Innosuisse Trainer Caroline Coquerel Kokocinski: ‘Financial literacy is critical for entrepreneurs, so start to develop your competencies as soon as you can’

28.06.2022 09:00, Tracy Woodley

The Innosuisse Start-up Training in Business Growth and Business Creation equips entrepreneurs with the tools to build world-class start-ups. Around 30 times a year, the Innosuisse trainers—more than 160 entrepreneurs, investors, and experts—share their expertise and provide hands-on experience in tailor-made workshops for ICT, advanced engineering, medtech, and biotech start-ups. One of these trainers is Caroline Coquerel Kokocinski, a startup coach, entrepreneur, and illustrator at ideix. Learn more about Caroline’s training sessions, her expectations of the participants, and her passion for finance and Excel.

The Innosuisse Start-up Training features accomplished entrepreneurs, investors, and experts who help young companies accomplish their missions. Many Innosuisse coaches have built their own start-ups and are familiar with the challenges and opportunities that entrepreneurs often face. To learn more about the experts who support the Swiss innovation ecosystem, we ask them to complete a short profile and choose at least eight prompts from a questionnaire that asks about their training sessions and their personal and professional lives.

About Caroline

Name: Caroline Coquerel Kokocinski
Location: Lavaux (close to Lausanne)
Born in: 1976, Le Chesnay, France
Graduated from: General and specialized master’s degree, Geographical Information System (GIS), Data-processing and computer sciences, geomatics (1996–1999), Pôle d'Enseignement supérieur et de Recherche agronomique de Rennes
Job title: Startup coach, entrepreneur, and illustrator at ideix
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Probably during an event in 2015. But since 2018 I have been a finance expert in the Business Creation training (ICT and engineering) and an accredited coach providing the best value to the trainees and startups.

Caroline, what does your company do? 
ideix inspires clients using three complementary pillars: As a startup coach, I help develop, reveal, and complete the competencies that entrepreneurs need in order to reach their objectives. As an entrepreneur, I build my own projects, such as the artTechs platform. As an illustrator, I create creatures and worlds and illustrate stories.

About Caroline’s Innosuisse training

How are you involved in the Innosuisse Start-up Training?
It has been a great pleasure to be the finance expert for the Business Creation training for ICT and engineering for a few years now.

What is your motivation for joining the workshops as a trainer?
The Business Creation trainings are very useful for the startups and provide them with expertise, tools, and experience. Finance is a challenging subject for entrepreneurs and rests at the intersection of all the relevant aspects of a startup— including business models, HR, marketing, communications, and strategy. All of these topics are represented in finance! I do not have a bakcground in finance, but I have worked at organizations that emphasized the importance of good financial management and preparation. I started as a trainee with little expertise in finance, and I have increased my knowledge on the topic step by step. I humbly share my practical knowledge, tools, and experience with startups to encourae the entrepreneurs to familiarize themselves with these topics, understand the value of finances, and hopefully even enjoy this topic. The feedback I receive from both trainees and coaches shows me that the entrepreneurs appreciate this approach. They often come back to me and tell me that they finally understand the importance of these topics.

What is the best advice you can give to startup founders?
Financial literacy is critical for entrepreneurs, so start developing your competencies as soon as you can. Set up a cash-flow file, integrate your revenue model, plan your revenue streams and costs, and integrate your roadmap and strategies. It will give you an economic overview of your project that will allow you to iterate or pivot as needed.

What motivated you to become an Innosuisse trainer?
I first attended the Innosuisse courses some years ago and loved the value these trainings give to entrepreneurs. Then, a few years later, I was recommended to serve as the finance expert for the trainings. I became an Innosuisse trainer in order to share my enthusiasm for finance and incremental learning, and to share the tools that can help entrepreneurs on their challenging but necessary journeys.

What do you hope to accomplish with the participants?
To make them understand the essentials of finance and how important it is for a successful entrepreneurial journey. I hope that some participants might even begin to enjoy the topic, which actually happens quite often, as the feedback shows.

About Caroline’s professional life 

What is your favorite productivity tool?
I use Excel for many topics such as roadmaps, task follow-up, cash flow, accounting, and risk assessment. I like Excel because I can embed the methodology and simplify tools to explain challenges step by step. I believe that if participants understand the path and its benefits, they’ll better develop their competencies and be able to use more complex tools.

Excel also allows for adapting the content to any case study by changing formulas, titles, and information. If entrepreneurs understand the formulas and what’s behind the calculations, they'll better understand how to use a tool and appreciate its value.

Where and when are you most productive?
When I'm in the best place to perform a specific type of work. As coaches, we have the opportunity to work from anywhere: In a co-working space, at the startup offices, at home, on the train, on a mountain, or even while doing a walking session with the entrepreneurs. I know when and where I will be the most productive for a specific task, so I make sure I can work in this environment to make the most of my time. 

What made you decide to start your business?
The ecosystem of coaches and supporting organizations! When I left my previous project, I had a moment to think about whether I wanted to continue with startup coaching or start something new, as I had done several times before. It is exciting that I can apply everything I have done so far in the startup training. Many people suggested that I continue with startup coaching, and as I had been recommended for Innosuisse, Fongit, and Venturelab at the time. I understood that this is my place. I can combine three complementary activities in my current position—being a startup coach, entrepreneur, and illustrator.