At WeMaintain, uniqueness is an important value and every individual’s personality counts. We are convinced that it is through the diversity of our team members and their backgrounds that we collectively perform better.
Case in point, meet Victoire: Head of Product.
Victoire, could you please introduce yourself?
I grew up in Paris, passed a master degree in public law only to realise it was not what I wanted to do. I needed to work on a more tangible kind of value and I had business ideas I wanted to work on. So I pivoted to business.
I love music and attending gigs on a regular basis. I also enjoy backpacking and of course… testing new products!
When you were younger, what did you want to do?
Everything! I had one dream a day and wanted to experience a lot of things… And I still do!
That’s why product management is so fulfilling for me as it involves placing myself in our customer’s, mechanic’s and team’s shoes… And I mean this literally as at WeMaintain user research regularly involves wearing security shoes!
What were you doing before WeMaintain?
I was running my own company, Artset, a SaaS for art galleries to manage their inventory, CRM and billing.
I started exploring the art business when I was a student as I was helping an art gallery to develop its online presence. I then created an e-commerce website for them that I converted into a marketplace when more art dealers expressed the will to sell on it as well.
Based on my experience of pain points of being an art dealer and my observation that available tools were not addressing those pain points efficiently, I decided to change my product. Two more pivots later and a lot of sweat led to Artset.
I’ve run Artset for three years as a solo founder, working with freelancers to develop the app. It was quite a rocky journey and as a first time entrepreneur I’ve made a lot of mistakes (some of my key learnings here).
I was working from my kitchen at first then joining Station F. It was an extremely energising and beneficial environment to meet fellow entrepreneurs and benefit from unfair resources and advantages like facilitated access to investors and advices from the community. I’ve made the most of my time there and I’ve absolutely loved it.
Why did you change and decide to join WeMaintain?
Artset was a great experience but I realised that what I really love is product and I wanted to work exclusively on product, leaving aside sales, accounting, fundraising…
I’d heard of WeMaintain from Barbara Vogel from Meraki who told me the team was great. One intro and it was love at first sight!
What convinced my was that I really felt the values, the team and the soft skills were at the core of the interview process. I was also thrilled with the challenges I would face: competing with an oligopoly, building and growing a product team.
Cherry on the cake: the dog friendly policy. When I saw Moira (our lead dev ops dog) wandering around the office, I just knew I belonged here!
What has been the biggest “shock” since you changed?
The biggest shock when starting at WeMaintain was « jumping in a moving train ». It was the first time I worked on something I hadn’t initiated so it was quite a challenge for me catching up with the why’s of every product related decisions that has been made and dealing with it.
It was all the more challenging as the elevator industry and the real estate market were new to me and there are quite a lot a stakeholders involved in the lift maintenance.
What do you like the most about working at WeMaintain?
What I cherish the most at WeMaintain are: the values, the team, the culture, the variety of product and the great ambition of the founding team.
🙌 The values: care, grit and uniqueness
I was struck by how tangible the values are, and felt this straight from the interviews: the process, the questions asked, what the decision is based on…
❤️ The team
My daily dose of care, grit and uniqueness
👍 The culture of trust
We have a strong culture of trust. For instance, we can work whenever and wherever we want as long the job is done.
That trust is the pillar of autonomy and transparency which provides a pleasant work environment.
Switching from entrepreneur to employee I feared I would suffer from a lack of autonomy but I quickly understood it wouldn’t be a problem.
What I also love is the transparency of the founders towards strategic business decisions and investors relations. Anyone can access the big picture of what is going on which is extremely valuable to align execution on the vision and strategy.
🧠 The product variety
Product-wise, I’m thrilled by the variety of experiences elevators relates to.
From the field experience for mechanics to the customer experience (B2B and B2C) and the end-user traveling experience, there is no time to get bored!
The main challenge here is to keep focused while embracing the energising ambition of the founding team 🚀
What would you do if you weren’t at WeMaintain?
Product, my one and only love! In an existing early stage startup or co-founding one.
What would you tell someone to convince them to join WeMaintain?
I would suggest reading the above and contacting me at victoire@wemaintain.com for any additional information 😊
