Florent Bourgeois, CEO and co-founder of TwicPics, who has become the go-to reference in image creation and processing for the web, has no shortage of ideas for growing his business.
How did you come up with the idea for TWICPICS?
With 3 historical founders we have known each other for over 15 years. We founded the first company called AgoraBiz.com which we sold to the SeLoger Group. We have created a web development agency whose specialty is to support start-ups in business building on all technical aspects. Images today need to be built for all screen sizes and to answer that we decided to build a prototype and leave the service world and try an entrepreneurial adventure again on the product side.
What is added value and does it work quickly?
For our clients, it is to guarantee that the visuals we provide will always perform at best in terms of best visual quality and loading. Since images represent the No. 1 factor of slowness on the Internet, we assign them an optimal page download time. This has a very strong impact on the business of the customers and hence the retention rate, conversions, SEO and consequently the business and ROI. We make them save a lot of development time, maintenance, architecture, infrastructure.
Is there a different difficulty than AgoraBiz?
Yes, we were a marketplace and we used to connect people to each other. As for Twipics, it’s SAAS (Software as a Service) and it’s brand new to sell. This is why when we had three founders with technical profiles, we decided to recruit another partner on the business side.
Where are you in development?
We tried to get good references first. We had to be credible because if we fell, there were no more images on the client’s website. So there was a trust issue. This is why we sought to acquire major clients like L’Oréal, Rakuten, 20 Minutes very quickly to assure our prospects. A successful move since today we count them among our references.
What are the prospects for the future?
The big vision that is part of the company’s DNA is that it is self-service. Anyone visiting the Site or Platform can pay with their credit card and use the Solution. We are an international company by definition. We have to be the mediator between the creator of the image and those who use it. This is for all types of companies and in any country.
How will you win this challenge?
We need to make the brand known, especially among the players who make the web their business, especially in the world of e-commerce, travel, events, social media… and be it thanks to marketing or commercialization.
What is your major success factor?
The key to success from an internal point of view is that we were the first consumers of our solution and therefore knew how to develop it. Then again, we were lucky enough to have a lot of good customers, which was quite an accelerator. Lastly, we have been selected by 50 Partners or Wilco among the many accredited accelerators and incubators from the beginning with Station F, HEC Incubator, which have enabled us to grow rapidly.