Charlotte Ledoux, Co-founder & CEO of Vallai

01. What is your background? Take us through the steps of becoming a founder

I have a scientific background in a general engineering school, INSA Lyon, which I completed with a specialised Master's degree at Centrale Paris. Then, I worked in consulting firms, the typical path of a curious person. I stayed in consulting for about 8 years and specialised in data and AI and especially on data strategies and governance. On the field I have seen a lot of dysfunctions in AI projects: lack of compliance with GDPR, bad team composition, lack of governance etc. This made me want to create Vallai to propose a new vision to accelerate AI projects, where data as a strategic asset can be easily anonymized, shared, tracked and reused between teams or partners.

02. How do you and your co-founder know each other?

It was at our previous job at Quantmetry that I met Fouad, Omar and Fahim. I wanted to continue our collaboration as we got along very well in our work. We have very complementary profiles. I knew we could put together a strong team, go further together and embark on the adventure of creating a startup.

03. What did you enjoy most about the Paris Techstars Accelerator’s program and what are your biggest learnings?

It was incredible to meet and discuss with founders living the same obstacles as we are. The Mentors madness was also a major moment for us, having our vision and ideas challenged by different experts brought us a lot. 

We have learned that once your vision is clear, it’s all about the execution and regularity. The financial plan came along with the help of mentors and experts !

04. What were some of the obstacles your company faced throughout the three months of the acceleration program?

We had to iterate quickly on our vision and product development, which was complicated due to the long sales cycles of our initial targets. So we had to adapt and try new approaches to test our market faster.

05. How do you plan to measure the impact of your company in the next 5 years?

- Number of innovations based on data collaboration

- 4,500 tons of CO2 avoided thanks to mutualisation between partners

- Ethical and responsible algorithms developed

- A team that is fulfilled in its work and in the vision

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