Thierry Petit is a French entrepreneur, known as the co-founder and co-CEO of showroomprive.com, created in 2006. He is also the vice-President of France Digitale and a business angel engaged in the French online economy.
Biography
Born into a working-class family, Thierry Petit grew up in the Nièvre department of France before beginning his studies at the Institut National des Télécommunications. A trained engineer, he began working in 1995 for interactive agencies like Planète Interactive and Brainsoft. However, at a young age, Thierry Petit threw himself into entrepreneurship and in September 1999 he created the first French price comparison site on the web, Toobo.com, which was met with immediate success, before being sold a few months later to Liberty Surf for €15 million. After this first entrepreneurial success, Thierry Petit decided in 2002 to take over the management of the performance art magazine Mouvement. An admirer of dance, this experience allowed him to also discover the publishing market which up until this point had been unknown ground for him. Previously in economic difficulty, the magazine turned its fortunes around thanks to a new business model and numerous partnerships. In 2004, Thierry Petit fulfilled another dream: to travel around the world for two years with his wife.
Showroomprive.com
Upon returning to France, Thierry Petit met David Dayan, a recognised specialist of destocking and the then president of France Export. Already competing with vente-privee.com on the physical market, Dayan was looking to launch an online venture and joined forces with Petit to benefit from his digital expertise. Showroomprive.com is officially launched in October 2006.
Look Forward
A great believer in new and digital technologies, Thierry Petit founded Look Forward, showroomprive.com's start-up incubator dedicated to fashion and innovation. It was inaugurated on 8 June 2015 in front of Axelle Lemaire, the Minister of State for Digital Affairs. Each year, Look Forward selects and incubates around ten start-ups whose collective goal is to transform the way in which fashion is produced, distributed and consumed. In February 2016, to further promote innovative initiatives in the retail and fashion domains, Thierry Petit launched the first edition of the FashionTech Festival in partnership with the Gaîté Lyrique. On the event's programme: exhibitions, discussions, workshops, as well as a prize-giving ceremony to award four promising and visionary projects chosen by the Look Forward jury. The second edition of the festival will take place in June 2017 in Paris.
Business angel
A player in the French entrepreneurial ecosystem, Thierry Petit is an important business angel in the digital sector. According to Challenges, he was the 9th most active French business angel in 2016. He has notably invested in many online companies and actively participates in their development: Avisdemaman, TagCommander, ALittleMarket, Vinted, Soubis, DoYouBuzz, Platypus, RedVisitor, storeretail, Testamento, CarnetdeMode, YouMiam, BrocanteLab, Back Market, ABTasty, Bonnegueule, Blablacar, Sigfox, talent.io, Tiller, Lendix, Whelp, Cubyn, Afrikrea etc. In total, Thierry Petit has financed more than 30 start-ups principally active in the e-commerce field. In May 2015, he, along with other heads of online companies, launched the "Reviens Léon, on innove à la maison!" movement in order to entice expatriate French entrepreneurs to return and work in France.
France Digitale
Thierry Petit is the vice-president of France Digitale, an association that brings together digital entrepreneurs and investors in France.
