Les Entrep' Bourgogne, winners of the Cluny campus

An eco-designed project centered around fruit pits 

Émilie Dupont, Ethan Galliou, and Tsolinée Iliozer, members of the Mater’yaux team, which won the Eco-design, Agro-transition, Sustainable Development award, discuss their project. The idea is to repurpose fruit pits that are not used by agri-food professionals to create a 100% biodegradable and eco-designed material. As part of the Entrep' program, the students chose to focus on designing and marketing a cup made from this material. 

The challenges of remote coordination 

The distance posed a real challenge. Their team consisted of three Arts et Métiers students on the Cluny campus and Jamel El Thairi, a marketing student atthe IUT du Creusot. It was difficult to meet in person, so everything had to be coordinated remotely. They organized themselves and divided up the tasks with a reverse schedule to keep track of milestones so that Jamel would not feel isolated: "We prepared during weekly meetings organized as part of the competition, but also in our free time to fully develop our project."

They worked on the business plan, marketing strategy, market research, and even conducted tests for the production of the material. 

Discovering the world of entrepreneurship and teamwork 

"Meetings with various experts are opportunities for us to re-motivate ourselves and get back on track in difficult times. Their outside opinions have been invaluable in assessing the value of our project and finding areas for improvement," explains the team.  
Another key milestone was the completion of the first tests, which allowed them to see concrete results from their efforts. With their project, they hope to raise public awareness of alternatives to plastic in everyday life. 

"This experience was a real discovery of the entrepreneurial world and teamwork. We developed a high degree of autonomy and learned to better understand our different ways of working. We also discovered many organizational methods, including regular meetings to stay informed," concludes the team. If we had one piece of advice for future candidates, it would be to be eager to learn and surround yourself with motivated people. The important thing is to get a little done each week by dividing up the tasks properly to avoid a drop in motivation."