portrait
After receiving a degree in management, Louis Marty threw himself into a masters in entrepreneurship and innovation atINSEEC Grande école. It was at this celebrated school that he learned to blend the first ingredients of what would become the recipe for his company, Merci Handy.
Setting sail for Merci Handy
Today, Louis Marty is the heart and soul of Merci Handy,a cosmetics company that uses non-toxic ingredients. His goal? That his products, infused with a touch of magic, fly straight to the heart of a clientele in search of authenticity and innovation.
“What I like about my job is working on products that I truly like. Each has a special place in my daily life. There is not a single product that I am not proud of offering. And then, Merci Handy is also an extraordinary human adventure. Over 150 people have come and gone since it started, including some that are an integral part of the company’s history,” he explains.
In the Merci Handy team, he takes on the role of captain. He sets the course, anticipating the ship’s direction, avoiding reefs, navigating treacherous waves to lead his crew towards a sunny destination. “I take a supervisory role. I challenge the teams often to get to where the company needs to go, whether it be on an image, human, or finance level,” he says.
With the wave of a magic wand
When they were still in school, Louis Marty and his ex-associate Roland Jais Nielsen were all too aware that the market for hand-washing products was particularly boring. So they decided to transform the hand wash gel, adding bursts of color, sparkles and, according to them, unicorn extract.
extract. The two magicians aimed to move their product into a more cosmetic, skin-care direction, and play down the medical, cold, antiseptic side. Magically, the enchanted potion was not concocted in a laboratory, but in their Parisian apartments.
If you know the song “Over the Rainbow,” from the movie version of the Wizard of Oz, you know that it’s about a young girl who dreams of escaping bad times and discovering what lies on the other side of the rainbow, so she can be in a world “where troubles melt like lemon drops.”
Aside from the brand’s emblematic rainbow symbol, the words of this song resonate with Louis Marty’s vision: transforming the ordinary into something extraordinary, through his products.
Springboard to entrepreneurship
Louis decided to top off his studies with aMaster’s degree in Entrepreneurship and Innovation at INSEEC, in order to have all the tools he needed to grow Merci Handy He aimed for a multifaceted education, with a particular focus on business.
“I’ve always been drawn to marketing, more than to finance or logistics. But it was important for me to be familiar with all these subjects to successfully launch my business project. Thanks to this education, I never felt foolish when dealing with banks or various investors. I was prepared and confident, I had a solid base when I left school,” he confides.
The years he spent at INSEEC were fulfilling, but also challenging. Starting with his entry interview, where he was put to the test. The recruiter lingered over his grades in math, which fluctuated significantly during his school years.
“I’ve had an ambiguous relationship with math over the years. Certain concepts, like functions, seemed too vague to me. To get my entry ticket to school, the person testing me gave me a problem in the form of an enigma: ‘you pass by an exponential function every day. What is it?’” he remembers.
The young businessman gave the right answer: the Eiffel Tower. It is surprising to realize how important it can be to to project oneself into real life in order to understand abstract concepts.
Other than getting involved in the school’s associations, Louis Marty advises future INSEEC students not to specialize too early. “I encourage students to make the most of the time they have to discover their true passions and what they are good at.”
The recipe for originality
Louis Marty incarnates entrepreneurship mixed with a good dose of creativity. Merci Handy managed to infuse a bit of poetry and magic into a sector that lacks originality. Not surprising when you know that its founder has always admired brands like Innocent, Ben & Jerry’s and Michel & Augustin brands that are able to bring a large community together and at the same time completely shake up the market.
Louis Marty is perfectly aware that if marketing strategy can initiate a first purchase, it’s the quality of the product that leads to the next ones. He takes care to use healthy ingredients that are natural and without additives. The brand also is committed to being vegan and cruelty-free, using recycled packaging as much as possible. For more transparency, Merci Handy’s formulas are audited by experts from PETA an independent organization.
According to him, the life of an entrepreneur has its ups and downs, including moments of stress, success, failure, but also fatigue, due to expending intense mental energy, even more so when you have a small child This is why it is essential to acknowledge and accept one’s emotions.
“I truly believe in the adage that says in order to have a healthy mind, you need a healthy body. I need to practice sports. I need to release all the energy boiling in me to feel good,” he explains.
Louis Marty strongly believes in the need to trust life. If he encounters a difficulty, it means there is a reason for it. He is convinced that you must learn to overcome and live with these difficulties. This ambitious and optimistic young man imagines a future for himself where he can live near the sea while continuing to manage his business. He sees himself reconnecting with nature, far from the hustle and bustle of urban life.
«J’encourage les étudiants à profiter du temps dont ils disposent pour découvrir quelles sont leurs véritables passions et en quoi ils sont bons
Louis MARTY
Alumni INSEEC Grande Ecole