A portrait of Anne-Alice Faure: MS MGPIE alumni and co-founder of the start-up Snapaccess

Publication Date

16 March 2023

Meeting with Anne-Alice Faure

His career

What is your background?

Since 2022: Co-founder of the startup Snapaccess
2022: Graduates from the Advanced Masters® in Innovative Project Management and Entrepreneurship (MS MGPIE) at ISAE-SUPAERO
2021 : Graduates from ENSEIRB-MATMECA as an electronics engineer

Can you tell us about your business project, SNAP ACCESS?

I co-founded Snapaccess with Loïc Hardouin, a friend I met at the MGPIE programme.

During discussions with a sanitation services company, we realised just how much their work was slowed down by having to go back and forth to fetch keys. Often, service providers have to travel miles to find an access point that will allow them to enter a house or infrastructure. Service companies aren’t the only ones to face this problem; companies with remote sites have to manage a large number of sets of keys from afar. So our aim is to make it easier for companies and service providers to exchange keys.

Since our launch in September 2022, we have provided an initial response to this need. Snapaccess offers a key box connected by 4G or WIFI to an online platform. The solution can be operated entirely remotely, giving customers real-time access to their buildings. Our system is of interest to a large number of companies, which is why our objective for 2023 is to boost our sales and improve our service, in order to provide our customers with the ideal solution. To achieve this, we also want to expand the existing team, which consists of Loïc and myself, as well as our communications and marketing student, Carla.

Winner of the Jean Pierson prize for her leadership qualities

In December 2022, Anne-Alice received the Jean Pierson Prize, awarded each year to a graduating student of the Institute who has demonstrated particular leadership qualities during their years of study. This prize from the Fondation ISAE-SUPAERO has enabled him to reflect on the qualities required of a leader, and his impact within an organisation. An encouraging reward for his Snapaccess entrepreneurial project!

What have you gained from the Advanced Master MGPIE? What are the main advantages of the programme?

The MGPIE has given me a great deal from both an academic and a human point of view. The diversity of the courses offered is the course’s main asset.

With the innovation courses, I was able to broaden my knowledge of a large number of new technologies. I remember the course on biomimicry, which particularly piqued my curiosity. Other courses, such as creativity, push us out of the Cartesian mental space that we have as engineers, by getting us to think differently.

The main advantage of the course is the PIE (Projet Innovant Exploratoire), a project to create a start-up that follows us throughout the course. It gives us the opportunity to experience what it’s like to set up a business.

Work focuses on the development of a product to be prototyped, using ISAE-SUPAERO’s Innovspace Fablab, and on developing and understanding the target market. The project therefore provides an opportunity to learn about entrepreneurship, to challenge ourselves and to learn how to manage a project as part of a team.

What’s more, most of the courses in the Advanced Master are taught by professionals, which gives the lessons a real-life context and avoids abstract theories.

Finally, the programme has a large alumni network, with over 1,500 alumni! This network helps to increase the number of career opportunities, which are already very attractive on completion of the course.

What motivated you to continue your studies in the Advanced Masters® and more specifically in MGPIE?

At the end of my end-of-studies placement at MBDA, I needed to broaden my horizons. My scientific training gave me a solid technical background, but I was curious to discover other fields. So I chose an Advanced Master to complement my initial training in project management, finance, marketing, agile methods and so on. What’s more, I’ve always been attracted to entrepreneurship, and the teaching on this subject made me decide to enrol on this course. It was probably the best decision I ever made!

Any advice for recent graduates interested in the MGPIE course?

As engineers, our primary job is to be able to respond to problems, and the MGPIE courses give us additional tools to respond to the future assignments we will be given in companies. Generally speaking, the course provides all the keys to leading and managing a project in its entirety, whether it’s an entrepreneurial project or not. So the only advice I can give is to apply without hesitation.

Find out more about the Advanced Master in MGPIE (IEM): https://www.isae-supaero.fr/fr/formations/mastere-specialise-r/programmes/mastere-specialise-r-innovation-entrepreneurship-management-iem