A Modern Day Lafayette: The Eloquens Story
The story of how the French entrepreneurs Antoine and Tim joined forces to found Eloquens.com in America.
The year is 1777. A cry for help from the New World is heard by a 19 year old french aristocrat, eager to leave his mark on the world. Ambitious and energetic; the young Lafayette inspires those around him to take up arms and fight with the American revolutionaries for the values freedom and independence.
Fast-forward to the present day, and it is again the turn of the frenchmen Antoine Duboscq and Tim Demoures, co-founders of Eloquens.com, to pioneer a new kind of revolution in America: an uprising to tear down inefficiency and overthrow the time-wasters. A rebellion to arm everyone with the right tools and methods they need to reach success. A “coup d’état” to overthrow reinventing the wheel and crown the sharing of professional Best Practices as king.
The seeds of this new movement were originally planted when, a few years prior, Antoine decided to put on the side his strategy consulting firm “WMI” to pursue his passion for entrepreneurship, launching adVentures (Venture Studio). In doing so, he became very aware that he was suddenly sitting on a goldmine: a computer hard-drive that was absolutely bursting with valuable sleeping assets. Countless business templates, financial models, working strategy methods, PowerPoint Slides and Business analysis tools, previously used by the likes of Adidas and PSG (French Ligue 1 Soccer Club), were now gathering virtual dust.
He then considered all of the other professionals around the globe who must be facing a similarly bleak phenomenon, unable to effectively share their knowledge. He knew on a moral level that he had to do something to change this cycle of wastefulness.
Inspired and ready to pursue this belief, Antoine encountered his first opposition in an unlikely place – amongst his peers. When telling industry friends about his plans, he was met with disapproval at the idea of sharing your hard-earned know-how. They would prefer to hold onto their monopoly of expertise. After all, consultancy careers depend on this information gap, so that they can provide intellectual value and experience to their clients, to which they wouldn’t normally have access.
Antoine explains why he disagrees with this viewpoint with an analogy:
‘In a same way that patients are not required to visit the doctor each time they need to take a painkiller, a large number of autonomous business professionals should not need to spend big on private consultancy advice when all they really need is a Best Practice with how-to methodology.’
It was time to level the playing field.
This message strongly resonated with Tim, a Junior PwC Strategy Consultant & Entrepreneurship enthusiast whom Antoine met in Paris, 2015. Tim had always possessed a vision that human capital is like a treasure chest, often just waiting to be unlocked with the right key. He had also noted that the existing content-sharing platforms of Youtube, Slideshare and Quora were not hitting this niche for professional Best Practices that they had uncovered.
Now despite enjoying the collaborative and nurturing nature of his consulting work, Tim realised that the lifestyle did not really align with his ambitions to be part of something truly meaningful and exciting, as well as his own personal plans to start a family. Tim trusted in Antoine’s vision and together, the two set-off to start building the company in NYC; where you are free to pursue your dreams, where collaboration is key and where entrepreneurial thinking paves the way.
Far from a stereo-typical “Jobs and Wozniak” Silicon Valley entrepreneurial pairing, the experienced and wise Antoine, formerly of the Boston Consulting Group, matched with the young and passionate Tim, turned out to be a perfect pairing. After the inevitably tough early stages, convincing other professionals like Lance Rubin and NYU Prof. Damodaran to invest the time to upload their precious Best Practices onto a then unproven site. It is a site that has always had collaboration at the heart of its strategy. Early joiners were invited to provide feedback to “build the site with us”, innovating and diversifying new Best Practice categories and site formats every day.
Their faith was rewarded by the millions of other professionals out there who have since found/downloaded/bought/followed/reviewed their content (as of April 2020, 120k registered professionals and 350 authors). Once it started rolling, Eloquens snowballed. With monthly authors and users increasing exponentially each month as more people found out about it and wanted a piece of the pie, including the likes of Guy Kawasaki and Sequoia Capital! We even come recommended by Investopedia!
However, the adventure is far from over. We are still at the beginning of our journey to become the known place to go for professionals who want to share and receive the world’s Best Practices. No matter what size Eloquens becomes, the crux will always remain the same: if it works for you, it will work for someone else too. So whether your goal is to generate passive income (some authors already make more than 2,000 USD per month), grow your online presence, or the simple love of sharing, Eloquens has a place for you.
If you have ever considered joining the Eloquens network for professionals with Best Practices, there’s never been a better time to do so!
Lafayette didn’t have to go to America – but his moral compass and sense of adventure led him there. For Antoine and Tim, admittedly more focused on strategies for businesses rather than the battlefield; they too sought to aid their fellow men and women, fighting a losing battle against knowledge inequality and business inefficiency. Will there be roads named and statues built to commemorate these two conquerers as well? That remains to be seen. However one thing is for sure: the world is a better place for having these fantastic frenchmen fighting for freedom.
So, how exactly can I get involved with Eloquens.com? Become an Eloquens published content author!
Everyone has their own way of doing things; a specific method they follow to organise their tasks or an Excel template they can’t live without. So now what if we tell you that others are interested in buying these Best Practices? And that all you need to do is upload them to our site?
Eloquens.com enables you to monetize models, methods and excel sheets that you didn’t even realise could be profitable. Simply create an author account, decide what to upload, make sure the content is as accessible as possible and set a price.
Not only can this earn you a bit of cash on the side (some authors already make more than 2,000 USD every month), but it can also grow your online presence. This is a pivotal tool in business and knowing how to use it to your advantage is a massive bonus, especially in the COVID-19 context!
Check out some Author profiles for inspiration:
Our Affiliate Program:
If you are already an Eloquens.com author or you run your own blog, consider getting on board with our affiliate program. Thanks to our affiliate program you can earn 20% commission on net net sales made on Best Practices that are linked to your website. It takes 2 minutes to set up and can be incredibly profitable.
The advantages of affiliate programs are numerous: additional revenue streams, increased credibility and increased value of the content on your site.
See examples of Eloquens Affiliates:
Hugh Anderson
Author Value Manager
Leave a Reply
Want to join the discussion?Feel free to contribute!
Very inspirational. Happy to be among the 350 authors. Eloquens is the next Etsy. Very specific.
I read you story about how Eloquens started with great feeling and warmth you for take your dream to fruition. I, just like you always had this view that Its better to share knowledge rather than just store it away and hide it. During my work experiences I have encountered numerous people who have disagreed with me, and viewed me as somehow abnormal. I am just very glad that there are people Like Tim Antione who backed themselves and have grown Eloquens. I do believe that you are the future, and you are well placed now to grow even further.