Entrepreneurship

Creating a business while continuing your studies is a reality at ICN Business School, thanks to free, personalised support. The Entrepreneurship Hub supports project leaders at every stage of their journey, right through to obtaining the national Student-Entrepreneur status. The emphasis is placed on experimentation, learning by doing, and recognising and promoting student-led initiatives.

Become an entrepreneur

Student Entrepreneurship at ICN Business School

At ICN Business School, entrepreneurship is a priority. Making the most of your studies to launch your own business is entirely possible. Throughout your academic journey, the School supports you in developing your entrepreneurial project. From your very first steps, you benefit from genuine guidance by joining the ICN Entrepreneurs programme.

What is ICN Entrepreneurs? Through the ICN Entrepreneurs pathway, the School aims to foster an entrepreneurial mindset among its students. The programme supports aspiring entrepreneurs from the earliest stages of idea generation through to their first sales or client engagements.

Entrepreneurship at ICN meets today’s demands for agility and cross-disciplinary thinking, while offering a genuinely hands-on approach, a key factor in ICN’s success for many years.

Its objective is to encourage initiative and leadership, stimulate innovation and business strategy, and enable students to acquire practical entrepreneurial, legal and financial skills through experimentation and learning by doing. Every student across the School’s three campuses can benefit from personalised guidance, ongoing support and constructive challenge.

ICN’s approach also embraces emerging forms of entrepreneurship such as freelancing, intrapreneurship and business acquisition entrepreneurship, preparing students for the realities and opportunities of tomorrow’s professional world.

Learn about the ICN Entrepreneurs Programme

At ICN, the entrepreneurial experience is designed to be accessible and practical. Students develop skills that complement their academic studies while bringing their ideas and projects to life.

Find out more

Spotlight on PEEL, France's leading university entrepreneurship hub

The Lorraine Student Entrepreneurship Hub (PEEL) supports you throughout your entrepreneurial journey. No matter what your project is, what year you’re in, which campus you attend, or what time of year it is, PEEL adapts to your needs.

This program offers a high degree of flexibility. At every stage, you receive personalized support tailored to your specific needs. PEEL also helps you obtain the National Student Entrepreneur Status (SNEE).

You become part of a broad network of professional and institutional partners, which is essential for developing your project. Thanks to PEEL, your entrepreneurial project gains structure, visibility, and effectiveness.

The Entrepreneurship Award

Entrepreneurship is an integral part of ICN Business School’s DNA. Every year, the School celebrates students who develop entrepreneurial projects alongside their studies through the Entrepreneurship Awards, an event that has become a key fixture in the School’s calendar.

In June 2026, ICN Business School celebrated the talent of its students at the 2026 Entrepreneurship Awards, held on its Paris La Défense campus.

Twelve finalists presented their projects before a panel of judges, who recognised three winners in the Innovation, #ATM and Judges’ Favourite categories. The event forms part of a broader commitment to helping the School’s more than 100 student entrepreneurs showcase their projects.

Beyond the competition itself, the event highlights the entrepreneurial spirit of ICN Business School and provides the more than 100 student entrepreneurs supported each year with an opportunity to raise their profile and promote their initiatives.

Each of the three winners received a €2,000 grant awarded by the ICN Business School Endowment Fund to support the development of their projects.

Three projects, three entrepreneurial journeys

Innovation Award

Amen TOUATI, a first-year student on the Master in Management (Programme Grande École), co-founded MyCall AI with Matteo FILIOL DE RAIMOND. Their start-up has developed Martine, a digital secretary designed for tradespeople in the construction sector. It answers phone calls, prepares quotations and invoices, follows up unpaid invoices and manages social media accounts, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Already used by around one hundred tradespeople, the service is available from €59 per month.

#ATM Award

Jean-Baptiste CASTET, a first-year Bachelor student, joined his family’s business, La Ferme du Plaron, in Coincourt, where the Castet family has been farming the land for four generations. During an internship in Tarn-et-Garonne, a region renowned for garlic production, he discovered garlic farming and decided to introduce the crop to Lorraine. He founded Lor’Ail, becoming the region’s first garlic producer.

Judges’ Favourite Award

Sarah GUIMBERT, a first-year Bachelor student, took over Louloute, a brand of ceramic jewellery handmade in the Vosges and founded by her mother. After training in ceramic production, she relaunched the business and now designs new collections, which are sold on louloute.net.

“This competition perfectly reflects the DNA of ICN Business School: bringing together art, technology and management to give rise to innovative projects. At ICN, entrepreneurship draws its greatest strength from the meeting of creativity, boldness and the ability to take action.”

David GEGONNE, Entrepreneurship Lead and Professor in the Strategy and Entrepreneurship Department at ICN Business School.

Meet our partners

At ICN Business School, we are fortunate to have two entrepreneurship enthusiasts who are dedicated to bringing your business projects to life. Meet them!

David GEGONNE

Professor and Director of Student Support at ICN - Executive Director of Grand Nancy Innovation

Lydia BOUZIANE HATTON

Entrepreneurship Coordinator at ICN

I support the development of innovative companies and local public policies, drawing on my expertise in research, innovation, and economic development. Since 2019, as the entrepreneurship advisor at ICN, I have been supporting the creation and growth of student projects, guiding each student-entrepreneur along their journey.

David GEGONNE

Professor and Director of Student Support at ICN - Executive Director of Grand Nancy Innovation

I provide personalized support at every stage, while fostering and promoting the campus’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through dedicated events and initiatives. My role also involves directing students to the right contacts and helping to cultivate a genuine culture of initiative and creativity within ICN.