are your clients? Where are they? For us Paris was good for our fashion\u00a0start-up- there was no question<\/a>.
\nFollow Kevin Straszburger’s start-up adventures on twitter<\/a> @k7vin, tumblr<\/a> and subscribe on\u00a0facebook<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Who are you and where are you right now? I\u2019m Kevin Straszburger, I just founded Ben & Fakto, with two friends last year. We started the company just after finishing French business school EDHEC in June 2011. Right now I\u2019m living in Singapore. Prior to working in Singapore, you were the co-founder and CEO of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":64799,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"subtitle":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[10564],"tags":[7242,8363,8678,8821,9433],"class_list":["post-6059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tech-2","tag-entrepreneurship-en-2","tag-exit-en","tag-failure-en","tag-singapore-en","tag-sustainability-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6059","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6059"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6059\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/64799"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6059"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6059"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rudebaguette.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6059"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}