The Family, Moving On…line!

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Welcome to The Family

15 min readJul 2, 2020

Confined during quarantine, The Family team moved all of its activities online — taking care of our entrepreneurs, providing education to our communities.
I’d like to share a bit of the learnings from this experience: what online and live events have taught us!

But first, let me give you just a quick reminder on The Family’s purpose.

We believe entrepreneurship empowers individuals.
That’s why The Family’s mission is to unleash the potential of founders in Europe. We accompany daring doers, wherever they are in Europe, in building profitable, scalable and repeatable business models — in one word: startups. We see ourselves as minority shareholders bringing value: sweat and beliefs. We’ll do whatever it takes to fight on their side, in exchange for equity.

We started in France 7 years ago, with a clear message. The local entrepreneurial environment is toxic. Be they cultural or infrastructural, the barriers to entrepreneurship are too high to start anything ambitious if you’re not part of the elite.

Thanks to the Internet, the need for capital at the beginning of a startup is decreasing. What we felt was needed first was (1) the entrepreneurial mindset — knowledge and know-how and (2) a community of people sharing the same purpose and willing to support each other.

You don’t want what you don’t know. Once you know what building a startup means, it might become an option for you. So we started inviting founders from all over the world, people who’ve been building great companies, to share their path on our different stages in Paris and Berlin mostly, and a little bit in London from time to time.

Something different. We’ve tried to never do a “sales pitch” on what The Family can do for entrepreneurs — each case is different. We count on the results and word of mouth.

Entrepreneurs join one of our events and if they’re intrigued, they want to know more and send us an email. What I often hear is: “Attending your events, I’ve learnt and I’ve experienced something different.”
Something different? Yes. Because they attended a tech and business event with:

A purpose: my team and our guests take entrepreneurship seriously, we see creation as a way to emancipation. Most of our speakers dedicate a significant amount of time giving back to the community, they’re doing it to empower others.
Honesty: Free to speak our truth, we chose who should be on stage. We stand up when we feel like something isn’t fair for entrepreneurs and fight by their side.
Care: Attendees must feel at ease. Even if you know no one, we’ll make you connect with other people, and it won’t be weird, forced or uncomfortable.
Diversity: We don’t count — in France, we are not allowed to run statistics based on gender, ethnicity or anything related to physical characteristics, but you can see. The community that joins our events looks different than a typical business event. I guess it’s (1) because we’re vocal: “Anyone can become an entrepreneur”, that’s our baseline, and (2) because we, the founders, look different — and funny enough, we cover the 3 monotheist religions.

In mid-March, our questions regarding the content strategy were:

Are we able to make online events as relevant as the IRL ones?
Will our community feel the same vibes?
Can we give our best from our couches?
Will people engage as much?…

Long story short, we’ve discovered that we could:

Unveil the magic of our entrepreneurs — With Good Vibes, creating more than 50 free, live online events with our entrepreneurs.
Gather big international crowds — With the CX Summit, 1,200 attendees at once during an afternoon.
Empower women — With Goldup, 93 women have learnt how to start their own businesses during our 5-day bootcamps.
Help anyone find their cofounders — With Be My Cofounder, more than 200 founders meet with 50 other passionate doers willing to start working together remotely.
Bring more value to our founders — jumping on a call anytime, for anything.
Address a larger scope of founders — Participating in live conferences organized by tech communities around the world.

So what have we learnt on creating online events…?

1. Online events aren’t live meetups but are more like live TV shows: the organizer becomes a producer.

Your audience is totally FREE. They’ve just clicked on a button to book their spot. They don’t need to take the tube or bike to join your event. They’re less committed and they won’t feel guilty about moving, they can zap away quickly just by closing their laptop — which is easier than leaving a room full of people staring at you!

As the organizer, you’re competing directly with Netflix, Youtube, TikTok, emails, calls with friends, cooking, anything people can do at home basically…

So we launched the “Customer Experience Summit”, a 4-hour online conference with amazing guests like Rick, the CEO of Guru, Arun, the head of Freshworks Europe, Julia, the head of AWS for Startups in France, and Ali, one of the 1st employees at Slack, who’s in charge of their CX.

And the results of this event have been good:

1,200 people booked their spot, 600 joined in total (the same no-show as IRL events, but the difference is that people choose what conference they want to attend rather than attending the whole event).
400 one-on-ones happened (a professional ChatRoulette)
The attendees rated 9.5/10 the quality of the CX Summit.
Most importantly, what has been shared is recorded and anyone can access it on Youtube.

To obtain these results, here are a few points — that were new for us:

You can’t be late, if your event starts at 9am, after 9:05am it’s a lack of respect if nothing’s happening. Whereas in a real room, you can put on some music, offer coffee and welcome each participant with a big smile.
You’ve prepared for it. You have rehearsed several times with your team, the schedule is clear and there is no room for improvisation in between different conferences or workshops: it’s all written and your audience has access to the agenda, whenever they feel lost.
Your event is scripted, from the organizers’ speech, to the slides and the actions you want people to do. The good thing is that if you’re good, no one will see that you’re reading your speech: so you can share your message entirely, without forgetting anything.
The speed is accelerated. When people watch our YouTube videos from IRL conferences, they accelerate the pace (x1.5). Why? Because when you’re not in the same room with 100 other people, you can concentrate on the content. This means that when you’re live the tempo should be faster than IRL events; if you go slow, it gets boring and people leave.

Finally, Get ready for some cool teamwork choreography. It all happens at the same time. Once your event is live, it feels like on a movie set: “ACTION!”

the “Master of Ceremonies” is already giving the welcoming speech,
the “Speaker Caretaker” is briefing the guest speaker to come,
the “Chief of the Chat” is guiding the chat so participants feel good,
the “Bug Hunter” is already helping the 5% of the participants who are now spoiling the chat with their problems — and you don’t want to ruin the experience of the other 95% that are ready to enjoy!

2. Online attendees absorb content more profoundly.

In June 2019, we started a program dedicated to women, Goldup. It’s a 5-day bootcamp to learn how to start your online business.

When the confinement started, I thought this program had no chance of working online. I used to think it was all about the magic vibes of Goldup, that energy of sorority that happens when you gather women in one same room. But we gave it a try and launched the online version of Goldup.

As a result: 93 women were selected to attend our live bootcamps (€490 per Goldie) and the feedback is — without any doubt — much higher than the offline versions.

What we’re trying to tackle with Goldup isn’t a lack of knowledge — women are able to learn anything they want. We’re tackling a lack of self-confidence. Creating a “safe space” means overcoming the fears of our participants: the judgmental look of others, the inner judgmental voice, that feeling of illegitimacy, the lack of experience, the fear of leaping into action…

Our online “Goldies” took each workshop very seriously. They were fully committed, I would say twice as much as during the IRL bootcamps. They’ve all started their prototypes, selling their product and forming teams together (and that wasn’t at all the case offline).

So why did it work? They could really, actively listen, ask questions and get value out of it.

They were at home, in their zone, they were able to fully concentrate on what the speaker was explaining.
They were taking notes to keep the knowledge, to absorb it (IRL we don’t have 50 tables).
They could watch the videos again after the talk (IRL we don’t record every session, it’s too expensive).
My support team has been directly answering many, many questions (IRL they can’t address as many inquiries all at the same time).
The Goldies were also writing comments in the chat, encouraging others. When what you see from others are tons of “Bravo!” or questions, rather than intimidating attitudes or looks, you feel more at ease asking your questions and participating.

FYI: We’ll do an English version of Goldup soon ❤

3. More space, less stress, speakers and attendees can open up!

The feeling of belonging has been moving from offline communities to online communities way faster since confinement happened.
“Strangers” are no longer strangers when they’re sharing exactly the same situation as you. We were all stuck at home. The lockdown triggered the need to exchange, to overcome the lack of human bonds, and we’ve experienced new ways to connect with others.

One way for me to bridge that distance was to run live interviews with our entrepreneurs, called “Good Vibes”.
I thought that open conversations could be of interest to anyone willing to get a more intimate perception of why these entrepreneurs dedicate their time to trying to achieve impossible things — Who are they? Where do they live? What’s their background? How do they cope with or transform this crisis into an opportunity?…

I selected founders from our portfolio but I’ve also invited special VIP guests like Riccardo, the founder of King.com. As a result, I’ve run more than 50 live shows, helped by Salomé, with anywhere from 10 to 150 live attendees. We’ve posted these interviews on Youtube. Some have reached 11k views, some just 2k.

The best thing about these Good Vibes is that you discover different psychological sides of an entrepreneur. You see their home, you feel their battles and doubts, they share their vulnerabilities, sometimes they even sing or dance.

Companies that are able to open up are more trustworthy. And trust is not just a feeling in the air. It brings concrete value: my guests got a lot of opportunities afterwards — from investors, talent, and potential partners.

4. Online interactions can be much less biased, if they are based on common values & interests!

At The Family, we bet on people, not ideas. Many times, a team joins us with a certain idea, then tries, fails, splits, and its founders match with other startups or start over with a new idea. Thomas, the CEO of Trusk (last mile delivery) joined The Family with a different pitch (storage) and Teddy, the CEO of Heetch found his tech cofounder among The Family’s community. That’s the beauty of being surrounded by people who are looking for entrepreneurial challenges.

Serendipity — finding a great surprise, without being on an active search for it, happens often within The Family’s community, whether at a dinner, a party, a conference.

Can it happen online as well? That was the question, and that’s why we’ve experimented with “Be My Cofounder”, a 3-hour event dedicated to solo founders ready to find their counterparts.

So far, Be My Cofounder has gathered:

200 participants, 50 on average joining the 4 events
20 teams formed as of today
2,500 one-on-ones meetings done: tons of new potential business collaborations!

One interesting thing I’ve seen is that the teams are much more diverse and complementary than what I used to see IRL. The way people choose each other is less based on attitudes, looks or any social labels, and much more on criteria that really matter.

Why? Simply because we ask them to describe themselves according to these criteria: values, personal quest, experience and skills.
Think about it: among entrepreneurs, you have many introverts and minorities. All these participants can read these answers and then choose each other. They aren’t in a room together, watching the others behave in a certain way; they aren’t using their “social self” or “guarded self”. They are reading answers and having conversations on the topics they are interested in.

5. Being more business-driven is accepted, online.

Zoom isn’t the right tool for running big online events.
If you want to create a fully immersive experience with stages, booths and one-on-ones, you need something else. We use Hopin, a UK-based startup we were testing before the quarantine to organize cool workshops for our entrepreneurs.

And with Hopin, there is this “networking” feature that I love…
You click on it and every 5 minutes you’re randomly matched with someone attending the event. We just give some simple rules such as:

Play the “Rock-Paper-Scissors” game — if you win, you go first ;)
One minute to introduce yourself: name, experience, interests, why I’m here, what I’m looking for, how I can help you.
Be nice and follow-up.

And in the feedback I’ve read, the vast majority of participants — 80% of 200 attendees have said they kept the conversation going and 40% are already doing introductions via email.

That’s not the kind of scores you get during a IRL event, right?
I guess it’s because these interactions are (1) much more “directed”, (2) they are constrained by the clock and thus (3) participants play the business game fully, we’re here to make business happen, so let’s do it!

At an IRL event, if you try “networking”, good luck ;)

It would be weird to say: “OK, you have 1 minute to share your WHY… ”
So you go through the small talk — if you can.
Then you’re distracted by the noise and that ice cream truck over there.
Finally you’re stuck with someone for an unlimited period of time.
And anyway, no, you don’t have a business card!

6. Borders might be closed, but Startup Nation is open ;)

We used to run our events IRL and release the videos afterwards on Youtube. We thought this was enough to “address an international crowd” as our content was accessible. Now I understand we were wrong.

If a rock band plays in a stadium somewhere, the ones who’ll be watching the replay of the concert may love it, but they won’t feel like they belong to that community. They missed the best part, they missed the party. When your event happens fully and only online, everyone feels treated the same way, no double standards.

“Finally, you are international”, that’s what one of our entrepreneurs based in Barcelona told me, after we’ve launched our online “war rooms” — a series of online workshops addressing the long list of troubles entrepreneurs had to face during COVID-19.

At CX Summit, Be My Cofounder or Goldup, the participants come from all over the world. It’ll take some readjustment in terms of time zones, but the most important thing is that this community can finally (virtually) meet!

That’s a very big jump for our business world. Just looking at The Family, it means we can now address literally anyone. If geographies are less and less used as criteria in choosing your community, then values are used more and more. It’s becoming more important to express these values online — openly, concretely and loudly.

A little anecdote showing that opening: our Instagram went organically from 13k to 18.8k followers during COVID, from 30% to 46% of women, from 15% to 30% of non-French followers.

7. Soft-skilled people have a new playground!

I like listening to experienced entrepreneurs from more “traditional” environments who’ve gone through many economic crises. Most of them dislike the idea of switching to remote mode. They focus on what they’re losing, they don’t get what they can win: “What’s the pleasure in talking to holograms on Zoom?”

I am a very “sensitive” person — I take emotions seriously, atmosphere matters, the vibes are important, experimenting with things for real is essential, connecting with others is key… and what I saw during confinement is that real energy can be exchanged online, so lon gas you take care to make it happen. If you decide to do it, actually. It’s not wishful thinking, and the gap will only grow bigger between the ones who give it a try and the ones who want to keep things as they were.

When I’m with a group of people on Zoom, I don’t see holograms.

I can observe the reactions, I dare to watch the face expressions.
I’m less intimidated than during a physical interaction, I control what the other sees of me (for women, that’s a change).
It makes everything more obvious: everyone is paying more attention to who’s talking, and it prevents casual bad behavior, such as interrupting someone talking, and the participants know that it’s recorded.

An online event is not just about the content itself.
The live aspect brings the excitement of all of us having the same experience at the same time. If you’re a teacher just giving a lesson, I’d rather watch the video whenever I want. But if you’re adapting your talk to our questions, if you’re open to debate, if you make me feel happy, if you provoke ‘Aha!’ moments, if you understand your crowd and address it specifically, I want to be part of that experience.

This means soft skills are more needed than ever — communication, critical thinking, leadership, positive attitude, humor, teamwork, motivation…

8. Bringing top quality to your content is no longer a nice-to-have

You’ve been overwhelmed by tons of “webinar” invitations, right?
It’s like podcasts, you don’t know what to listen to, there are so many! So what do you do? You just follow the recommendations from people you trust or admire, unless you have an unlimited amount of time to do your own curation…

This means online live events are becoming much more competitive and like in any competitive market, you’ll have to bring top quality: meaningful content.

But the good news is that amazing speakers with valuable experiences are now available to do more online live events. Most of our guests were people I DM’d on Twitter.

9. The gap between the connected and the disconnected is no longer about being “old” vs “digital native”—it’s more of pro-change vs. anti-change.

My 70-year-old dad started using Whatsapp and Zoom (a lot), it’s crazy how so many grandmas were FaceTiming for the 1st time because of the quarantine! We’ve all been living a global digital on-boarding experience. And this unique moment has put us on a more equal level of “digitalization”.

I’m shocked to hear stories, in 2020, with COVID-19, of some managers still refusing to go for remote work even though their employees are asking for it, and even though the confinement showed that it was possible and efficient. They are afraid that their employees won’t work! It tells you a lot about the trust they have in their team, organization and mission.

The crowd you’re attracting during online events have that in common: they believe the world can change for the better, they embrace transformation. And if they are new to this, and if they are still so many, that means there is a fresh new energy from people discovering the broad potential of connecting with their peers and building new solutions together, rather than being stuck in their original playgrounds.

Thank you for reading this looooong article ;)
➡️ Drop me an email, I’d love to hear your feedback — alice@thefamily.co
💎 Feel free to apply to The Family — apply@thefamily.co
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🌹 Get The Family’s good news here.

🐯 I’m looking for an amazing person to help me run our next online events, the detailed description of the mission is here ;) alice@thefamily.co