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What if we changed the way we view professional failure and started seeing it as an opportunity to begin again? Guillaume FOURDINIER (who graduated the Grande École Program in 2010) was making headlines only a few years ago with his former entrepreneurial venture, Agricool. Its receivership was a surprise to many. Yet Guillaume remained optimistic and chose to refocus on a more manageable project: le Plongeoir. A successful bet: today, his inspiring entrepreneurial newsletter is read by thousands of people each week.

Agricool was not your first entrepreneurial venture…

It wasn’t! I founded TOMBAPIK with Alexandre Gendrier (who graduated IÉSEG in 2010) during my third year at IÉSEG. We developed an intranet solution for higher education institutions, offering a wide range of services, including carpooling and second-hand furniture sales. We won over the Université Catholique de Lille as well as several campuses in Paris. The adventure came to an end in 2012 when my associate took over his family’s vineyard. As for me, I moved to Rouen to join my fiancée and spent the next two years working as a sales representative for a pharmaceutical company.

What made you leave salaried employment?

Late 2014 marked a turning point. I injured myself while skiing and was immobilized for a month. During that time, my mind was full of new project ideas, and I realized that the entrepreneurship bug had never really left me. At the same time, indoor farming projects were emerging across the United States and Japan. I was fascinated by the idea of growing fruits and vegetables in cities rather than transporting them from hundreds of kilometres away, along with all the environmental impacts that entails.

What was the next step?

Gonzague, Agricool’s co-founder, and I decided to explore the idea further. We took the leap, and things quickly accelerated. We launched several fundraising rounds, hired eighty people, and our trials proved successful: we managed to grow high-quality strawberries in sealed containers. We pushed the R&D efforts to the limit and raised a total of €30 million. Yet, it was not enough. By the time we decided to stop Agricool, we were producing ten times more strawberries per square meter than any greenhouse in the world.

The company entered receivership in November 2022. What happened?

No one – not even Plenty, despite raising more than $1 billion in the USA – managed to find the right economic model to make the project sustainable. That is the challenge with R&D intensive ventures: you progress one step at a time, but if you fail to reach the final milestone, everything can unravel. Without a clear path to profitability, we had no future. We also came to realize that our model was not as environmentally friendly as we had initially believed, given its significant energy and material requirements. Yet, I have absolutely no regrets. I spent seven incredible and highly formative years. It was worth it. I learned an enormous amount about myself through this adventure.

How did you feel when everything came to an end after seven intense years?

It was a difficult period, as I suddenly had to start from scratch. First, my family and I moved to Brittany. Then we decided to spend seven months sailing around the Caribbean. It strengthened our family bonds and gave me the opportunity to process everything that had happened. After one month, the mental burden I had been carrying disappeared. Every morning, I spent an hour writing in my journal. I reflected on Agricool’s journey and thought about what I wanted to do next. Through that process, I came to realize that I was meant to be an entrepreneur. I knew I wanted to build another company, but this time I wanted it to be different. I was looking for a better balance, a more sustainable project, and a lifestyle that would allow me to stay close to my children and to the sea.

How did you turn your vision into a real project?

As soon as we returned, in April 2023, I started exploring a wide range of topics related to food, construction, the future of materials, regenerative agriculture and even algae. I spent a great deal of time reflecting on these subjects and discussing them with experts, while evaluating different business ideas. I wrote extensively and received a lot of feedback, but rather than keeping it to myself, I decided to share what I was learning with a broader audience by launching a newsletter called “Le Plongeoir”. Thanks to the network I had built through Agricool, I was able to reach a significant number of people from the outset. I started with around 500 subscribers. Just three editions later, the newsletter had grown to more than 3,000 readers, largely through word of mouth.

What is the focus of your newsletter today, three years after its launch?

It has grown quickly. Today, 26,000 business leaders and entrepreneurs subscribe to the newsletter. Each week, I decode and popularize the major challenges of our time, highlight inspiring individuals, and explore societal issues as well as environmental topics. The business model is profitable thanks to sponsorships, and I recently launched a series of sector-focused events (impact finance, real estate, etc.). You can find out more at leplongeoirelive.com, with each event bringing together more than a hundred participants.

Looking back, what did you learn from the failure of Agricool?

First and foremost, I learned a great deal about management. We made many mistakes as we grew from zero to eighty employees in a very short period of time and at a relatively young age. I also developed my project management skills, as well as my ability to work with investors and cope with pressure. This experience helped me understand what I wanted to do, but also what I wanted to stop doing. I moved from running sprints to running marathons. I want “Le Plongeoir” to still be around thirty years from now. Above all, I am proud of the community that has grown around it: a vibrant network of people who want to build a more desirable future, who believe in a better world and who are willing to contribute to making it happen.

This article was written by Luna Créations for #IÉS, the IÉSEG Network magazine.