Antoine, co-founder of Flow Exam

What is your academic and professional background? 

I grew up in western France. After completing secondary school, I studied at Paris-Panthéon-Assas University, where I began tutoring fellow students in English. I then joined the Grande École Programme at emlyon business school through the parallel admissions route, known in France as AST. During that period, a trip to San Francisco changed the scale of my ambitions: I met entrepreneurs my own age who approached ambitious projects as if anything were possible. 

I later moved into the technology sector, helping software companies use AI-powered automation to find new customers. I worked with more than 50 B2B SaaS companies, including French unicorns such as Pennylane and Spendesk. I then co-founded Flow Exam. We built the platform with an engineering team based in San Francisco and officially launched it on 19 January 2026. 

I have always enjoyed building projects. At around 14, I spent my evenings teaching myself tools such as Illustrator and video-editing software, simply because I liked creating things. Three later experiences proved decisive. 

From the beginning, I have been driven by the desire to challenge myself and keep learning. I also realised early on that one of the fastest ways to learn is to speak with people who have already achieved what you want to do. 

At emlyon, I turned that principle into a habit. For a year, I held three or four calls every week with school alumni, particularly entrepreneurs. I asked how they had started, what they would do differently and what they wished they had known at my age. Almost all of them made time to answer. Those conversations taught me more about entrepreneurship than any book. They also showed me that starting a company was not out of reach: these founders had sat in the same lecture halls only a few years earlier. 

That is how my career direction took shape. I stopped asking myself whether I would become an entrepreneur and started asking when. 

My work in technology taught me most of what I know about customer acquisition. I built automated prospecting systems at scale for software companies: identifying the right decision-makers among tens of thousands of businesses, sending the right message at the right time and turning those interactions into qualified sales meetings. 

The work relied on data, connected tools and constant testing. We launched a sequence, measured the outcome, refined it and started again. Supporting more than 50 companies also showed me what separates the fastest-moving businesses from the rest: many small, practical decisions made quickly. I later applied the same principles of automation, measurement and iteration to both Flow Exam’s product and its acquisition strategy. 

What is Flow Exam? 

Flow Exam is an online TOEIC preparation platform designed in France and developed in San Francisco. It uses detailed performance data to identify each learner’s specific weaknesses and adapt their study programme in real time. 

The product grew out of direct teaching experience. Before writing a single line of code, we spent more than three years tutoring approximately 500 students. That work showed us where learners genuinely struggle and what helps them improve. We then worked with highly qualified teachers who have taught TOEIC preparation for more than 20 years, building the learning methodology with them. 

Finally, our San Francisco-based engineers developed the platform as a genuine technology product. We start with the data, improve the platform every week and measure what actually helps students progress. This approach allows Flow Exam to analyse every answer and continuously adapt each individual learning path. 

Flow Exam addresses a straightforward need: helping learners reach their required TOEIC score within the time available. Most students are working towards a deadline, such as graduation, university admission or a work-study placement. They do not simply need to ‘study English’. They need to know exactly what to work on to gain the points they are missing. 

Many e-learning platforms describe themselves as personalised, yet learners still complete broadly the same exercises in the same order. We spent more than ten months developing our own algorithm with our San Francisco team. It analyses every answer, identifies narrow areas of weakness and continually adjusts what the learner should study next. 

What advice would you give to aspiring entrepreneurs? 

The best business ideas often emerge from problems you have personally experienced. I did not discover Flow Exam by searching for a start-up idea. I found it while struggling with TOEIC preparation myself and then helping friends overcome the same challenge. When you have lived through the problem, you already understand your customers without having to imagine them. 

Choosing the right co-founder also matters. My friend and business partner and I have complementary strengths. When one of us loses momentum, the other keeps things moving. I would not have sustained the same pace alone. 

Everything takes longer than expected, and that is normal. When we began developing our algorithm, I thought it would take a few weeks. It took more than ten months to create something we were genuinely proud of. At the time, that felt frustrating, especially when other companies appeared to release new products every month. In retrospect, the time invested in solving one precise problem is what differentiates us today. 

I wish someone had told me earlier that it is better to do one thing exceptionally well than ten things halfway, and that patience is as much a part of entrepreneurship as speed. 
 

Antoine’s practical advice for student entrepreneurs 
Start small, but start now. Sell before you build. Speak with users every week. Choose your co-founder carefully. Entrepreneurship does not require you to have been top of your class; it requires you to learn quickly, in your own way, and to try again as many times as necessary.