Terri talks to Cécile Villette about why she started Altaroad to use IoT to gather information on road usage to positively impact the environment and ‘make infrastructure smarter and safer’.
Who is Cécile Villette?
Cécile Villette is the CEO of Altaroad. A telecommunication engineer by degree, she spent 10 years as a Digital Strategy consultant deploying connected devices and new services globally for large Telco and Energy companies, before joining up forces with Bérengère Lebental in 2015 during her MBA in HEC to launch the connected road project that would become Altaroad.
Show Highlights
Cécile talks briefly about her background, the evolution of IoT, why telecom and IoT were/are interesting to her, and why she chose industrial IoT for her startup AltaRoad to reduce carbon dioxide emissions
Cécile shares how she found her co-founders and the characteristics and aspirations she was looking for
Terri talks about the false narrative around women not being able to have children and be founders in a startup
Cécile goes into greater detail on what Altaroad does, how their technology works and where they are as a company
Terri asks Cécile what she has been most surprised about as a founder of a startup and how her co-founding team splits and shares responsibilities of the company
They discuss the impact of autonomous vehicles on how cities and roads are designed and how Altaroad will be a part of it
Cécile shares her experience in fundraising thus far in raising from extended friends and family
Cécile’s favorite founder resource is her network. She emphasized the importance of asking for help when you need it.
If Cécile could wave a magic wand, she would fix global warming. This keeps her up at night.
Terri’s Key Takeaway
If you don’t ask, the answer will always be no.
References in the Podcast
Altaroad: https://www.altaroad.com/
Imène Maharzi: https://www.linkedin.com/in/im%C3%A8ne-maharzi-439294/
Bérengère Lebental: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bereng%C3%A8re-lebental-7219b97/
Eiffage: https://www.eiffage.com/en/home
SendaRide: https://sendaride.com/
Invest in Bavaria: http://bavaria.org/
4YFN: https://www.4yfn.com/
Deep Tech (per TechWorks): We define Deep Tech as technology that is based on tangible engineering innovation or scientific advances and discoveries. Deep Tech is often set apart by its profound enabling power, the differentiation it can create, and its potential to catalyze change.
Contact
Cécile can be reached through LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/cécile-villette/
You can follow Terri on Twitter at @terrihansonmead or go to her website at www.terrihansonmead.com or on Medium: https://medium.com/@terrihansonmead.
Feel free to email Terri at PilotingYourLife@gmail.com.
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