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In 2021, Maxence MORIN and Simon LIU, both students at IÉSEG, founded what would become KOINO a few years later. How did the idea emerge? How did they shift toward AI? How does one successfully navigate the development phase of a growing company? What did they learn at IÉSEG that helped them succeed as entrepreneurs? Maxence and Simon open the doors to their entrepreneurial journey.

You met at IÉSEG — how did the idea to create KOINO come about?

It all started at IÉSEG: I met Simon through the Sports Office, and he later joined me at IÉSEG CONSEIL Lille, the School’s Junior Enterprise. We both really enjoyed consulting and creating value for companies, so we wanted to keep going in that direction. In 2021, we created “Motion Advisory” with two other Junior Enterprise alumni, Emma and Nicolas. It was really the precursor to KOINO. We offered clients our expertise, tailored to their needs. As our clients were very satisfied with our work, demand grew. We then evolved our business model for the first time—no longer offering only our own expertise, but also matching students as freelancers.
At the end of our time at IÉSEG, Emma and Nicolas chose different career paths. We bought their shares and, together with Simon, renamed the company “KOINO”, officially founded in 2022.

What was the original concept behind KOINO, and why did you quickly specialize in AI?

Originally, KOINO was conceived as a freelance platform specializing in tech roles. We connected students and recent graduates—whether from business schools or engineering schools—with companies seeking support for IT consulting, CRM implementation, ERP projects, and more. Little by little, we also began offering much more senior profiles as needed.
We were already helping companies with various automation initiatives, Marketing Automation, and process efficiency improvements (in Marketing, Finance, Data…). When AI arrived, we saw this technological shift as an opportunity to bring additional value to our clients. We knew we had a real chance to stand out in the consulting and IT services world because everyone was starting from scratch with AI—so from the beginning, we chose to develop deep expertise in this area. Our vision has always been that a company succeeds through its talent. So if we offer our clients the best AI and data talent, KOINO could become a real growth engine for our partner companies.

At that time, consultant placement accounted for 80% of our turnover. But gradually, more and more companies approached us with real business challenges and questions about how AI could help them. So we slowly built up a consulting division and created an innovation unit offering consulting, R&D, and custom AI tool development.
We shifted from pure consultant/freelancer placement within companies to offering turnkey solutions. While we still place consultants—often within large groups that have already launched their projects and simply need a specific skill or expertise—we have developed a full-service capability for SMEs and mid-sized firms, which may not have significant investment capacity or dedicated teams. They come to us with a need, and we build the entire project and provide the talent. Today, this turnkey consulting activity represents nearly 50% of our revenue.

Could you describe KOINO with a few key figures?

In 2025, KOINO’s revenue should reach nearly €1.5 million. We are growing at nearly +100% each year—we are still very much in a rapid development phase. Today, we have around twenty talents working with our partner companies (and since the start of the KOINO journey, we have worked with more than 250 talents, mostly students!). We are currently working on around fifty projects for companies mainly in industry, fragrance, retail, packaging, and mechanical design. Two-thirds of our clients are SMEs and mid-sized companies, often major subcontractors for publicly listed firms.

Can you share concrete examples of initiatives you’ve implemented?

For example, KOINO supports an M&A firm in automating certain tasks to boost efficiency. M&A analysts spend a tremendous amount of time on low-value activities: drafting and proofreading presentations and pitch decks, writing meeting minutes… For this client, we developed tools that detect typos and writing errors in pitch decks much more accurately and efficiently. We also implemented an in-house tool that records partners’ meetings and instantly generates a meeting recap. Once the document is validated, the tool connects to the CRM and drafts thank-you emails, follow-ups, action reminders… for teams, suppliers, and clients.

In another sector, we worked with fluid mechanics engineers at a large agri-food company to optimize a product’s production line using AI. By optimizing production flow, our client improved productivity, reduced waste along the production line, and even avoided building a new production line to meet growing demand in the coming years. AI generated very real financial savings.

As entrepreneurs, how do you manage the growth phase of a company?

When you start a business, you go in every direction. There’s so much to handle, you’re not necessarily well organized, but you have to act fast. Over time, you realize you can’t work like that for years—otherwise you burn out. It becomes essential to structure the company and yourself, to be rigorous, organized, and disciplined. For me, respecting your schedule is key. Set blocks of “deep work,” where you eliminate distractions, notifications, calls… Schedule regular check-ins on different projects and, above all, avoid multiplying meetings. In every company, excessive meetings are a real productivity issue. Finally, you learn to delegate to the right people, to surround yourself with the right team, so you can focus on where you truly bring value: understanding clients’ challenges and finding solutions to solve them.

What skills did you learn at IÉSEG that are most useful to you today?

Mainly, the ability to convey a message as clearly and appropriately as possible to your audience. We learned how to prepare group presentations on topics we didn’t necessarily know well, which taught us how to adapt quickly, gather information efficiently, present effectively, and persuade. This is what I use most in my daily work.

IÉSEG taught us to be curious and to step out of our comfort zone. We studied many subjects before specializing, which significantly developed our knowledge and general culture. We were involved in student associations where we had to manage budgets, lead teams, organize events—all situations we now encounter daily in the business world.
Finally, being entrepreneurs while studying was an extraordinary advantage, because we could immediately apply everything we learned in class—literally the same day. It made everything meaningful: we had class in the morning, worked on our business in the afternoon, and directly impacted our growth.

Where do you see KOINO in one, two, five years?

We want KOINO to become a leading player in AI transformation in France, then in Europe. Our ambition is to help organizations regain control of their technological trajectory by combining data structuring, AI integration, and talent support. To achieve this, we need to be recognized for offering the best data/AI profiles and for our ability to deliver rapid, tailored responses to clients’ challenges—not disposable POCs, but sustainable use cases rooted in operational reality, measurable, interoperable, and responsible.

Our approach is built on three complementary dimensions: strategic, to define a clear and governed innovation roadmap; technical, to integrate AI into existing systems while respecting security, sovereignty, and documentation standards; and human, to engage teams, build skills, and foster autonomy. Our offer is structured around two pillars: augmented staffing with operational experts supported by our excellence unit, and reproducible, modular, and scalable impact-driven projects.

We aim to be a leading source of insights and awareness, capable of guiding leaders and teams on the state of the art and emerging technologies. Our vision is to transform SMEs and mid-sized companies—the backbone of the French economy—by making their organizations more efficient in the age of AI. This is how we will build a company designed to last more than ten years, capable of competing with major consulting firms, guided by a clear compass: useful, explainable, efficient, and governable AI.

Any final thoughts?

We are extremely grateful to IÉSEG for everything we learned there and everything the school gave us. We would be delighted to work more with IÉSEG students and alumni, because we know the quality of its graduates, and we need many talents to join us (as interns, apprentices, full-time employees) to contribute to this transformation—whether in IT, Data, AI, project management, or even sales roles, for those who want to sell our solutions, meet clients, and support our growth.

For alumni working in companies: if you are asking yourself questions about AI, don’t hesitate to contact us. We are always happy to discuss your needs and audit your business processes—how they currently work and how we can optimize them so that you generate a direct, measurable impact, with a concrete ROI within a few weeks.