Isabelle Pleplé, Short Edition

Femmes du Numérique:To begin with, what is your definition of “digital”?

Isabelle Pleplé:Digital technology means new access to information… opening up to unlimited intellectual freedom, which can be both a source of anxiety, frustration and manipulation, but also extremely powerful, as it is a potential source of inexhaustible access to knowledge.

Women, an opportunity for digital. Digital, an opportunity for women. What’s your opinion? Why did you choose this sector?

Digital technology is a completely new technical and professional field which has opened up in a society which, culturally, had already worked hard on the positioning of men and women. Naturally, digital is an excellent playground for applying the principles of parity… much faster than any other sector, where a lot of energy is still needed to combat the bad habits of the past.

What’s more, digital technology has brought an incredibly powerful degree of flexibility to the way work is organized, which has benefited women… and men too! This has enabled us to establish very different work/life balances, which in turn have created new availabilities.

Finally, it’s clear that new tools have opened up opportunities for expression and discovery for women, who have thus been able to express their creativity in less conventional settings, leaving plenty of room for innovation… The power of innovation lies in the juxtaposition of masculine and feminine sensibilities.

Is being a woman entrepreneur a plus?

Yes, of course… but I could just as easily say no! To be an entrepreneur is to be as much in action and in constant urgency as it is to listen very carefully to the signals of partners (associates, employees, investors…), the market, experts… I’m a great believer in the strength of the team. Having different sensibilities within the founding team is a great opportunity for the project… This diversity can also be found in individuals of the same sex, but I don’t think we should fall into the opposite trap: a team of women can function just as well as a team of men!

At Short Edition, we are four founding partners: two women, two men… and we work really well!

Have you had any doubts, hesitations or difficulties in setting up your own business?

Yes, fortunately… the world is a complex place, where you have to constantly adapt, invent and keep working at it.

The day-to-day life of a start-up is full of difficulties, but the constant search for innovative solutions leaves us little time for doubts and hesitations… For us, the project was created in an obvious, day-to-day way, and then its family nature made things easier by making exchanges fluid.

The way we work is such that everyone draws their energy from the strength of the team: Christophe and I are in permanent co-piloting mode, with many hours of exchange every week, and Sylvia and Quentin are, in expert mode, involved in all decisions. Having said that, setting up your own business requires such a high level of involvement that it has a major impact on your private life, so you have to make choices. The aim is to have as much control as possible over the choices you make as the project progresses.

Tell us more about your project. How did the idea come about? What needs do you meet?

It was during a family lunch in the summer of 2009, with my brother, a literature enthusiast, and my son, a young polytechniciengeekplungedinto web2.0 andledata mining, that the Short Edition project was born: it was our shared passion for entrepreneurship that brought us together around a suddenly obvious idea that quickly turned into a strong conviction… the short literary format was finally going to find its place in the French-speaking cultural landscape, thanks to new lifestyles, community and digital technology.

Everyone can showcase their work, and it’s the community of Internet users that selects the best works (accessible free of charge on computer, smartphone and tablet).

Short Edition is the community publisher for short literature, anything that can be read in one go in less than 20 minutes (Short Stories, Short Comics, Poems and Micro-Nouvelles). All works are available free of charge onshort-edition.comandon mobile apps (iOS and Android).

Short Edition has already published over 3,000 authors on its site, has over 100,000 registered readers and has generated over 3.7 million readings of works. In all, over 1 million visitors have already visited the site.

Winner, in the Innovation and Culture category, of Printemps numérique 2013 (Conseil national de l’Internet) and Fête nationale des Services 2014 (Ministère de l’Industrie), Short Edition brought Groupe Express Roularta into its capital in early 2014.

Short Edition is a creator and distributor of high value-added short literary content for companies and institutions seeking to offer their customers or employees a few moments of relaxation (Orange, Transdev, Butagaz, Région Rhône-Alpes, EDF, Quotidien du Médecin…) in the form of literature.

We also offer companies and institutions the opportunity to draw on our technical platform and community-building expertise, to rapidly create high-quality, original content, and to give a voice to their customers and employees in an original and engaging way, through the written word and fiction.

How do you defend gender equality in your professional and personal life?

In a way, for me, it’s a non-issue: everyone has their own value and skills! That said, there are nine of us at Short Edition today: five women and four men. And everyone brings their own skills to the team, as well as their own sensitivity and vision of the world.

I’m also involved in actions to promote the activities of women engineers, whenever the opportunity arises, through my school, EPF, or through organizations in our ecosystem… for example, we’re winners of Réseau Entreprendre in Grenoble and I’m an active member of the think tank set up last year: Réseau Entreprendre au Féminin.

How have you managed to reconcile work and family life?

After graduating from engineering school, I worked as a consultant in a consultancy firm, where I learned a lot and did a lot of work… Then I took a few months off each time my children were born, and that was a real joy, but I’ve always wanted to stay in working life, so I chose fields that allowed this flexibility, like higher education.

I then went back to work for the company, keeping my flexibility thanks to an official part-time arrangement, with maximum availability to meet the company’s requirements. This allows you to choose your own work rhythm: even if it’s very intense, it was my choice, which I feel is fundamental to personal and family balance. Finally, my husband and I have always been clear about how to manage our family balance… Because, as the saying goes, to set up your own business, you need – in addition to a good idea – good health, a bit of luck and… an understanding and supportive spouse!

What advice would you give to a young woman hesitating to work or set up a business in the digital sector?

The digital world has extraordinary potential, and setting up your own business is a wonderful experience… the best thing is certainly to meet a few women entrepreneurs to help you think things through, and in the end, don’t hesitate to go for it, making sure you surround yourself as best you can.

What’s more, there are highly effective support structures both in the digital sector and in women’s networks, all of which are opportunities you can take advantage of and combine to bring your project to fruition. We are fortunate that France is a fantastic melting pot for innovation and digital technology: according to the American business magazine Forbes, Grenoble, for example, is the fifth most innovative city in the world, just behind the Californian cities of SiliconValley: San Diego and San Francisco…

And if you’re still hesitant, one solution might be to start by integrating an existing team into a comparable project: the digital sector is destined to play an increasingly important role in tomorrow’s economy!

Biography

I’m 53, the mother of four children aged between 18 and 25, and an EPF engineer by training. I have worked in organizational consulting (Sopra, formerly Orgaconseil), as a teacher of IT and corporate policy (IUT Montluçon and Reims, Reims Management School) and as director of a company specializing in tailor-made learningsfor companies (Icus, subsidiary of a leadingHR group in Italy).

In February 2011, I co-founded Short Edition with my brother Christophe, who is passionate about the world of literature and publishing, and my son Quentin, still a Data Sciences student at the University of San Diego in California: Short Edition is the community publisher for short literature, i.e. anything that can be read in one go, in under 20 minutes (short stories, short comics, poems and micro-novellas).

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Interview for the Watify campaign.

Watify is a non-profit initiative set up by the European Commission, based on testimonials from entrepreneurs who explain how they overcame their doubts when setting up or digitizing their business.

Why is this? Because everyone has questions when it comes to setting up or developing a digital business. There will always be a thousand reasons not to take the plunge. But doubts shouldn’t lead you to abandon your project. On the contrary, doubts are useful: they guide you in the right direction and lead you to ask the right questions. Why not create or digitalize your business today!