Marie Schneegans is 23 years old and has founded her first company, which she heads as CEO and according to her own data is currently worth 16.7 million US dollars (about 14.6 million euros).
After studying at the Goethe University in Frankfurt, in a joint program with the Université Paris Dauphine, Schneegans began an internship.
It lasted only three months. These three months changed their lives.
"It all started with my internship at the Swiss bank UBS", says Schneegans. "I did not know anyone and there was no easy way to meet colleagues from other departments. So I started knocking on their office doors and asking if they would like to have lunch with me.
She asked a friend for help
The more promises I got for the lunch break from the different departments, the faster I did my work and I was looking forward to the work because of this lunch break. It ended with the fact that I went into the lunch break with the chairman of the board and more and more colleagues came to me, who asked me how I would have done this and that they would also like to meet new colleagues. "
That inspired Schneegans.
But she had no start-up experience - her friend Paul Dupuy. At the time, Dupuy was a senior employee at Fancy, a sort of social network where you could buy a variety of products and also a billion-dollar rating. She asked him to help "develop solutions that enable employees to meet in big companies and be more networked and happier at work."
He agreed.
"Almost a year and a half ago, we started working on the Never Eat Alone-A pp," says Dupuy. "We did not get any gel. We only developed the app with the money from our first contracts. "
60 customers after only 16 months
Only 16 months later, these contracts include 60 companies as customers - including major names such as L'Oreal in New York, Lloyd's Bank in the United Kingdom, Allianz in Germany, and French companies such as Dior. And the company now has a value of 16.7 million US dollars (14.6 million euros).
The foundation is the app, which allows employees in large corporations to easily network and easily arrange lunch or coffee breaks. The app works as follows: Each employee gets a profile in the department in which he or she works, linked to some hashtags that describe their interests, and the topics they want to learn more about. An algorithm and integrated scheduling connect people with similar interests.
"I play tennis, for example, and would like to learn more about Big Data," says Schneegans. "If someone else plays tennis in the company, the profile appears directly on the home page. Then you can type in fields like 'Let's have lunch' or 'Let's have a cup of coffee' and next to the chat (...) we have a scheduling integrated, so you get an exact invitation. "
Because it is based on interests and abilities, it helps employees with networking, regardless of the degree of service or the department, explains Schneegans. This is especially important in large corporations, where the hierarchy is often more important than mutual learning.
"With our tool, we are breaking this state," says Schneegans.
The usage data of their app show that this is true. For this, Dupuy has used the data of one of its 60 customers - the Swiss office of Philip Morris in Lausanne. These cross-departmental data show that 75 percent of the connections within the Never Eat Alone app exist between employees and various departments.
Joint study with Cornell University
To get even more accurate data, Never Eat Alone has begun an official study. She started in June at Cornell University 's Dyson School of Business and aims to measure the effects between shared lunch breaks and corporate productivity.
According to Dupuy, they want to find out how people are building a network in a company environment. They are convinced that Never Eat Alone is the right tool to establish a link to the study. The new study will be held at L'Oréal in New York's Hudson Yards office.
This study is conducted by Kevin Kniffin , a guest professor at the Dyson, whose specialty is commensality (which is common food) - his former work, investigating firefighters and how their joint meal improves their performance at work .
And just three weeks ago, Never Eat Alone announced another important step in the company's development: the Workwell platform. What began as an app developed into a roof mark for office lunches and networks - only this time companies are connected to the building in which they are based.
"To give a concrete example - so far it was the business of a company to book the meeting rooms, while the thing of the real estate company, who owned the building, was to assemble the menu of the cafeteria. Each action was still separated, so everyone had to do their own thing for themselves. With Workwell, they are mixed together, "explains Dupuy.
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"The new product centralizes access to all tasks that occur in a workplace. And this platform also integrates Never Eat Alone. It's as a new platform where Never Eat Alone is a part. "
"I think it will help employees around the world make working hours a better experience," says Schneegans. "I am very happy about it."
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Source: Business Insider
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