EPITA Students Propelled by Facebook

Pierre François Chiron (EPITA student from the 2006 cohort) was able to sail through the tough times. During the financial crisis, he grabbed a handle to open a new universe of opportunities in the boom of social networks. In 2009 he created MakeMeReach, the first French state control specializing in the management and monetization of applications on social networks. A mere 18 months old and the company, located in the heart of the 2nd arrondissement of Paris, already has two dozen employees. It has also developed a pole branding (brand evaluation) and specializes in creating applications. The young company’s customers include prestigious advertisers: Oasis, L’Oreal, Dim, PMU, Orange, Renault, NRJ etc. The figures speak for themselves: MakeMeReach manages between 3 and 4 billion ads on the web per month, while TF1 manages 700 million. And the profits follow: the first year turnover of the company reached over 1.5 million with a steady growth, and its increase over the past 3 months has been exponential.

"The opportunity to expand in Europe and double our workforce in one year," says Pierre François enthusiastically. Without any doubt, MakeMeReach is an Epitean adventure. Out of three shareholders, two are alumni of the school, and among the twenty employees housed in its open space, seven (soon nine) graduated from EPITA. When Pierre François speaks of his studies at the school, he recalls six years which have enabled him to develop skills and independence necessary to become an entrepreneur. Work during his studies as the director of 3IE’s (research and development laboratory’s) web division, allowed him to get in touch with many business leaders, to learn to communicate with them, manage projects, track developers. After a first experience in an IT consulting firm, and another with a software company, Pierre François did not regret having chosen life as an entrepreneur: "I have to work about thrice more than I did in my old job yet I feel time is twice shorter," he says.