Industry: Detail
Name(s) of founding student: Hanna Kanabiajeuskaja, Laurent Baillot
Brief description of the solution: Spaciously is the Airbnb of retail. We connect local designers with established stores like Kiehl’s or Lululemon for pop-ups and shop-in-shop experiences.
We currently operate in New York and San Francisco.
Funding Dollars: We are preparing for a seed round to expand our operations to more stores and drive more shopper traffic. We are part of two incubators: INSEAD Launchpad at Station F and Galvanizer.
What led you to start this adventure? During her travels, Hanna noticed that local manufacturers were front and center in cities like Oaxaca, Naples and Singapore. Yet they were nowhere to be found in San Francisco. Laurent had friends who launched their own small brands during the COVD. They struggled to get their products to customers in physical stores. Laurent and Hanna decided to find a way to bring local makers back to the main street.
We also chose this area because it is so human-centric: we like to see events that have been organized through our platform. We build partnerships between local manufacturers and stores that share the same values. And by promoting local shopping, we’re building cleaner, more meaningful retail.
What has been your biggest achievement so far with Venture? We launched our operations in the United States in August. Since October, our platform hosts 15 pop-ups per month. We have partnered with international brand stores like Kiehl’s and Lululemon who trust us to bring new experiences to their stores. We’ve onboarded over 100 local designers in San Francisco and New York, and 20 new brands are joining us every week.
How did your MBA program help you move this startup forward? INSEAD is a wonderful place to experience new career paths, build confidence and gain support.
Laurent didn’t think of entrepreneurship as an option when he started the program. It wasn’t until the one-on-one coaching the MBA offered, coupled with insightful courses like “Making Authentic Decisions,” that it became clear that starting your own business was the most satisfying option.
Hanna joined INSEAD determined to start a business and find a co-founder. INSEAD’s many tournaments and group projects (including INSEAD Venture Competition) brought Hanna and Laurent together and helped them test their compatibility as business partners.
Our teachers and peers supported us in almost everything we did. For example, Professor Frédéric Godart helped us orient ourselves in fashion and luxury during a casual conversation over coffee. Our classmate Kathia, who runs her own business, helped us make our first financial forecasts. When we held our first pop-up in Paris, dozens of our INSEAD colleagues showed up to support us. (We even borrowed hangers from some of them!) Even after they graduate, our INSEAD community continues to cheer us on.
Which founder or entrepreneur inspired you to start your own entrepreneurial journey? How has it turned out to be motivating for you? Growing up, Laurent didn’t have a direct example of people starting their own businesses. The quality most appreciated in his family was to be analytical and not entrepreneurial. Then he crossed paths with Alex Dalyac, a high school friend who had been on an AI adventure for a few years. Something clicked when Laurent heard his friend describe what he was building, the team he was gathering, and the obstacles he was overcoming. It wasn’t just a job – he put his whole soul into it. Laurent was fascinated by the demands of being a founder, but by the way his friend grew and learned on the job. It felt like a real journey of transformation – although it took Laurent a while to believe he had what it takes to try this path too.
Hanna’s inspiration comes from her close family. They have always made a living through their own micro-enterprises, from trading machine parts to setting up a small nursery of probably the rarest daylilies in Belarus. At INSEAD, Chaitanya Kalipatnapu’s approach to entrepreneurship resonated most with Hanna: “Measure success by your positive impact and the quality of your relationships. »
Which MBA class was the most valuable in building your startup and what was the biggest lesson you learned from it? The best part of our MBA was that it allowed us to experience entrepreneurship before taking the plunge. Our team was born in “New Business Ventures”, a two-month course where groups of students come up with a startup idea and test it as much as possible before pitching it to real VCs. We still remember the excitement felt during our first interviews with people who later became the first customers of Spacieuxment!
Which professor has made a significant contribution to your projects and why? Professor Stephen Chick taught “New Business Models,” which asked each student to come up with 20 different business model ideas, gradually vote for the best ones, and refine them. It was during this course that we realized that the idea behind Spaciously was worth developing. The whole class was a brilliantly crafted incentive to be creative and iterate on flawed ideas. Professor Chick’s energy was contagious and he pushed us to dream bigger.
How has your local startup ecosystem contributed to the development and success of your business? We are part of the INSEAD Launchpad at Station F in Paris. Station F is the largest startup incubator in the world, and INSEAD has a presence there for its alumni. It’s a tremendous support to work alongside entrepreneurs with similar backgrounds, but tackling very different issues. Station F also helps us make ourselves known to potential investors.
What is your long-term goal with your startup? We want to become the market for experiential retail. In the future, anyone can turn their place into an experience. Today, store managers go to spacelyretail.com to find local manufacturers who want to sell their products. Tomorrow, cafes will host pottery classes, hotels will host jewelry-making workshops, AND gyms will host juice bar pop-ups. Spaciously will help make retail more local and sustainable, and city living more fun!
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