Entrepreneurship in the territories: is it the right time?
Imagination Machine is the start-up studio "for good": together with talented entrepreneurs, we co-found, accelerate and finance startups with positive social and environmental impact.
For each project, we provide funding, expertise with our in-house team dedicated to the 0 to 1 process, and activate our community.
Initiated in France, the studio has been developing projects across Europe since 2018. We have co-founded 10 start-ups (Beem, Les Mini Mondes, Smala, Jho, river home, UpTogether, Vite mon marché, Good Steps, BlueCare discovery and Prolong) and new ones are in development.
At Imagination Machine, our mission is to create the world we want to live in!
🌳Next goal? Build the next 10 impact champion startups by 2025.
1/ From good idea to start-up (3 to 4 months)
Your first mission as Entrepreneur-in-Residence at Imagination Machine: validate the market opportunity and choose a positioning.
Supported with our methodology and our operational team dedicated to user research and ideation, you will conduct many user interviews and test different value propositions.
You will also take advantage of this exploratory phase to build a vision for the structure.
At the end of a 3 to 4 months period maximum, if the market study confirms a high-potential opportunity, we create the company together, and you become a co-founder alongside us.
2/ Launch the project on the market and check scalability (3 to 4 months)
Together, we launch the "prototyping" (MVP) phase: our dedicated 0 to 1 process team (product, designer, developers, etc.) works with you in successive iterations to find THE formula that works for customers.
During this structuring phase, depending on your skills, agility and curiosity, you may have to:
Deepen the "product market fit" with new user research
Build pitch decks and business plans
Play the role of product and/or developer or designer, become a sales expert, create a brand and a marketing plan,
Identify key metrics for success and associated tools
Create your startup's first network of partners, suppliers and customers
Negotiate the startup's legal structure,...
Like all startup founders, you have multiple roles to play at the same time.
3/ Develop fast and strong to maximize impact (6 to 12 months)
As co-founder of the startup, you will be responsible for accelerating the company's development, which may involve raising funds and/or achieving profitability in order to self-finance strong growth.
To this end, you will be responsible for recruiting the company's first employees, managing the business and relations with your investors.
Your objective, after 12 to 18 months on a project, is to create the conditions for rapid growth, while maintaining the startup's initial values: agility, transparency, responsibility and positive impact.
