The living room Viva Tech, which was held this week in Paris, opens its doors to the public this Saturday, June 18* to get an idea of the tech innovations of tomorrow. On this occasion, “20 Minutes” wondered about the different stages that could await a French entrepreneur wishing to develop a project in this field. Example, with François Hisquin co-founder of Bugali. His project: that of an augmented book that wants to give children a taste for reading. And so, paradoxically, take them out of their screens
“Bugali is a console on which books are placed. It makes them tactile and sound,” explains François Hisquin. For him and his partner Emmanuelle Duez, the principle was to find an awakening solution for children, which was not screen-based. “Two hours a day spent on a screen in France for a 2-year-old child is surreal! “, gets carried away the engineer by training.
“Bugali tells stories, but the difference with digital storytellers is that there is a real paper book, which we will use as the remote control for the story,” adds François Hisquin. Thus, in partnership with publishing houses such as Fleurus, he has developed specific books. Of 32 pages, they land on a console that will detect the movements of the child’s finger on the page and trigger games, nursery rhymes, stories…
The Covid-19, the first obstacle…
Nice idea. But complicated idea to implement. Starting with a little surprise. “The project started in September 2019. When you embark on this type of adventure with hardware and that we have to work remotely, confined, it’s not easy…”, confesses the ex-engineer who took the constraints of the Coronavirus head on. But François Hisquin nevertheless gives himself two years to achieve his goals.
Very early on, questions arise about hardware for its console and its books: detecting the presence of a book and reading it; detect the page the child is on; detect all finger interactions; create an “engine” that will launch the actions; implement an RFID antenna in the books so that they are identified, etc.
Seek (and find) the experts
Faced with this roadmap, François Hisquin then encountered two other types of difficulties. The first is human. “We had to find the right experts. There is not a plethora in France. I recruited a few people internally and worked with Kickmaker. Present on Viva Tech, Kickmaker is an industrialization agency that has already participated in many tech projects in France, such as that of the digital storyteller Lunii. “We do a lot of education with our customers. We explain to them the technologies used. Then, they are either ready to market, or ready to innovate on a V2”, relates Alysée Flaut, communications director at Kickmaker.
“Coming from the service (he had founded the consulting firm OCTO Technology which he sold to Accenture), I was a bit of a virgin of the hardware. You had to learn the vocabulary, it was really a discovery”, adds François Hisquin. Who subsequently came up against the financial difficulties of the Bugali project.
Have already proven themselves in the market
“When we look for fairly traditional financing, we are told: ‘come back to see us when you have proof of the market.’ However, this proof requires having already designed, manufactured… and sold! What can cause a project to die is the difficulty in financing it. A good idea is not enough”, regrets François Hisquin. After the first self-funded million euros, he and his partner manage to raise another three million. “There are difficult phases where you look for money without finding it, or you start with a techno solution that doesn’t work. Having a little experience allows you to see things calmly and continue”.
The cost of Made in France
After prototyping with mechanical parts produced in 3D printing, after micro-series electronic cards ordered in China (“almost no one in France can do it, if not at twenty times the price!”, laments François Hisquin); after development software internally, that of firmware which rotates the console, and the testingthe Bugali tablet will be in the industrialization phase in mid-July 2022. Won?
“We chose for many reasons to manufacture in France and there, we are starting to come up against all types of problems…”, observes the entrepreneur. If the components of Bugali and its mold (invoiced at a minimum of 60,000 euros) will be manufactured in Asia, the injection and the assembly will be carried out in France rather than in China. But with the key, a product 15% more expensive.
“We therefore decided to sit on our margins on the manufacturing part”, notes François Husquin, whose objective is to release his product in March 2023 around 100 euros. The price of the books will be 14.50 euros. “It’s a very Nespresso model! “laughs the entrepreneur. Which, in the end, wants to be reassuring: “When you embark on a project hardware in France, we encounter many difficulties, but this is not a reason to be discouraged. There are still some success stories who testify! “.
* Paris, Portes de Versailles (15th), from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m., Hall 1.