Portraits
Interview with Jean-Christophe Bouglé, Co-Founder, fewStones
What is your background?
Prior to starting my own business five years ago, I was for many years in banking, financing large projects in the energy and renewables. I actually started in Indonesia, then moved to Malaysia, and travelled for work to most Asian countries. In parallel I had always been interested in video and technology.
A few words about your business
fewStones is a corporate video production agency. We produce a wide range of videos for business: from corporate and marketing videos to internal and e-learning videos, from live footage videos to 2D and 3D animations. We were fortunate to work with a large number of big companies and organizations. We even had the chance to film the Prime Minister.
We started as a web and video agency but later on decided to focus only on video production. We still have our web development team but working on our own software platforms now (in particular Veeroll.com, for automated video ad creation for agencies).
Why did you set up your business in Singapore?
Singapore is extremely business friendly in terms of setting up your business, hiring talent as well as taxes. It is also a great place to network with other companies, in particular MNCs, as they often have their regional headquarters here. It is hard enough to get any new business started and growing: by being in Singapore a lot of the added difficulties you can have in other countries are alleviated.
What was the most difficult challenge to overcome on your entrepreneurial journey?
The most difficult challenge in my opinion is to clearly identify the key competencies you can excel at and focus on them. It’s always tempting to develop new activities but it can lead to dispersion of energy. It usually takes some trial and error but once you have found your key competencies then you can really build on them.
What are the next steps for your company?
We want to keep growing fewStones as a leading corporate video production house in Singapore, for marketing videos as well as internal communication. We now have added 3D animation to our skill set and this is a new product line.
A few tips for new entrepreneurs?
A great way to improve as an entrepreneur in my opinion is to talk on a regular basis with other entrepreneurs, especially if you are the sole founder of your company. Having co-founders is usually easier - I started fewStones with one co-founder (Sophie Normand). Otherwise there are many networks and mastermind groups you can join to get mentoring or even just feedback.
Your motto in life?
Always learn new things.
Your business motto?
Hire smarter people than yourself.
