In the video Olivier Renaud, co-founder and CEO of Aive, an artificial intelligence company, celebrates two newcomers deciding to start over with his former partner and embark on a new entrepreneurial adventure.
how did you get the idea‘IAEC?
I have been an actor and observer of the video and digital worlds for over 10 years. Over time, I’ve established a finding: As companies have a growing appetite for videos, they adapt them to digital to communicate, express an emotion or experience. But the downside is post production which sometimes makes creative people waste a lot of time. For example, there is no qualitative technology capable of adapting a video file to various formats such as TV, tablet, telephone, etc. It was there that I began to envision a creative artificial intelligence capable of solving these problems on a large scale. After various discussions with my co-founder Rudy Lelouche, the concept of Ave was born. I’ve always been creative, my co-founder is an engineer, we’re the perfect pairing for this new adventure! But we were not left alone. Joining us is CTO Arnaud Brecht, and our Chief Creative Officer Marielle Postek, who has over 15 years of experience at large creative agencies like Havas Paris, TBWA… From there, we found our amazing team. This was the beginning.
When was the company formed?
In our head at Rudy&I since 2017, the company was created in 2019, besides freeing ourselves from our professional obligations for us, to form a team of excellence and co-manufacture product with brands there is time. It was then that we started our roadshow in search of required capital. We mainly have ourselves with renowned Business Angels (BA) such as Guillaume Lestrade (Meiro), Pauline Duval (Group Duval), Renaud Visage (Eventbright), Aurelie Jean (PhD in Silico Veritas) or Hervé Lebel (TETU/) There was a chance to be surrounded. HLA Partnership TV) to name a few. Then Bpifrance followed us and trusted us. That’s how we raised 3.2 million euros. This first round of financing was closed last summer. The rocket was launched!
How did the launch happen?
The launch of Aive was announced in June 2019, for the first time locally, as our tech teams are in Montpellier, as was Teeds, which has been a factor in success. For my part, I am based in Paris along with my management team and sales team. Incredible but true, we receive one application per day since launch, 150 potential applications already! An advantage for recruiting talent. We were able to recruit a team of technical experts very quickly. The core is very strong. We already had a dozen developers slated for launch in September. Every month someone comes and we are 15 years old now. Two years from now, we should easily overtake the team. We are in full development of our technology, the release of which is scheduled for the second half of 2020. This project is more than exciting.
What is the challenge of AIVE?
It should be understood that when a brand makes a film, it must adapt it to multiple formats (tablet, phone…) and multiple durations (30′, 1’30…). For example, in order to focus on certain scenes it is necessary to analyze the material. Our AI will be autonomous and will be able to make these adjustments automatically. Thus hundreds, even thousands of videos, can be processed every day, then every hour. A solution for brands that today waste a lot of time and money doing these manipulations … that is, several tens of thousands of euros or hundreds per day. This costs them up to a third of the production budget! Brands are forced to limit their creativity based on capacity and budget. Our goal is to free the creatives from this post-production part where they don’t have fun. But not only that, we have other plans for the coming years.
How do you see yourself at the end of 2020?
We are currently developing a technology that allows the video to be optimized in all formats and all possible durations. Technology that automates video distribution as well. Video is not just about advertising, our technology will be able to adapt to many needs and brands. Personally, I’m a big fan of videos. I have been working in this area for years, it was the foundation of my previous company Teeds in 2010 (Editor’s note. The company was bought by Altice for 285 million euros). In the beginning there was only text, today everything is images and videos. A study shows that in 2022, 82 percent of the world’s traffic will be linked to video. That’s why we want to equip all the players.
What have been the biggest challenges since the beginning?
We had to assemble the first team of founders first, and that took us a long time. Then, we had to create the ideal product that answered a need and a problem. We took the time to talk to the brands. Thus the product matures over time. The last challenge was funding because to go that far, we had to explain that the project existed only on paper! One hell of a challenge and it’s not over yet. We would like to be a unicorn tomorrow!
4 Tips from Olivier Renaud
- Find the best team. When I say team, there are certainly collaborators but there are also talents that we recruit. There are many schools in entrepreneurship, including those that favor mono-entrepreneurship over a single entrepreneur, but personally I find that reflection is richer when there are many.
- Make the best product. You have to find a problem and then find a solution. And not vice versa. We are wrong if we create a technology and then ask ourselves how to sell it.
- Be close to customers from the start. Exchanging with future customers from day one allows you to build the product and find the right concept.
- Come fast. You have to surprise the market and create a product with a strong barrier. This is the key that should not be copied. Hurry up, no one will catch you. It is often the first player to win the match. Don’t wait for the right project, go for it and your project will evolve over time.