Excellence with passion
From an Advanced Master to an innovative start-up: an entrepreneurial success story made in ISAE-SUPAERO
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Charlotte Brenac, Julie Aubert and Nicolas Guibal have turned their Advanced Master IEM project into a start-up.
ELDA TECHNOLOGY is developing an innovative technology to map the snowpack in ski areas and thus optimize the production of artificial snow.
It benefits from the support of InnovSpace, the ISAE-SUPAERO incubator.
Start with an idea and end with an innovative service. This is the common thread running through the projects of students in ISAE-SUPAERO’s Advanced Master Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Management (IEM) program. It was also the genesis of ELDA TECHNOLOGY, one of the nine start-ups housed at InnovSpace, the Institute’s incubator. Its three co-founders, Charlotte Brenac, Julie Aubert and Nicolas Guibal, all graduated from the AM IEM class of 2022.
In the space of two years, ELDA TECHNOLOGY has developed an unprecedented technology for mapping the snowpack in ski areas.The aim is to optimize the production of artificial snow and minimize its environmental impact.The Alpine resort of Serre Chevalier Domaine Skiable showed interest as soon as the technology was launched. As a result, the start-up is aiming for sales of €150,000 by the end of 2024, rising to €800,000 by the end of 2025.
"We felt supported"
"During our AM’s training, we spent a lot of time studying the needs and potential of our project with two coaches involved in our project, Elvire Prochilo and Romain Buquet. This enabled us to adjust our initial idea to meet a real need," explains Charlotte Brenac, Operations Manager at ELDA TECHNOLOGY. The members of the group also developed a strong sense of cohesion. "We had the same appetite and complemented each other. We got caught up in our own project," recalls Julie Aubert, who now works as Sales Manager.
As a result, while neither of them had any initial plans to found a start-up immediately after graduating, entrepreneurship became an obvious choice. "At ISAE-SUPAERO, we felt supported. That was reassuring for us." Charlotte Brenac has even discovered a real attraction for the entrepreneurial adventure: "I like taking on challenges, and I realized that entrepreneurship made that possible." For Nicolas Guibal, operational manager at the start-up, "this experience confirmed my desire to be an entrepreneur."
A partnership with lecturer-researchers
ELDA TECHNOLOGY’s integration into InnovSpace has facilitated the transition from project to start-up. It also provided the co-founders with a network and support, thanks to the Lanceur d’Étoiles scheme and French Tech Toulouse. As a result, they were able to carry out their Advanced Master end-of-studies internship on the ISAE-SUPAERO campus, within their own start-up!
And their collaboration with the Institute doesn’t stop there. "Today, we’re working with Thomas Oberlin and Dennis Wilson, two lecturer-researchers in the Complex Systems Engineering Department, to model snowmelt using artificial intelligence," notes Charlotte Brenac. For this project, the three graduates also bolstered their team by taking on an intern from ISAE-SUPAERO, Manuel Gestal, currently in Mastère Spécialisé® Artificial Intelligence Business Transformation (AIBT).
Learn more about the IEM Advanced Master’s program
IEM ADVANCED MASTER
The Innovation, Entrepreneuship and Management (IEM) Advanced Master is an ISAE-SUPAERO program accredited by the Conférence des Grandes Ecoles (CGE) under no. 1188.
The one-year program enables recent graduates with 5 years’ higher education and experienced professionals to simultaneously develop their innovative, intrapreneurial or entrepreneurial spirit, while acquiring expertise in technology project management.
By the start of the 2024 academic year, the program will be taught entirely in English. It is in the process of having its accreditation renewed by the CGE.
A brief biography
Charlotte Brenac joined the IEM Advanced Master after completing a DUT in Mechanical Engineering at the Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier and an engineering degree from INSA Toulouse through an apprenticeship with Thalès Alenia Space. "IEM interested me in specializing in project management. It was there that I discovered entrepreneurship, which was a revelation for me."
Julie Aubert initially wanted to be an engineer in the automotive sector. After graduating with a general engineering degree from EIGSI in Nantes, she turned to the IEM Advanced Master "out of an interest in project management". "I finally discovered a taste for entrepreneurship and said to myself: why not me?"
Nicolas Guibal joined the IEM Advanced Master after a DUT in Mechanical Engineering from the Université Toulouse III - Paul Sabatier and an engineering degree in Materials Science from the Université de Technologie de Troyes, with an apprenticeship in a company in the medical sector. "I joined the IEM because the themes of innovation, project management and entrepreneurship spoke to me. It helped me confirm my desires."
