From the student project to the company... Discover the testimony of Mikhael TORDJMAN (TBS 2023)

03 March 2022 Portraits / Podcasts

Interview by Illan Knafou - Les Echos

Mikhael TORDJMAN (TBS 2023), has been running a marketplace of rare limited edition sneakers for four years. Discover his testimony!

"It all started in March 2017, the year I graduated from high school in Nice. Wanting to undertake a project on my free time and being passionate about sneakers, I decided with a friend to create an Instagram account on which I was posting ads for reselling sneakers: Limited Resell.

Being collectors ourselves, we knew what kind of offers to target so that the ads could appeal to our first followers. Initially, the idea was not to create a business around it. I simply wanted to combine my entrepreneurial spirit with my passion for sneakers.

So I was initially going to become the "Bon Coin" of sneakers. Seeing that a dozen people had managed to sell thanks to our Instagram account, I started to devote myself totally to this project, even if it meant putting it before my studies. For example, I took advantage of my classes to manage the account's posts and stories

Far from being the best at school, my project did not make my job any easier. I had more and more difficulties to get the average in the exams required to validate the year. A few months later and with hard work, I still got my scientific baccalaureate in June 2017. At that time, we had nearly 8,000 subscribers.

Wanting absolutely to grow the company, I then decided to integrate a DUT in business and administration management in Nice. My friend decided to stop the project to devote himself to his studies in preparatory classes. For the project to be sustainable, I had to change the dimension of the project, and go beyond the stage of a simple tool for posting ads. I decided that with my own funds and my expertise, I would proceed myself to the purchase-resale of sneakers by integrating a margin dedicated to the growth of the project.

I found myself having to buy one pair, then two, then three and in a few days my room was filled with them. I didn't have the funds to recruit, so I took care of everything! For each transaction, I had to find the ad or the private sale, manage the marketing, stock the shoes and manage the delivery. I was selling up to ten pairs a week!

« As this adventure grew, I was having more and more fun »

In January 2018, following the craze around the project, I declared myself a micro-entrepreneur and developed in parallel to the Instagram account an e-commerce site for reselling sneakers. Two months later, 20,000 people had subscribed to the account. I didn't realize that in one year, from a simple idea of a high school student I would manage to federate so many people around my project.

Struggling to separate my private life from my professional life, I was constantly working, either for my studies or my business. Thanks to my DUT, I learned accounting, law and management. I finished the DUT in June 2019 to integrate the Toulouse Business School in September.

As this adventure grew, I was enjoying it more and more. It allowed me to discover environments and personalities that I would never have known otherwise. For example, players from the OGC Nice soccer club contacted me on the networks to deliver sneakers.

«I wanted to show that you could succeed by taking the wrong path.»

Despite numerous requests to the school, I did not benefit from any adjustments to my schedule. So I paid a lot of attention during class and managed everything at the same time: after-sales service, emails, social networks, and at 4pm when class was over, I processed customer orders and took care of the product catalog, marketing, referencing, and collaborations. An extremely hard schedule to keep up with.

Many people questioned the fact that I was launching such an ambitious project alone, so young and with no experience. I heard all day long that it was necessary to stay within the codes: "Finish your studies before launching yourself in the active life". Despite everything, these remarks did not slow down my desire to undertake, on the contrary! Even more determined, I wanted to show that it was possible to succeed by taking winding paths.

It was in March 2020, at the time of the first lockdown, that my project took on a whole new dimension. With no more stores to buy from, people were only ordering online. Orders were pouring in, it was getting crazy!

With more than 110,000 subscribers on the networks, I started to recruit: a permanent contract and two alternating students. Partnerships with brands and reality TV influencers then multiplied and in June 2021, we had our first offices, in Nice.

Today, I'm doing a year off to devote myself full time to my company, and I'm happy to be able to combine work and passion. From the top of our 175,000 followers, we currently ship thousands of orders each year throughout the world. Now surrounded by four employees, the box is growing exponentially with the goal of becoming the reference in reselling rare sneakers in Europe."

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