Hubert Reynier, founder of Visconti Partners, welcomes Quentin Romet, co-founder of Homunity, today.

Who is Quentin Romet?

Quentin had an unusual career, going from a business school to the special military school in Saint-Cyr to then be a lieutenant in the Foreign Legion.

He is a fan of running and in particular of ultra trail running: Ultra Trail du Mont Blanc, Diagonale des Fous, before creating his first company at the end of his studies at the age of 24.

Some explanations on genesis... in chaos born light?

Homunity has been a long obstacle course.

His story began with his partner Arnaud de Vergie, both of whom had heard on the radio about a company called Le Je Rêve d'un maison.

The concept? Buying a second home with several people. Quentin and Arnaud liked and launched a survey to gather opinions on this project.

The public likes the idea but no one wants to become a customer.

In a comment, one person said that investing in a rental property with several people would be more interesting. So they relaunched their survey on this concept and found a lot more people interested.

That is how Homunity was born.

And since then?

Homunity raised very few funds for its capital (2015).

The company quickly became profitable and gradually expanded its offer, ranging from real estate crowdfunding, to the distribution of real estate funds (SCPI), then to rental investment in new and old buildings.

In this extension, they have just launched their real estate life insurance contract.

The changes and developments in his career are the reason why Quentin remains at the head of Homunity.

The latter is fortunate to have a very good shareholder, who supports entrepreneurship. Their work is never the same, they constantly need to continue to develop, create, innovate.

These are cycles, and that's why as an entrepreneur, Quentin is never bored.

Why did you choose this field of activity?

Before thinking about others, Quentin and his associates thought about their personal investment situation.

Once they identified real estate investments that seemed relevant and profitable to them, they thought about whether it was interesting for themselves, if so, then they considered that it could also be interesting for other people.

It was then necessary to evangelize their market to convince people to invest.

Many people don't necessarily know how to do it, or how, Quentin and his associates are there to guide them.

They made the work done for themselves available to others. The student project has become a real entrepreneurial project.

A concrete example of investment?

Quentin and his partners have developed two businesses: Homunity and Opale Capital. With Homunity, therefore real estate investment, to participate in the round table of real estate developers, the entry ticket was historically one million euros.

Quentin made it available at 1000 euros. Instead of one person investing one million euros, several individuals invest from 1000 euros and access returns between 8 and 10%.

They replicated this model for the unlisted universe.

By joining the Tikehau Capital group, they discovered the world of Private Equity.

Their funds are only accessible to institutions with an entry ticket of around 50 million euros, or to individuals with an entry ticket of 10 million euros.

The target returns are between 15 and 25%. Quentin and his associates aggregated the tickets and made them accessible from 100,000 euros.

These are actions that make it possible to develop an investment culture...

Exactly. The French do not necessarily understand why they lose money in investments such as the Livret A for example.

These concepts are not understood by everyone. In truth, there are multiple ways to develop your wealth, without necessarily being a millionaire.

There is still a lot to be developed on this subject in France, but it is promising for the future.

What made the concept of Quentin and his associates work?

The quality of the partners: it is essential to partner with the right people.

But also to surround yourself with people with more perspective and experience. With his associates, they had no role models or mentors.

They therefore did two coaching cycles between 2015 and 2017. Once the company became an SME, they crossed paths with Hubert Reynier.

They have been accompanied by Hubert for two years now.

An entrepreneur often has his “head in the handlebars” and it is valuable to have an outside opinion with whom to work in order to perform better.

The strength of entrepreneurs often lies in listening to the explicit request but also to the implicit request (via questionnaires, for example). There are more and more market holes.

What are the next steps for Homunity?

There is the pivot theory. We often start with an idea and several years later we realize that we have done something else.

Quentin has the image of this theory in mind. If there is a need to continue to evolve and change, Homunity will.

They want to create other companies, to discuss the subject of tokenization in real estate, to propose investments in coworking.

On the Private Equity side, there are things to do about entry tickets and liquidity.

What advice would Quentin give to future entrepreneurs?

• Undertaking in pairs is difficult, alone it is almost impossible.
• Do not necessarily raise millions from the start but test little by little. Because finding a viable project can sometimes take time.
• The end of studies is a good time to start a business. You have to get started, be creative and imaginative.