There were cries, of surprise at first, then of joy, immediately, and a few tears.
Those of Asmaa Chakir Alaoui, co-founder of VelyVelo, a start-up that manufactures and rents professional electric bikes.
This 35-year-old entrepreneur was named winner of the sixth Business with Attitude prize during a ceremony organized at the Maison du Barreau in Paris, this Thursday, June 2.
“I applied with great conviction, I fought and I am very proud to win this trophy, which has a lot of meaning for me, she confided on stage, very moved.
I will continue to carry VelyVelo as far as possible, because I am convinced that green and efficient mobility is a real social issue.”
Behind the scenes of the Business with Attitude award ceremony
In images, in pictures
See the slideshow18 photos
See the slideshow18 photos
The ceremony, the culmination of eight months of competition, saw two other women rewarded: Aurélie Boutboul, co-founder of the Soi Paris brand, received the Public Prize, after several weeks of voting by Internet users.
Marjorie Daniel, co-founder of Volunteers 4 Sport, received the first Potentielles prize, created this year by
Madame Figaro
and the Diversidays association, which works for equality in entrepreneurship.
“We started just before the pandemic, but held on, said Marjorie Daniel, her trophy in hand, on stage.
Now we need to speed up.
We have a lot to do, in a short time.”
In video, dive into the making of the Business with Attitude Award
cultivate freedom
The whole team and partners will be there to support her, like the winners and the 80 former candidates who make up the Business with Attitude community.
Faithful to the original values of the prize: to be faithful and useful, as much as possible, to women who undertake.
And contribute, year after year, to giving them back the place they deserve.
“When we launched this award, women represented 30% of business creators, recalled Morgane Miel, deputy editor-in-chief of
Madame Figaro
, at the opening of the ceremony.
They make up 40% today.
And INSEE says it: projects led by women are more profitable than those led by men.”
However, only less than 2% of the funds raised in France are raised by founders.
To undertake is to consider life, and one's own role in life, as an adventure
Morgane Miel, deputy editor-in-chief of Madame Figaro
This is why
Madame Figaro
has been committed, for six years now, alongside these women who create, innovate, imagine high-performance and effective solutions to major contemporary challenges, in all areas, from health to education, including agriculture, art or fashion.
“To undertake, continued Morgane Miel, is to consider life, and one's own role in life, as an adventure.
The entrepreneur takes risks - which does not prevent him from knowing how to measure them -, maintains a rather special relationship with the hierarchy, with authority.
A form of insubordination which is above all a freedom to think for oneself.
It is this precious and fertile freedom that the
Madame Figaro
team , the prize partners and all the guests of the ceremony celebrated on June 2.
By rewarding these high-flying entrepreneurs, first, then, during a cocktail dinner, aboard the
Jardins du Pont-Neuf
, a barge moored on the Île de la Cité.
From its luxuriant decks, covered with vegetation, escaped, until late at night, the laughter, the joy and the emotion of the guests.
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And the partnership of EY, Nespresso, Google, BNP Paribas, Engie, The Ladies Bank by Oddo BHF, Maje, Bpifrance and franceinfo.