The Birth of Memorizer

At (already) 38, with 15 years of professional life and 6 intense years at Stootie... one thing is clear: life flies by!

How do you make the right choices after such a journey? Should you jump back into the startup world or take a different path?

I’m sharing my reflections (and some advice) as Memorizer enters a new major phase: the arrival of my co-founder 🚀

---

1. Digesting the end of an entrepreneurial journey

Stootie was a 6-year roller coaster that changed my life. I was lucky to share it with Jean-Jacques Arnal and a hundred amazing teammates, full of energy and ambition.

There were intense highs (fundraising, Apple features, bursting offices, exploding numbers) and tough lows (a monetization pivot that cost us sleepless nights, last-minute fundraising rounds, and a complicated exit with Cdiscount).

Suddenly, it’s all over — and that can leave a void.

I was lucky to fill that void fairly quickly. Here’s how and why.

After a short LinkedIn post announcing my departure from Stootie, I got a flood of messages within a month (job offers, startup opportunities, mentoring requests). That helped patch up the wounded entrepreneur in me. Not all was lost!

Still, I let most of it pass. I wasn’t ready.

I needed to do simple things: first, learn to code and play guitar (not easy, but doable at 38!). Then, I went back to my roots — to Mauritius with my family, where I’d grown up. That’s where I started reading again and practicing meditation. (Okay, counting breaths for 20 minutes doesn’t always work… 😅)

Tips for entrepreneurs on pause:

• Relax! Whether your startup was a hit or a flop, it’s now valued in France.
• Take time off. Travel, read, learn new things, and enjoy what you missed during the startup chaos.
• Announce your departure on LinkedIn 😉 Most people are supportive.
• Try meditating. It’s a good time to start.

---

2. Structuring decision-making

By early May, I felt the itch to start something again. I met a trio of entrepreneur friends — Eloi Déchery (Zarpo), Thibault Lanthier (MonDocteur), and Cyrille Reboul (Webedia Brazil) — all in a similar “what’s next” phase.

They had structured their reflections using tools like the “Desire Map”, 25-year planning, and even imagining their 100th birthday speeches. Hard to start, even scary — but super helpful for big decisions.

I followed their advice and gave the Desire Map a try. You list all the moments you felt fulfilled and extract your 5-6 core desires — what your ideal life would look like.

It's personal, so I won't share it all, but it helped me define my decision-making pillars.

With that clarity, choosing Memorizer became obvious.

Tips for entrepreneurs on pause:

• Network! Even while on pause.
• Connect with people going through the same thing — form a support group.
• Try personal development tools that work for you. For me, it was the Desire Map.

---

3. Validating the idea and moving forward

From that point, everything became clearer. I knew I wanted to build something again, and that this idea aligned with my values, ambition, and timing.

I slowly got back to “professional mode” by splitting my time:

• 50% to test the idea (with friends, family, industry experts),
• 50% to mentoring and coaching other startup founders.

Shoutout to 💪 Héla Atmani (Expanders), Thomas Sabatier (Pitchichi), Mathieu Nohet (Manty), and the whole Public.io team!

I built a basic pitch deck, launched a very rough landing page (I had just learned to code a little!), and made a simple InVision prototype (ugly, but hey — Sketch was new to me too!).

Leaving Stootie on Feb 15, 2019, and by September, Memorizer was ready to go!

Tips for entrepreneurs on pause:

• Mentor other startups. Your experience has value and it gets you back in the game.
• Make a quick deck. It helps clarify your thinking and market your idea.
• Build a small prototype. Tools like Bubble or Sketch make this very doable.

---

4. Repeat entrepreneur? So far, so good

Since September, it’s been a whirlwind. I’m constantly surprised by the value of experience and the power of a strong network.

• October: Branding and first landing page
• Still October: My Olympiens football & network crew loved the idea and wanted to invest (thanks Nico Santi-Weil for being such a strong supporter!)
• November: First “official” prototype, the vision is getting more tangible
• December: Jean de La Rochebrochard joined as a business angel 🚀
• January: Thomas Sales became my co-founder

Funny how life works.

I met Thomas 7 years ago… when I was also “on pause.” He was on the exec team at BlaBlaCar (my plan A before joining Stootie) and even interviewed me.

We stayed in touch. When he saw the Memorizer launch email in September, he reached out to invest a small ticket… and after a few deep convos, he decided to invest something far more valuable: the next few years of his life.

Co-founder fit is hard. But when it clicks, it’s magic.

Here’s what we’re aligned on:

• Intuition: We both have this strange but strong feeling that Memorizer is a special opportunity.
• Complementarity: It’s a consumer app with strong product challenges. Thomas brings deep product leadership from his years at BlaBlaCar.
• Timing: We’re both ready to build our cathedral — a reference to the kind of legacy product we want to leave behind.

Welcome Thomas. Let’s build this thing 💪

---

What’s next?

• ✅ New landing page launched — check it out!
• 🟡 First funding round closing soon
• 🟢 Private beta before June (goal: 10,000 beta testers — sign up here)
• 🔍 Still hiring:
  • iOS Lead
  • Junior back-end/AI dev → thomas@memorizer.ai
• 🚀 Public app launch before September
• 🧱 Long-term: Build an app that truly helps people, in France and beyond

Let’s build our cathedral.