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Matthieu Ventelon (SKEMA 2016), founder of Hedonia
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Mathieu went on one expatriation trip after another during his studies, including to Canada, the US, South Korea and China. After completing a Master's degree at SKEMA Business School, he decided to move to Suzhou. There, he created Hedonia, the first institution in China to offer courses on oenology and the French lifestyle. He talks about his international academic career and this incredible entrepreneurial adventure in Asia.
Can you tell us about your academic background?
I was born in Tours but grew up in Toulouse. After high school, I entered a business school in Toulouse. In my second year of undergraduate studies, I was lucky enough to go on an academic exchange to Montreal for a year. I then returned to France to join SKEMA Business School's International Business Master's programme. After a semester at the Lille campus, I was keen to discover foreign campuses. The international dimension is one of the school's strong points and one of the reasons I chose it. [...]
During my Master 2 at SKEMA Business School, I specialised in Entrepreneurship & Innovation. As as I was still keen to explore Asia, I went to study for six months at the SKEMA campus in Suzhou, China, 100 kilometers from Shanghai.
At first glance, I wasn't too taken with the city. But I quickly made some great friends and had the opportunity to explore the old town: a truly charming area full of canals and narrow streets that have earned it the nickname of "Venice of the East". I've come to love Suzhou! It's also where I met my wife.
What was your career path after SKEMA Business School?
At the end of my semester in Suzhou, I decided to look for professional opportunities locally. I did an internship with BottlesXO, a wine importer specialising in home deliveries. At the time, I didn't know the wine world very well, but my father is a keen wine-lover, and, being from the Loire region, I was fairly familiar with it all the same.
I was in charge of the company's business development. In other words, my role was to sell wine to companies, restaurants and private individuals. At the same time, I did a course with the WSET (Wine & Spirit Education Trust), the world's largest wine training organisation. I took Level 1 in Paris, then Level 2 in London. This benchmark training enabled me to develop an initial expertise in oenology.
How did Hedonia come into being?
When I worked at BottlesXO, I had to organise tasting workshops to sell the wine, during which I explained to a Chinese audience how to taste and serve wine. One day, an English teacher who worked at a school where I was running workshops asked me if I could also teach the French lifestyle and etiquette. This request came as a bit of a surprise, but as I knew the subject well because of my mother's upbringing, I decided to go for it! So I organised a 90-minute workshop explaining how to set a table, place the cutlery, behave at table, taste wine and so on.
As Chinese culture and behaviour at table are very different, this workshop aroused a great deal of interest, and I soon received a lot of requests to organise others. That's when I realised that here was an opportunity to be seized, so that's how my company Hedonia was created in in December 2018.
