The birth of Movify
Louis Cornet, the founder of Movify, started his career at Axen, an IT consulting company, where he started to work as a Java Developer for various clients. At the time, he already couldn’t resist giving a hand to his management developing new business, which led him to be promoted as a Business Unit Manager. After 6 years at Axen, the idea of creating his own company emerged, but he wanted to grow his skills further.
At that time, he already knew he would create a very human company as that’s what he particularly liked during his journey at Axen. After that, he joined Navigha, a young management consulting company which was for him a next step towards entrepreneurship. He stayed there for 2 years. Louis wanted then to work on more tangible projects and felt there was a market opportunity in the mobile applications industry. Lacking knowledge of the mobile world, he joined Emakina, a digital agency where he worked as a Scrum Master delivering mobile apps for clients active in the energy sector.
After 1 year at Emakina, he took a step back and realised it was time ! It was clear to him what kind of company he wanted to create: an agency, expert in mobile development helping companies active in the energy sector. And that’s how, in 2013, Movify was born!
The Movify Family
At the very beginning, Louis was alone in the company and was working at clients as a Mobile Scrum Master. He decided to create the company on his own, even if it meant having no sparing partner to lean on. In the end, Louis felt it could be an advantage as decisions are then taken more quickly and efficiently. If he wants to have other points of view, Louis has the chance to discuss his challenges with his beloved wife and Movify’s Advisory Board, made of 3 experienced entrepreneurs with the help of Réseau Entreprendre : Harold Mechelynck (Founder of Ogone), Didier De Callataÿ (Founder of Callataÿ & Wouters) and Miguel de Schaetzen (Partner at Air Energy, now Eneco Wind).
Louis did not stay alone for long as he quickly hired great talents to join the entrepreneurial adventure. They became the Movify Family which keeps on growing today! They hired many people with many different backgrounds and created different teams: a team of UX/UI designers, a team of iOS/Android developers and a team of scrum masters/product owners. The Movify Family also gathers great Business Managers, Talent Acquisition specialists, an Operations Manager and a Management Assistant. 6 years after the beginning of the adventure, the Movify Family counts 70 incredible people.
From the beginning, Louis had a strong will to craft a company culture in which human values were the cornerstone. The company culture can be summarized in one word: Empowerment. Louis takes great care in creating a positive environment in which people can act autonomously. Movifyers are strongly encouraged to share their ideas and take initiatives. To give only some examples: Andreas took the initiative to setup a bike plan allowing everyone to go to work with a very stylish Cowboy bike. Sanne took the initiative of a well-being program to make sure that everyone feels good within Movify. Simon launched a new business line offering blockchain services. Adrien organized hackathons every year, Charles a ski trip and Hockey tournaments. Thibaut designed the modular amphitheater for our new offices. Xavier and Thibaut took the initiative of setting up of terrific knowledge base, using Notion, to share knowledge among peers. And the list is long…
Big changes that happened
The Movify Family is growing and so is the company, with sometimes big changes happening !
In 2015, the company operated a radical change and switched from being an agency to being a consulting company. Turning into a consulting company allowed to focus on large-scale projects, enabling more interesting content for all Movifyers. Also, from targeting the energy sector, Movify pivoted towards the FinTech industry. But why did such a change happen? Quite simple: Louis noticed that financial companies were way more mature in their digital transformation than companies in the energy sector, offering more project opportunities.
The 2013 mobile agency focusing on the energy sector became in 2015 a mobile consulting company targeting the FinTech industry.
The other big change for Movify happened recently, when Movify decided to try out the international adventure with the creation of Movify Luxembourg ! Trust me guys, this has not been easy and this is not the first time Movify is trying to extend its activities to an international level ! In 2014-2015, Movify had the opportunity to start an office in... London ! But it didn’t work as planned. It was too soon, Movify had not yet found its product/market fit. But as the saying goes: “sometimes you win, sometimes you learn”. Taking lessons learned from this experience, Movify decided to explore the Luxembourgish market with another angle. Since then, we actually did open our Luxembourg office, with a promising journey ahead !
What's next?
When asked about the future of Movify, we can say that Louis has already thought a lot about it and has a clear vision ! First, Louis is not planning to leave the company any time soon! He plans to still be there at his 60th birthday (you’re not going to get rid of him that easily my friend!). Second, one of his dreams would be for Movify to become a “family of companies”, which means creating some baby-Movify-companies. But his wildest dream is to launch one day a Startup Studio! How ambitious is that? It will be a challenge, but isn’t it appealing?
