HEC Paris entrepreneur graduate shines on world stage at CES 2016

10-vins, founded by HEC Paris alumnus and Incubator-educated Thibaut Jarrousse, wins the prize for “Best Start-Up” at world-leading technology trade show in Las Vegas.

French entrepreneurship is at an exciting and fertile stage of development. This January saw the 2016 edition of the internationally-renowned Consumer Electronics Show (CES), and flying the ‘French Tech’ flag almost 9,000km in Las Vegas were 45 start-ups from France, ensuring that the Hexagon was Europe’s most represented country – second only to the United States.

Right at the forefront of this impressive trend, and testament to the roll that HEC Paris is playing in the production of daring entrepreneurs, is 2013 MBA graduate Thibaut Jarrousse and his start-up: 10-Vins. This year’s winner of “Best Start-Up” at the CES against a 165-strong field of the world’s hottest up-and-coming, tech-based businesses, the company’s flagship product offers users an innovative way of tasting fine wines without opening an entire bottle.

With the project having been 5 years in the making, D-Vine – the machine that plays the role of sommelier chez vous – has gone through 15 prototypes and was nurtured alongside Thibaut’s MBA studies as well as his time spent in the HEC Incubator. 260 sales later, and with 17 staff on the company pay-roll, 10-Vins has kicked off the year in impressive style with its machine already touted as the “Nespresso of wine”.

Such success is the fruit of a drive for entrepreneurship not just at HEC Paris, but throughout France. Estimations show that half of all French youngsters would set-up their own business if they had the opportunity, and HEC Paris’ first ‘barometer’ revealed in March of last year that an impressive 25% of its graduates go on to become entrepreneurs – a figure that has been rising for 10 years. This being so, it is clear that Thibaut and his team are not the first to pioneer new ideas and pair them with business know-how in this part of the world. Looking to the future, it looks like they certainly won’t be the last.