Rarely do the leaders speak candidly about their biggest mistakes, their bad decisions, or even their failures. Damien Morin is one of the few French tech entrepreneurs who have shared his highly eventful adventure with Save, his smartphone repair start-up that went into receivership at the end of 2016 and was bought eight months later by the Remade group.
An experience that enabled him to learn many lessons for his second company, mobile.clubwho just got one round table of eight million euros with 130 business angels. “I approached the funds first, but I realized there was a cultural gap between us and the companies they invest in. We are not a ‘fund returner’ [un investissement qui permet de rembourser la totalité d’un fonds, NDLR] emphasizes Damien Morin, who had no trouble convincing individual investors to fund his smartphone rental start-up founded in 2018.
Hem, the business angel who has invested in about fifty gold nuggets since 2015. “He’s a real social animal, respected by a lot of people, and he’s one of the most influential people in the Parisian tech scene,” notes Hugo Saias, his former partner at Keep and best friend.
A musical encounter
Antoine Martin, co-founder of Zenly, was the first to use weed. “When I found out that he was building a box with the aim of quickly becoming profitable, I invested and joined the board,” says the boss who met Damien Morin more than a decade ago… in a nightclub . At the time, Antoine Martin organized evenings in clubs to support himself, as he was not yet able to pay himself a salary at Zenly.
“Damien was a client first and became a DJ there when he founded Save,” recalls the manager who introduced him to central French tech personalities such as Jean de la Rochebrochard (Kima Ventures), Xavier Niel and even the highly controversial Oussama Amar, co founder of The Family, accused by his former associates of breach of trust, forgery and use of forgery.
“I was in a few The Family deals. Yes, there are opaque things in it, but I am not dissatisfied with my investment. Above all, the founders of The Family helped me enormously with the launch of Save when I was only 22 years old,” the entrepreneur explains.
“Damien has not lost his energy and his will to succeed between Save and mobile.club,” testifies Jean de la Rochebrochard, who returned to the pot through Kima Ventures. Damien Morin, on the other hand, has lost a number of (bad?) habits. No hypergrowth at all costs with spending in all directions, but controlled management.
“Saving burns a lot of money very quickly. After that, I wanted to build a healthy business from scratch, limit capital losses as much as possible and put myself in an acceptable level of risk,” says the 30-year-old. “A lot of people told him two or three years ago that he wasn’t aggressive enough, he was finally ahead of the trend,” Antoine Martin analyzes, referring to profitability, the new buzzword in French Tech.
Successful bet for Damien Morin because mobile.club booked a turnover of 10 million euros in 2022 with a loss of “only” 500,000 euros. “He tripled his income in 2022 with a team of the same size. I don’t know of any other company that has managed to do the same,” notes Antoine Martin.
“He applied all the lessons he had learned at mobile.club, namely cash control, controlled growth, a state-of-the-art information and monitoring system. He has the profile of an entrepreneur who has a lot of merit in his history, in his recovery,” emphasizes Jean de la Rochebrochard.
Apple? Not even scared
Objective for 2023: to double its income, in particular by going abroad, while maintaining a good cash level. Because mobile.club buys the smartphones itself – which are becoming increasingly expensive – and then rents them out between 13.90 and 42.90 euros per month, including breakage and theft insurance. It has also stopped offering a non-binding offer, which obviously reduces retention rates and secures its future earnings.
“If a smartphone breaks, I replace it within 48 hours, which means I always have to have some in stock,” explains Damien Morin, who has just taken on a debt of five million euros with Eiffel Investment, which will close within three months. . “Eiffel could reach 25 million in the next 12 or 18 months,” the boss speculates, unconcerned about the rate increase.
“If the rate goes up by 2%, I can pass it back on to my customers’ price,” says the entrepreneur who claims to date 25,000 members. And if one day Apple offers rentals in France, as it does in the United States? “It will democratize the market, it’s a good opportunity for us. We rent smartphones that are not necessarily new, not like Apple. We are a bit like the Achtermarkt for smartphone rental,” the boss defends.
Mobile. club does not intend to expand its range to include tablets, for example, but to accelerate the rental of electronic devices, including smartphones, an activity that began discreetly in 2022. One thing doesn’t change: music. “He will continue and will continue to make people dance,” Hugo Saias assures. And no one can lecture him about his passion.
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