Meet Rob Spiro, Founder and Director
Imagination Machine
Environment / Sustainable Development, IT / Digital, SocialTech / GreenTech
Nantes, Annecy, Carquefou, Marseille, Paris, Rome, Toulouse, Utrecht
Rob Spiro is a serial entrepreneur from Silicon Valley who made his way to Nantes, France. Rob was previously the cofounder of Aardvark, a social search engine that was acquired by Google; a product manager at Google on Hangouts and other products; and he was the founder and CEO of Good Eggs, an online grocery store in the Bay Area focused on local food from high-integrity food producers. He founded Imagination in 2017 to focus startups based on idealistic & big ideas.
Emilie was a founder of two startups before becoming the manager of the Startup Incubator at HEC Paris. She later served as the Executive Director of the HEC Entrepreneurs Master program. She has therefore coached over 500 students & alumni, and almost 200 startups. She is now in charge of operations & growth for Imagination Machine, where she is actively sourcing & coaching talented entrepreneurs.
He co-founded 5 startups in 10 years including Horsecom, a life science startup funded by Seventure Partners in 2015. He is also at the origin of Infl8, an industrial ingredient brand of which he is a member of the board. At Imagination Machine, he is in charge of the product management of the idealistic startups that they co-create.
Aude has held various positions in the management of people and organizations at Kellogg’s. As a business sales & marketing partner, she led all reorganizations, recruitments and team performance. Currently a co-founder of Smala (ex Il Etait Plusieurs Fois), Aude leads operations and teams while providing administrative and financial management of the company.
In 2017, after several years in the digital and children’s games industry (Oxybul Eveil et Jeux, Avenuedesjeux.com), Coline embarked with Dorothée Barth at the start-up studio Imagination Machine in a project born from indignation: the composition of periodic protection is totally opaque, even toxic. The idea of a brand of clean organic period protection that really respects women, sprouted very quickly and Jho opened their e-commerce site 6 months later. Today, Jho continues to claim their values with a good dose of self-deprecation; And above all, it is THE brand that tends by women in all stages of their intimacy, from the first period to menopause, with healthy and responsible products. Jho has already donated €135,000 to 5 partner NGOs that help at-risk women.
Co-founder of UpTogether, Emmanuel has managed various types / sizes of teams, either tech, product, and more. He has started several new products / business units as an intrapreneur within BNP Paribas. Today he is in charge of the general management of UpTogether, the learning network designed for managers.
Presentation
🌱Imagination Machine is the impact startup studio: we're convinced that entrepreneurship can change the world, positively and on a big scale!
Together with entrepreneurs, we cofound, accelerate & finance high potential startups with positive social and environmental impact.
For each project, we provide the initial financing, activate our in-house operational team dedicated to the 0 to 1 process and mobilize the community, our network of partners.
Our DNA combines Silicon Valley ambition with a French touch!
Our studio develops projects across Europe. Since 2018, we have co-founded more than 10 start-ups: Beem, Les Mini Mondes, Smala, Jho, river home, UpTogether, Vite mon marché, Good Steps and BlueCare discovery, Prolong...
🌳Next goal? Build the next 10 impact champion startups by 2025.
What they are looking for
Imagination Machine is looking for talented entrepreneurs to launch explorations, project leaders who want to scale up on their own assumptions, and top profiles to join our growing startups.
Our mission at Imagination Machine is to contribute, through our projects, to creating the world we want to live in; we're looking for idealistic, ambitious, talented and passionate entrepreneurs.
Our goal is to maximize the chances of success for our projects? To put together as quickly as possible the winning trio of "Idea ⇔ Talent ⇔ Scalability" to build startups with major impact.
Engineer, tech/product, designer, business,..., there's no "typical" co-founder profile with us! We're looking for someone with a keen entrepreneurial mindset (optimistic, willing to take risks, resilient) and a desire to change the world for the better. We require a minimum of 6 years' experience and/or initial entrepreneurial experience.
Our agile & user-focused methodology, inspired by design thinking, is based on condensed work cycles. It calls for agility, speed, determination and a good sense of collaboration.
Good to know
📍Since January 2023, our new explorations have addressed issues as varied as "care & repair" in the textile industry, paramedical support for patients suffering from chronic diseases, everyday walking to combat sedentary lifestyles, etc. We publish new exploration opportunities on an ongoing basis, and are always on the lookout for talented entrepreneurs and top collaborators.
💡The expression that brings us together: Idealistic entrepreneurs!
Ambitious: we surround ourselves with talented and brilliant entrepreneurs because we have the ambition to move the indicators of the UN Sustainable Development Goals with our startups. We are looking for ambitious people to maximize our impact together!
People first: optimistic, determined, passionate, we choose our co-founders as much as they choose us 😉 Pioneering: we love new ideas, we want to put tech innovation at the service of impact, and we're ready to take on demanding, complex challenges to build a sustainable future.
Pragmatic: we are resolutely action-oriented. We can start, move fast, accelerate and dream big, if it's a key issue for the future.
Humility: we work with entrepreneurs capable of questioning their intuitions, listening to end-users and adapting to fully embrace the "user" point of view.
🌍 We work remotely! You can join Imagination Machine wherever you are. And we get together at least every 2 months to spend time together.
💚 The Imagination Machine community is large and strong: changing the world and launching your start-up won't be a lonely process 🙂