(From left to right: FAEA Co-Director Emmanuel Cargill; Jellynote Co-Founders Adrien Cognée and Baptiste Poirier; FAEA Co-Director Yves Coleon)

New York – (April 7, 2014) – The Executive Directors of the French-American Entrepreneurship Award (FAEA) announced that Jellynote is the winner of the sixth annual business plan competition for French-speaking entrepreneurs.

Led by three engineers, Adrien Cognée, Arthur Lenoir, and Baptiste Poirier, Jellynote is a new social platform about music creation and performance that enables users to create and share sheet music, tabs, and covers. The site brings a new dimension to the experience of playing and learning music: while users play a song, Jellynote listens and gives feedback in real time.

Jellynote was selected from among four finalists who presented their business plans on Sunday, April 6 to a judging panel representing expertise across a range of disciplines and industries. The other three finalists were awarded honorable mentions in the competition:

• Jarvis Legal (founders: brothers Anthony Yérémian and Alexandre Yérémian)  —  Designed with lawyers for lawyers, an all-in-one SaaS application to manage a law firm (including cases, contacts, calendars, time tracking and billing) on the go.
• Sketchfab (founder: Alban Denoyel) — The first web service to offer an easy way to publish, share and embed interactive 3D content in a browser without a plugin.
• Souk (founder: Thomas Devos) — A mobile app that serves as a transaction and communication channel between fashion retail stores and customers.

The Sixth Annual French-American Entrepreneurship Award judging panel were:

-         Sylvain Ardiet, AlphaServe Technologies

-          Norbert Benaiche, Deloitte

-          Cyrille Bessière, Palais des Thés USA

-          Sandrine Bernard, Solstiss USA

-          Emmanuel Cargill, Pernod Ricard USA

-          Diana Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Fraîche PR

-          Yves Coleon, Transmark Partners

-          Eric Draghi, 1000 Passions

-          Thomas Ferré, TomiOTee (FAEA winner)

-          Julien Legeard, LMC Corp (FAEA finalist)

-          Stephan Thollot, Ernst & Young LLP

The competition was open to founder-entrepreneurs who are 35 years of age or under and are fluent in both French and English. Geared to early stage projects (three years or fewer in business), eligible entries must offer a product or service that is commercially available with a demonstrated ability to generate revenues.

“The goal of this award is to help deserving young French-American entrepreneurs get their businesses off the ground in the United States. Jellynote stood out for its innovative concept and for the outstanding traction that the platform has gained with musicians in the 15 months since launch. The judging panel was impressed that the site already attracts more than one million visitors per month, before even starting a dedicated marketing effort,” said Emmanuel Cargill, Co-Executive Director of the FAEA, and HR SVP at Pernod Ricard USA.

At a ceremony at the Helen Mills Event Space in Chelsea, the Jellynote co-founders received a cash prize of $10,000; a six-month coaching package comprised of strategic, legal, accounting, and financial advice from relevant business and industry leaders; fully furnished office space in New York City for six months; and complimentary one-year memberships in the French-American Chamber of Commerce, the most important private organization for promoting trade and investment between the United States and France, and in the Club 600, a leadership organization of U.S.-based francophone senior executives and business owners.

During the evening, Souk was selected by attendees as the FAEA People’s Choice Award winner, based on live voting after mini-presentations of each of the finalists’ businesses.

“The French-American Entrepreneurship Award is delighted to recognize and reward such a promising young trio of entrepreneurs, “ said Yves Coleon, Co-Executive Director of the FAEA and Founder/President of Transmark Partners. “We look forward to providing coaching and advice to Jellynote as its team expands to New York from Paris.”

Pernod Ricard USA Student Challenge Winner Named

FAEA Platinum Sponsor Pernod Ricard USA (PR USA) also announced the winner of the Pernod Ricard USA Student Challenge, a new pilot program to engage students of legal drinking age from universities in the tri-state area surrounding New York City.

Students at least 21 years of age from New York area universities were invited to submit a project proposal either independently or in pairs around one of two topics: how to reduce binge drinking or how to reduce drunk driving. PR USA chose Alexander Kutler based on the innovation, creativity, feasibility, clarity, and factual research of his proposal.

Kutler, who will graduate in May from Columbia University, will receive a 10-week paid summer 2014 internship at PR USA’s New York City headquarters, where he will have the opportunity to bring his project to life; obtain mentorship and career counseling; have lunch with the CEO of PR USA; and be recognized in the company’s internal newsletter.

###

Sponsors

The French-American Entrepreneurship Award is supported by the generosity of the following sponsors:

Platinum:

Pernod Ricard USA

Gold:

The French-American Chamber of Commerce

Club 600

Constantin

Corporate Suites

Silver:

JC Decaux

Deloitte

Visit:  http://www.faea-us.com/

Twitter: @FAEAward

Facebook: French-American Entrepreneurship Award

LinkedIn: French-American Entrepreneurship Award