Dorian - CEO at The Pawn

• 1) DORIAN, IN THE FIRST PLACE, COULD YOU TELL US MORE ABOUT YOUR CAREER?

• I first turned to chemistry, a science for which I felt a real passion. The master's degree in hand, I embarked on a training management & management of SMEs, having in mind for one day working in renewable energy. This was done at the end of this year in 2009 with a multi-entity entrepreneurial adventure integrating the entire value chain into the implementation of solar thermal systems and biomass heating. I was working in B2B format with a clientele of construction majors, real estate developers, local authorities through the services of design offices, works, exploitation, fuel supplies, industrialization of the processes of manufacturing, etc

• 2) WHAT LED YOU TO MOVE, IN 2015, FROM THE WORLD OF RENEWABLE ENERGIES TO THAT OF DIGITAL AND ESPORT EVENTS?

• The desire for novelties. I’m an insatiable curious and I take pleasure in learning. After 7 years in the cleantech, it was the occasion.

  
  

  On proposal, I joined at the end of 2015 the company JK Group, a digital agency especially specialized in gaming and eSport to support a development that would push it to deal with large-scale operations, Rush Esport and Canal Esport Club to name a few. Six months later, I joined the management of the Meltdown Esports Bars, which are booming in the European and North American markets.

• 3) HOW WAS YOUR TRANSITION BETWEEN THE VERY RIGID AND FORMATTED CONSTRUCTION, AND ESPORT

• I’d like to say that the transition is easier in this sense than it would be from eSport to the construction industry. (laugh)

  
  

  More seriously, the construction industry is a very codified universe, very regulated, very standardized, or no operation takes place without about twenty partners having to work simultaneously, under the strict supervision of an MOE, a MOA, of engineering and other control offices. We don’t joke with administrative or technical constraints.

  
  

  Suffice to say that the users of the professional sector of gaming, and more particularly of eSport appear for the best, very community, very playful, very flexible. For the worse, very amateurs.

• 4) DO YOU THINK THAT HAVING An out-ESPORT EXPERIENCE BRINGS A REAL ADDED VALUE WHEN YOU INTEGRATE THIS FIELD?

• The eSportive professional ecosystem is evolving very quickly, but its players are struggling to identify or implement profitable economic models. Phenomenon accentuated by conjunctural evolutions, whether they are technical or legislative imposing yet a structuring forced march under penalty of disappearance.

  
  

  These difficulties have led some companies in the sector to apply short-term strategies to the detriment of the interests of their partners. A situation that will obviously not guarantee the durability of their relations, and more serious for the sector, disenchanted for a long time their inclination for eSports.

  
  

  If I had to retain only one asset to the extra-branch experience, it would be precisely the recognition of the primacy of the relationship of trust between partners. It soon became clear to me that it would be advisable to support all stakeholders, be they directly involved or advertisers, in order to facilitate and install the business relations of each one in the long term.

• 5) [PROMO TIME]: WHAT CAN YOU TELL US ABOUT YOUR STRUCTURE THE PAWN?

• The Pawn is a consulting and outsourcing company founded in early June and involved in three business segments, the administrative & financial department, marketing and project management.

  
  

  The first aims to meet the needs of structuring, whether it concerns issues of cash flow, financing, willingness to outsource non-operational themes to meet new requirements, to support a major commercial development or even to meet specific questions on HR, legal issues, etc.

  
  

  Secondly, marketing, both strategic and operational, is able to respond to all the diligences of our customers about its market positioning. Our first major accounts contracts also focused on the definition of acquisition strategies and the implementation of ad hoc campaigns. The plurality of eSports players is not always a source of simplicity and the strengths and weaknesses of each must be mastered.

  
  

  Lastly, project management, to bring our expertise and support to endemic or non-endemic structures, which would require a management of their operational projects related to the maintenance or amplification of their communication campaigns, their more specific operations targeting the brand awareness or brand preference up to quizzes, event programs or more technical targets.

• 6) WHAT IS YOUR VIEW ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF "ESPORT CONSULTING" AGENCIES THAT HAVE BEEN SPROUTING UP EVERYWHERE IN FRANCE LATELY?

• This development is part of an energetic dynamic for eSport and this is to be welcomed. For a few years now, we have been going through a process of construction that will not find a limit until the sector has truly become professional. And I have the idea that the very nature of eSport, highly innovative, will induce a permanent renewal of its professional biotope with regular surprises.

  
  

  As for the rest, all the agencies are not equal, it seems to me that some amalgamation relational notebooks and real areas of expertise.

• 7) FINALLY, THE CHIEF'S TIP: WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES THAT AN ENTREPRENEUR WOULD FIND, FOR THE CREATION OR THE DEVELOPMENT OF HIS PROJECT, BY MANDATING AN AGENCY LIKE THE PAWN?

• Collaborating with The Pawn means ensuring personalized support and expertise that is both technical and critical. We keep in mind that each organization has its own issues, its own budgets, its own constraints and we adapt our solutions accordingly.

  
  

  We are keen to examine the relevance of client projects and to compare their expectations to identify, from the start of the collaboration, the adjustments and room for maneuver that may be necessary.

  
  

  Transparency is part of The Pawn's DNA.

  
  

  Finally, we provide all our partners with a pool of highly specialized experts, whether from the eSports sector or not, to meet their objectives rigorously.