3 French internet titans launch a European startup school
This initiative comes from the founders of three of the most well known companies in France: Meetic (Marc Simoncini), Vente-Privée (Jacques-Antoine Granjon) and Iliad (Xavier Niel) – who knew they wanted to launch something together but not necessarily for profit (phew!). And their three profiles should work rather nicely together, given Niel’s technical background, Simoncini’s marketing strength and Granjon’s expertise in e-commerce. They’ve teamed up with Alain Malvoisin, who specializes in education, to launch this school dedicated entirely to training various types of internet professionals.
Starting in February, anyone post-Baccalauréat (more or less the equivalent of a high school diploma) will be able to apply and only 250-350 students will be accepted per year. The team is obviously looking to select only the best of the best applicants, who either demonstrate high motivation or some type of remarkable expertise. The location of the school and the annual tuition fee have not yet been officially revealed, although we can guess that the price tag will probably be in-line with other private schools in France (so roughly €5,000-€8,000 per year). And while the team is strictly French, their aim is to be pan-European; it is even possible that it grow into something similar to the model used by European Business School ESCP-EAP, where students have the possibility to move to a new ESCP-EAP campus in a new European city as part of their program.
Ultimately, the 3-year EEMI program is meant to get students more interested in various web-related careers – which should naturally help produce more entrepreneurs and train students to join startups. And while they’re definitely not aiming to compete with the likes of engineering schools, some have already pointed out that there may not be much difference between this initiative and other specialized schools in France that train students for world wide web careers. Oh, but then again, the other schools aren’t backed not backed by prestigious French internet gurus.
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