Pierre Fraignaud (class of 1997) takes advantage of his most recent class (entry) anniversary to look back on an entrepreneurial journey that began... at school.

Selected excerpts and link to the full article on LinkedIn.

Of course, I've had plenty of opportunities to talk about my current career as an entrepreneur / SME owner.

And I realized that my first "entrepreneurial" experiences dated back to my ESSCA years .

When, after 2 years on the Paris campus, I arrived in Angers, I naturally sought to continue the community involvement I'd started the previous year with the creation of an association with a handful of friends.

Talking to the BDE, I was convinced by the idea of taking over a mythical association (for me at least) that was still looking for a new team!

Obviously, at the age of 20, I rushed headlong into it, seduced by what I had in mind (aaaah the parties at the Conf' in 1st year!...).

I only had 2 conditions:

1️⃣ a good team and, in particular, a trusted colleague to get me started. ✅ 1 classmate was on board and we were going to easily recruit our 1st & 2nd year team.

2️⃣ that the association was not in the red. ✅ the bank account was slightly positive.

4 months later, I was summoned to court, along with the BDE.

As a young, carefree volunteer, I suddenly discovered that the president of an association can potentially incur personal liability: civil liability, criminal liability or financial liability.

I thought I might personally lose a lot of money that I hadn't yet started to earn...