It All Starts Here

Episode 4: It All Starts With Backing Students’ Ideas

For the fourth episode of the It All Starts Here Podcast, we’re exploring a topic that is crucial for anyone starting a venture: funding. Since it’s a subject that requires some understanding to follow effortlessly, we open the episode with a quick introduction, explaining the different funding options, how they work, and why they matter. After this overview, we welcome Nicolas Rizk, founder of Campus Fund, a VC fund that invests exclusively in startups founded by students and recent graduates in Europe. Nicolas brings the perspective of the investor, an invaluable point of view for any aspiring entrepreneur. So if you want to learn more about funding, venture capital, and how to capture the attention of investors, this episode is for you. Enjoy! — your hosts, Maxim & Doralice

Episode 3: It All Starts With Impact

This week we're back with the third episode of the It All Starts Here Podcast, and we were honored to have Alisa Sydow as this week's guest. Alisa is not only an Associate Professor of Entrepreneurship at ESCP Business School's London campus, but she's also a member of the Thinkers50 Radar Class of 2025 and the founder of Nampelka, a matchmaking platform that facilitates learning experiences and knowledge creation between entrepreneurs from Africa and international experts. In this conversation, Alisa challenged us with her view of entrepreneurship, how we approach it as business school students, and what impact truly means - offering a fresh and thought-provoking perspective on building your own venture. So if you also like to be challenged and gain new points of view that might reshape your vision of entrepreneurship, this episode is for you. We left the conversation realizing how much there still is to learn, and how refreshing conversations like this can help us take a step forward. We hope it will do the same for you. - your hosts, Maxim & Doralice

Episode 2: It All Starts With A Reality Check

This week we’re back with a very special episode of the It All Starts Here Podcast, recorded in collaboration with the Entrepreneurship Festival, the yearly event dedicated to entrepreneurship organized by Blue Factory, ESCP’s very own startup incubator. To introduce you to the festival and set the tone, our first guest is Maëva Tordo, Director and Head of Blue Factory, who walked us through the theme of this year’s edition: Reality Check. We then had the chance to join the event and speak with inspiring, hands-on entrepreneurs who are building exciting ventures from the ground up. In this episode, you’ll hear from Yasmine El Kadiri-Azizi, founder of AYT Studio; Kenza Zohair, creator of Next Season; and Gauthier Lechevalier, founder of Intramap. If you’re curious to hear real stories of reality checks, challenges, and motivation, and if you want to experience the energy of this year’s Entrepreneurship Festival, this episode is for you. You can find us on all major streaming platforms (find all our links in bio). We hope you enjoy this episode, and may these conversations inspire your next step forward. — your hosts, Maxim & Doralice

Episode 1: It All Starts With Waste

We are extremely excited to announce the launch of the It All Starts Here Podcast! The Entrepreneurship podcast powered by ESCP Option E. For the very first episode we had two amazing conversations with young entrepreneurs that are taking the first steps in this exciting (but a bit scary) journey. They are not only following their dreams but also putting their effort towards a more sustainable future. The first conversation is with Lisa Salvadori, a fellow Option E colleague, who has just started a puffs company that produces its furniture pieces from waste material. In the second conversation, we interviewed Fortune Okey Duru and Giulia Francescatti, the founders of LUV, a creative studio that creates fashion pieces from discarded materials. We hope you enjoy this episode, may you be inspired by the guests’ stories and don’t forget to take the first leap forward!  — your hosts, Maxim & Doralice