Video Podcast: Behind the Scenes with the CEO (BDO France) · April 4, 2024 · Interview conducted by Arnaud Naudan
On “Coulisses de CEO,” the podcast hosted by Arnaud Naudan, Chairman of the Executive Board of BDO France, Thibault Lamarque recounts Castalie entrepreneurial journey. From building an elite sales team to the unexpected technical sophistication of its water fountains, and its commitment to responsible water management, the conversation offers a behind-the-scenes look at a brand that has become the benchmark for premium microfiltered water. It’s an entrepreneurial story driven by one conviction: “Without ambition, there’s no impact.”
Key takeaways
- To build its sales force, Castalie the former CEO of the largest Xerox dealership, who invested in the company and trained the sales teams in best practices for B2B sales.
- Thibault Lamarque surrounded himself early on with a board of entrepreneurs and recognized experts, a network that helped him avoid several pitfalls even before he hired his first employees.
- Behind its apparent simplicity, a Castalie fountain Castalie more than 300 parts that combine electronics and filtration—more than are found on a bicycle—with patents filed for both its design and electronics.
- Designed by the Elium studio, Castalie “Pure” fountain Castalie the Janus de l’Industrie award (2013) and the Observeur du Design prize; as for containers, the “33” bottle, manufactured in northern Italy, is helping to make plastic bottles look “old-fashioned” on tables.
- While the Cristalline model relies on about 30 water sources under a single brand, Castalie a model in which each customer becomes their own water source, thanks to its approximately 6,000 fountains in public spaces.
- Revelations about the unauthorized treatment of certain mineral waters—marketed as naturally pure—have fueled a climate of mistrust from which Castalie, which prides itself on transparency and quality, says it has benefited commercially.
- Through the Made Blue Foundation, every Castalie contract Castalie projects to provide access to clean drinking water in Ethiopia, in a slum in Adama, as part of an “impact-driven support” initiative led by local women entrepreneurs.
- “No ambition, no impact”: Thibault Lamarque is committed to making Castalie pioneer in the water industry, aiming for the symbolic milestone of one billion fewer bottles per year.
Source: Coulisses de CEO, BDO France, April 4, 2024 — interview conducted by Arnaud Naudan. Watch the original episode
