Paul Merz is a Swiss entrepreneur who has been active in the technology industry for over 10 years. In 2009, he created MAJ Digital, a digital creation agency, after a self-taught training in the digital industry. In 2015 he founded Collecticity with two partners, a participative financing platform for French local authorities. Passionate about motorcycles, he became interested in the Motosacoche brand while visiting a museum. He discovered an incredible story and decided to write a historical book with a journalist, which will be sold in more than 1000 copies. He fell in love with the brand and decided to dedicate himself entirely to the renewal of the brand through a 100% electric range.
"I fell in love with Motosacoche in 2014 during a visit to a museum in Auvergne. I did not know at the time the incredible history of this brand. I challenged myself to bring it back to life..."
At the beginning of the last century, Henri and Armand Dufaux, the first two Swiss "startup", as Paul calls them, invented a motor in the shape of a saddlebag that could be installed in the frame of any bicycle. The Motosacoche was born and the invention quickly became an industrial success. Since then, they have not stopped innovating and multiplying world records, victories in the Bol d'Or and in all the most prestigious competitions. Motosacoche has made the Swiss industry shine all over the world.
In 2021 the Motosacoche brand is reborn and reissues the revolutionary Type-A. If the design pays homage to the 1901 model, the materials and technologies developed for this reissue are totally in line with their time and the challenges the company has to face: repairable batteries with the greatest autonomy on the market, equipped with a failure prediction system and an anti-obsolescence program, a European sourcing pushed to the maximum and a service that facilitates the life of the customers.
In addition to the headwinds he had to face and still has to face, economic uncertainty, geopolitical conflicts, supply chain disruptions to name a few, we discuss together the difficulties of being a pioneer in an industry in order to bring about innovation and change when you are only a small start-up with infinitely less means than the big players; but also the opportunities that such a position can offer. Paul gives us his vision of sustainable entrepreneurship and of entrepreneurship in general since this is not his first adventure: a very realistic and pragmatic vision, marked by strong values and convictions.
"Motosacoche was once the largest employer in the canton. We want this company to have an impact on the local economy, creating jobs in Switzerland and relocating an industry that has grown massively in Asia."
Paul Merz
"Sustainability for me is above all to consume as little as possible so the absolute enemy is obsolescence. "
Excerpts...
Because of the design and the values we hold, the products are expensive to produce and therefore expensive on the market. Ideally, once we have found a community of people who adhere to this philosophy, who adhere to these products, we manage to produce a little more, to industrialize the processes and to make these products as accessible as possible.
"You have to take into consideration the world as it is and not as you would like it to be in order to succeed in bringing it from point A to point B. You have to be very realistic in your way of doing things, it's the best way not to get frustrated and to bring about real changes and solutions that are sustainable."
