COGITO Talks… Youth entrepreneurs uncovered: Elina Cohen-Peirano, in her own words

Blurb

Even though 40% of young people would prefer to be self-employed, the reality does not match their aspirations. If young people were as active in entrepreneurship as 30- to 49-year-old men, there would be an additional 3.6 million more young entrepreneurs across OECD countries. In this episode of OECD podcasts, Alix Philouze chats to Elina Cohen-Peirano, CEO & founder of URONE and a young entrepreneur who founded her first company at the age of 17. They discuss all things youth entrepreneurship – from balancing entrepreneurship and studies to the policy challenges facing youth entrepreneurship and the legacy of the YEPA programme, tune in to hear from a young entrepreneur, in her own words.

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Transcript

Alix

Welcome to OECD Podcasts, where policy meets people. I’m Alix Philouze, and today we’re talking about youth entrepreneurship and uncovering the reality of young entrepreneurs, their journeys, their challenges, and their triumphs. We want to hear from the young entrepreneurs themselves and give them a chance to explain in their own words what policy can do for them. According to OECD data, 40% of young people would prefer to be self-employed, but many do not take the plunge, leading to countless missed opportunities for innovation and job creation. If young people were as active in entrepreneurship as 30 to 49-year-old men, there would be an additional 3.6 million more young entrepreneurs across OECD countries. We were in Brussels last week for the YEPA Summit, where policymakers and entrepreneurs discuss what works and what doesn’t in youth entrepreneurship policy. We’re joined today by Elina Cohen-Peirano, CEO and founder of URONE, to further discuss this topic.

Welcome Elina to OECD Podcasts. To start us off, could you please tell us a bit more about who you are, your journey as an entrepreneur, your company and maybe your motivations?

Elina

So I’m a young entrepreneur of 25 years old. I started my journey as an entrepreneur when I was 17. I started with a social business to help young migrants in the north of France. I’ve also created a tech innovation company in the Christian field and I’ve founded my last business, which name is Indeed URONE, in 2022. The goal was to help young entrepreneurs and student entrepreneurship to grow and boost. in the higher education ecosystem and also help our policy makers in France, in Europe and worldwide to better understand and also shape new policies in order to help youth entrepreneurship and inclusive entrepreneurship.

Alix

So you’ve explained how you’ve created your first business when you were 17. You’re now 25 and have since completed a master’s degree. Could you maybe expand on the kind of support you received from your higher education institution and maybe how your degree has helped you as a young entrepreneur?

Elina

Sure, so funny story, I was a student at IESEG School of Management, so a business school in France, and actually they have been my first client because everything started there. I’ve been an entrepreneur three times, it started during an event, an actress event at the school. And throughout my student entrepreneur journey, I realized there were still a lot of things to help and to modify and to create to support student entrepreneur in higher education. And so that’s where I started the whole business. And IESEG was actually my first client and we shaped a lot of new solutions. So maybe I can give you quite an example. We created the IESEG student entrepreneur stages. which aimed at qualifying and recognizing the young entrepreneurs that are engaging into an entrepreneurial journey and then we would give them some adjustments, some dedicated tracks that would help them also develop more their project throughout their career and also some dedicated events, communication and connections. And so basically it really helped me also connect with amazing teachers and professors that really opened my mind on what I could actually do, the motivation and also to see things bigger. I’ve met people and professors that went to Harvard, that went and worked with policymakers when they were only 30. And hearing that, I was like, oh, but that could be myself. Why couldn’t I do that also, even with the young age? And so that was kind of the beginning of everything and the different actions we’ve taken with my business to help more higher education institutions and also policymakers.

Alix

So clearly, that’s a great example of how it’s worked out. So you definitely do you think that schools and universities should do more to teach entrepreneurial skills like early on?

Elina

Sure, and I do think it should also start before higher education. Through the YEPA work, we’ve been seeing a lot of things that, for example, Austria made. They have a program from 3 years old to 25 years old, and each year during their school year, they do cover some topics around entrepreneurship. And I think that’s really interesting because it does not put entrepreneurship as something huge. That would be a lot of constraints. It also shows that entrepreneurship starts with a mindset. It also applies within company with entrepreneurship. It may also apply with starting a business. It could be also charity or just a way of thinking and also learning more for young people. So that’s actually a lot of things that could be exploited with entrepreneurship education.

Alix

It must have been quite a challenge to balance your work as an entrepreneur and your studies. What are your tips for other young people trying to do both?

Elina

I think my first tip is maybe to learn on time optimization. What really worked for me was that I really listened a lot during my classes and I worked a lot on my memory, my auditory memory, visual memory, and it really helped me, you know, have less, needed less time to study afterwards. And so that liberated a lot of time for me. To give you an example, for my second year of Meister, I was in apprenticeship, making my study, having my thesis, growing my company, and having my clients. So I combined those five steps. And that was really intense, but what really drove me was to start being really efficient with everything. And also when you have the goal, you want to make an impact, that also gives you way more energy and actually you find time to do everything you want.

Alix

And do you feel like your age has been an advantage or a barrier when seeking partners or investors?

Elina

Well, I would actually say both. It was an advantage because when you come in a room full of expert people or PhDs that are really experienced and, you know, I’m Elina, I’m very young. So your posture and how you look also helps you differentiate and showcase maybe you have something different also to bring. So in that way, it really helped me because sometimes people were a bit not scared or not too much considering what young people could bring but actually when you start explaining what you want to achieve and everything that you could bring them I mean the age topic is not a discussion anymore so that has been an advantage I would say a disadvantage was maybe how people would think or the stereotype they may have on young people Once I’ve spoken with those people, no issue, never a problem. It was really interesting. But sometimes it’s maybe the stereotype that they’re young, they won’t have this vision, or maybe they won’t understand. I’ve seen that also in the education field, saying that, oh, young people, they are the ones that we need to teach to. But I do think also young people may have a lot to teach also.

Alix

You’ve been involved in the Youth Entrepreneurship Policy Academy, or YEPA, for over two years now. What did you personally get out of the program? What is your one key takeaway from the YEPA experience?

Elina

What it brought me was a lot of hope. Actually, by seeing so many people from different ages, different countries, different backgrounds, engaging towards UF Entrepreneurship, I felt really less alone than how I felt before. I was seeing so many incredible people, driving so many actions. It was really inspiring. And also seeing that from another country, we could also take and base ourselves on what we are currently learning. What I would also like to emphasize is that one key takeaway is that we cannot advance on policies for youth without youth. I think that’s the key point. And I’ve seen too many times discussions, roundtables, decision-making processes regarding young people without young people, or at least very few. So I do think that’s something that I want to highlight is that it’s so important to have young people in the decision-making process and also in the reflection processes.

Alix

And so to build on that, maybe if we’re looking at the wider picture, what do you think the legacy of YEPA is for everyone?

Elina

I think the legacy, what really struck me was the importance of role models. That’s a topic that came a lot because that’s something I’ve experienced. But when I was younger, before I was 17 years old, I was not even considering entrepreneurship because the people I was seeing were only big figures of entrepreneurship, like huge unicorns or startups, and that’s something I thought was not accessible for me or that I should have waited 15 years after I finished my studies. And I do think it really would have helped me to see other young entrepreneurs or also young female entrepreneurs doing great things, having huge impact, I think that also may have helped me. So that’s something that I really recognize and maybe I would also add the fact that there are many things to help young people. And we worked on the legacy documents. So I’m also part of the steering committee of IEPA. And what’s really interesting that you also need to have a basis with various aspects to support young entrepreneurs. So that also allow countries and policymakers to adapt throughout what they already have, what they could enhance. So that’s a complete and bold approach also that IEPA have worked on.

Alix

And maybe on a more personal note, what was your biggest fear when you started out and how maybe did you overcome it?

Elina

I think my biggest fear was actually failure because that’s something I think is really linked also to the French culture. We’re not valuing failure. Throughout my entrepreneurial journey, I really understood that actually failures are great things and it really helped me also reorient when I’ve seen that maybe that was not working in that way, I could try some other stuff. So that, I mean, failure is really key in the entrepreneurial journey. but it’s not something that we have valued throughout our studies and throughout our education. So maybe that’s, yeah, something that I would…

Alix

And maybe another question more about your company. What is next for you and URONE?

Elina

Yes, well, we plan to extend worldwide. We are currently working with French and European countries, but we do want to contribute to grow youth entrepreneurship and education throughout different higher education institutions. I’d say we also want to contribute more and more to the EU decision-making processes, to different, also the French Senate, French National Assembly, so in my country, nationally and also internationally, to have better policy makers and worldwide institutions to support young entrepreneurs.

Alix

As you know, our work at the OECD is also to get the best insights for policymakers to guide their work. If you could share just one message with policymakers worldwide, something that you believe is crucial for them to understand to better support founders like you, what would it be?

Elina

What I would really emphasize on would be to include young people in the decision making process. I think that’s very key. Also, it’s super important to consider that there are various young people with different profiles, also for gender, through their nationalities, where they come from, their backgrounds are really important to cover. So a lot of young entrepreneurs profile, I think that’s really key.

Alix

Okay, so could you maybe tell us a bit more about what’s next for you?

Elina

I wish to contribute even more to France and Europe and international growth on youth entrepreneurship and competitiveness. So also shaping policies, making communications and also plans, strategic plan to grow youth entrepreneurship to also help and contribute to our sovereignty and our competitiveness EU wide. And I would also, also a key aspect that I do believe is entrepreneurship, entrepreneurship within companies. And I do think it’s really strategic also to add this part and to help companies better support young people that want to work with them. And also even for less young people, support them in the ideas they may have and also to engage more through entrepreneurship. So I think that’s something, a topic really key that I do want to develop with your own.

Alix

Can you think of another, can you think of a policy that has directly helped you?

Elina

Sure, I’ve been selected for a woman entrepreneurship program funded by the EU. It was called The Break and organized by Spain and the EOI. It was really inspiring and I was really proud because I was the youngest participant of the program and we were merged with so many persons and so many women from different backgrounds, different cultures, and that really, really helped me also consider the international level, understand that the issues we are experiencing as entrepreneurs is also shared by a lot of countries and also understand how the culture also impacts the development of entrepreneurship. That was really interesting and really key for the growth of my business.

Alix

How easy or difficult has it been to secure funding as a young entrepreneur?

Elina

Well, I have never asked for funding. Totally bootstrapped. So I started with absolutely no money, no support either from my family or any private investors. I started with a business model that could fund itself from the business model and from the clients. So my first client was actually the one that found me and helped me grow my team, grow the actions we were making in France and then internationally.

Alix

Where do you see youth entrepreneurship heading in the next 10 years?

Elina

I think with the issues and the challenges we are currently experiencing at the EU level, youth entrepreneurship would be totally key. We need to bring more competitiveness towards our actions and our companies and I think it will come from young people now and also young people in 10 years. So we do need to create support models also to work since the education to also orient those young people towards tech fields or the fields that we do want to develop at the EU level regarding competitiveness. And that’s something that I feel and see is really lacking and something I do want to work on is like how from the education we can also start and think about our sovereignty and orienting young people towards entrepreneurship and also challenging them because As an example, with the tech sector, a lot of young people that are not from an engineering school would say, oh, then I cannot become an entrepreneur in tech. And that’s absolutely wrong. In tech, we need a lot of different competencies, a lot of different careers. And so that’s also open to a lot of young people. So that’s really something I do see in the next 10 years that need to be developed. And that’s actions we’re going to take also with my business.

Alix

And if you could give like one final question, if you could give one piece of advice to your 17 year old self, what would it be?

Elina

What would have helped me was actually to realize sooner that I was an entrepreneur, because I started when I was 17 and I realized I was an entrepreneur in 2023. So it was six years after. But I think that also come from that we don’t see all the various type of entrepreneurship, that is also charity or local Initiative or a big company creating a big company so yeah, that’s what I would really advise is like realise that you entrepreneur that you can do a lot of things and also take actions and maybe I would also say trust the process that everything happens for a reason and failures is really key to help you also refocus and go even beyond what you had in mind.

Alix

Thank you again, Elina, and thank you to all of our listeners for more on this topic. You can visit our website oecd.org/cfe as well as the YEPA hub, yepa-hub.org. Until next time. I’m Alix Philouze and this has been an OECD podcast.

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To learn more, visit the YEPA hub. Find out about the OECD’s work on inclusive entrepreneurship and the Missing Entrepreneurs 2023 Report.